The Tie Silk

A sewing room in the spare bedroom of a terraced house in Leeds on a grey October afternoon, soft daylight from a sash window, on a pale wooden table an electronic sewing machine with an ivory plastic body and a free arm, a plain dark brown top plate along the arm, below it a black glass band with a row of tiny white zigzag and wave marks and small pale green lights, then a brushed metal strip with nine small black rectangular keys and one longer key, two hands guiding a strip of dark red tie silk under the presser foot, a fresh row of decorative stitches, reels of thread beside.