I bought a sewing machine a five years ago and I haven’t had to do any maintenance or repairs to it. What kinds of things are breaking on your machine?

I only use it a couple of times per year, and simply threading it is a genuine challenge for me. So is keeping a stich running. People who sew more or have good fine motor skill may just not remember the noob experience. I expect a lot of new renters to have a learning curve to climb.

In the United Kingdom, we learn (maybe past tense, I've no idea if the curriculum has changed) how to use a sewing machine at secondary school.

I’m almost 40 and educated in the UK. I don’t think sewing has been taught in UK schools for quite many generations now - although no idea what the state of affairs is today.

It might be you need to make a choice to choose it; I know that when I was at school in the UK I got to choose between "CDT" (craft, design, and technology) or home economics, which was sewing, cooking, & etc.

I picked woodwork, as 95% of the boys did, and about 80% of the girls picked the home-lessons instead.

I do recall doing some sewing lessons outwith the home-ec classes, but it was very irregular. I know I skipped some stuff because my grandmother had already taught me to knit when I was six-eight years old. Only at home did I use a sewing machine, never at school.

Interesting, it was indeed design and technology; we weren't given a choice - we did both for a a couple of lessons each (cooking, sewing, woodwork, electronics, metalwork and graphic design).

I guess it must have been dependent on the school then?

It was useful - I'm quite sure I wouldn't have gotten any exposure to those subjects without it.

Perhaps it varied on the school, or perhaps they tried to make it a little less divided on gender lines since my time. (I'm 50.)

Housework, sewing, knitting and stuff I'd been exposed to at home due to a pretty large family already. Though otherwise I would have probably benefited from it, and it did strike me even at the time that it would be best if we could do both classes, rather than having to pick only one.

Girls often do. But I never touched a sewing machine at school because I am male. I wish I had been because I do sew nowadays and wish I'd been taught to earlier. Clothing repair, basic electrics, cookery etc do have a place in school.

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it helps to have a good sewing machine - the difference between a poor quality one and e.g. a nice bernina is dramatic. even an old one thats been well maintained will give you many years of reliable use with minimal maintenance, and they're very affordable used

> even an old one

My overlocker was made in West Germany (when that was a country), and is still going strong.

Threading was a bit tricky the first few times, but the manual is really exceptionally well written.

I bought mine 10 years ago, maybe longer. Never had to do anything. Super useful when we need it.