My husband's 8th grade humanities class came for a visit to the sewing studio in early December to learn how to sew. To my astonishment, I had enough machines for all seven students, without pulling out the treadle or the old Singer in the coffin box. Even so, the age range of the machines we used spanned more than 60 years with my featherweight at one extreme, and my brand-spanking-new Bernina 640 sewing computer at the other. Students worked with Linda Halpin's "almost free" tissue holder pattern. The 12- and 13-year-olds (most of whom had never sat at a sewing machine) stitched the pre-cut pieces together AND had lunch in about 50 minutes. The kids were great. One student even asked for the pattern to show his mom. How cool is THAT!?