LILY
BORn
Sibu, Malaysia
yeaR of birth
1979
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I paid for this sewing machine with my first pay packet from a shop around London Victoria in 1979. This sewing machine has been with me through the various stages and transitions of my life, I've kept it ever since then and now I'm retired.
I grew up in Malaysia and my mum was a school teacher but like all ladies at home, they are good home makers. Of course, we didn't have a lot of money and we made curtains and clothes and bed sheets. She didn't have electric and of course she had a Singer machine with a pedal, it's a work of art now, you go to All Saints and you see them.
We would sew together, it’s so much a part of my childhood. Between exams, my mum would send me off to sewing class to keep me out of mischief and maybe that’s a very Chinese sort of way, you mustn’t hang around, you must put your time to good use.
Rather than paying a lot more to buy something readymade, you can make something from nothing, you make it happen. Like a pair of curtains or dresses. It's creative and it's very powerful. For me, it’s a sign of empowerment. We can do what was traditionally a man's role to earn money and then we are also home makers as well. If you’ve got a sewing machine, you can do lots of things, it’s like teaching people to fish rather than being given fish. It becomes special and it empowers you.
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1979年，我用第一個月的工資在倫敦維多利亞附近的商店買了這臺縫紉機。它在我生命中的各個時刻伴隨著我。直到現在我退休了，它還留著。
我是在馬拉西亞長大的。我媽媽是學校老師，但和所有家庭主婦一樣，她很擅長打理家務。當然，我們並沒有很多錢，所以窗簾，衣服和床單都是自己做的。她沒有電動的縫紉機，但有一臺帶踏板的勝家縫紉機。 現在這種縫紉機都屬於藝術品了。你在All Saint可以看到那種縫紉機。
我童年生活很大一部分，都是我們在一起縫紉。在考試間隔時期，我媽媽會送我去縫紉課，免得我調皮。可能這是華人的習慣。不准閒逛。要合理利用時間。
與其花很多錢買現成的，你可以從零開始自己動手做，比如一對窗簾、一條裙子。縫紉充滿創意和力量。對我來說，它賦予我力量。我們可以像傳統意義上男人扮演的角色那樣掙錢養家，補貼家用。如果你有一臺縫紉機，你可以做很多事情。授人以魚，不如授人以漁。縫紉賜予你力量，變得很特別