A low hum emanates from the “green machine” in the corner of the cluttered sewing room on Lynn Drive in Oxford. With the push of a pedal, the industrial Brother sewing machine comes to life in machine gun bursts, but instead of bullets, it releases sturdy stitches on green polyester. Two hands — ones that have been stabbed with needles and pins, cut with scissors and burnt on irons and lamps — push levers, pull and snip thread, rip seams and guide the fabric on their own, as their owner listens to the radio and thinks about the past.
“I go on auto-pilot,” said Cynthia Holyfield, 53, who has done alterations for the past 26 years and has sewed for nearly 40. “A lot of times I’ll sit up here and do alterations, and it’ll be done before I know it.”
