Kid Gloves

One of my first sewing projects outside of Home Economics class was taking on a repair job: the Royal Father's driving gloves.

Rewind to a summer vacation circa 1985. We were packing up, but the leather gloves were coming undone. I offered to stitch them up using a Bernina that once belonged to Grandmother Francis. Not only did I think I had the sewing chops, the machine was very similar to the one I had used in school.

I barely remember the job, but I remember the challenges. Parts of the glove were so frayed, I had no leather to even sew on. I don't even think I turned them inside out to make a properly hidden hem. I know more than a few stitches came out crooked. What's more, I think I ended up making the fingers too narrow. I could get my small hands into them, but I wasn't sure about Dad.

Amazingly, he was somehow able to wear them and drive -- at least through part of Missouri.

We don't have that Bernina anymore. I'm not sure when it disappeared from our household, but I imagine it went in a garage sale. When it came time to buy my own machine, inquiring of its location was one of my first tasks. The Queen Mother hadn't seen it in years. We do have one other machine at the family compound in California: an antique pump-pedal Singer. Uh, no.