Our adventures began with bicycles. Leon is an avid collector of older bikes. Two of his prizes are the replica pennyfarthing and an 1890s lady's bike with wooden rims and wooden hand grips. We call her the Grand Dame. We enjoyed taking the pennyfarthing to living history events where children could see it, and maybe get their pictures taken sitting on it. Parents ask questions about why the bike had the big wheel and how it was used. Leon hasn't been stumped by a question yet!
Living history events mean period garb. That is no problem. I like to to sew. Sewing brought a maintenance problem. The Singer Featherweight I inherited from my Mom started skipping stitches. I tried to fix it and made things worse. Leon...? He knew nothing about sewing machines, and he sure didn't want to ruin my mother's heirloom, but I persisted. He read the owner's manual and watched a few You Tube videos. VOILA! He fixed my machine and he was hooked. We started collecting older sewing machines as well as bicycles.
Our first "gig" demonstrating sewing machines was Earth Day at the Kansas History Museum. My granddaughter was recruited to help us because we knew we would be demonstrating to kids in classroom quantities. We didn't realize 1600 students would visit that day! I had prepared 2000 pairs of fabric squares for the students to use as they sewed a seam on one of our three hand crank machines. When the day was done, only three scraps of fabric remained. Some students had visited more than once!
We have the demonstrations down to a science now. You might find us at any event in eastern Kansas showing both sewing machines and bicycles. If it is a large venue, like the musuem, we still do small scraps of fabric. If we visit a more leisurely event we take 4x6" inch pieces of fabric that can be turned into Treasure Bags. We have seen repeat visitors who have confided to us that they still have their treasure bags. Keep an eye out. You might see us.
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