I owned a retail sewing machine and repair shop for nearly 20 years that I sold five years ago to take a teaching position at Los Angeles Trade Technical College in the School of Design & Media Arts. At LATTC, I teach clothing construction, tailoring, pattern drafting, shoe making, and leather accessories, textile science, and costume history (and pretty much whatever else is sent my way). In the retail store, we specialized in home (or domestic) sewing machine sales and repairs. At LATTC, students use industrial sewing equipment to gain experience with this type of equipment before graduating and moving into the fashion industrial complex. After being exposed to industrial sewing equipment, many students purchase a lockstitch sewing machine (known as a straight stitch machine in the domestic sewing world),…