I learned to sew at 8 on a treadle machine, but quickly graduated to my mom's electric Singer. I sewed a lot of my own clothes from age 10 and when my boys were smaller, I made them western shirts, tee shirts and heavyweight denim jeans for school. That lasted until they got so tall that the jeans became more of a hassle than they were worth, but I sstill made them shirts for school until they were teens. Once I went to work full time, my sewing became a weekend thing and a lot less of my clothes were made by me. Now that I'm retired, I have returned to sewing and quilting for pleasure. My avatar is Tommy Boy. He's a longhaired 4 yr old domestic cat - no breed, but I've seen a lot of cats colored like he is, dark grey and white.