blueheavenfla

I let my daughter loan one of my machines to one of her friends (who????neither of us remembers). I would sew much like to have it back but am sure I will never see it again. That was about 35 years ago. No hope! Lesson learned.

lauriejo

I have learned the hard way to not loan out anything I want back. I loaned out a machine to a "friend", when I asked for it back she claimed she never borrowed it. She was also furious when I insisted that she had and told me to go to heck. Needless to say, we are no longer friends. I still loan out what I can, I am just pleasantly surprised if I ever see it again.

ArchaicArcane

The old saying that "if you lend a friend $20 and never see them again, consider it money well spent", is apt.

Our neighbor who'd be most likely to ask, I would probably lend him a machine. All of mine are vintage and fairly easy to fix, and I know that he'd be more than willing to replace or have it fixed if something went wrong. He usually only borrows things from us if he knows he'll likely never use it again (mostly tools) or because he finds out he needs it after he's disassembled something and it's too late to run into town, or it's his transportation that's disassembled, and we've borrowed things from him, same story. I've also borrowed him for upper body strength when DH wasn't home and I couldn't loosen the nut on the water heater to change the dip tube. LOL!

I personally would be embarrassed to borrow something then not return it. Usually my first choice is to see if I can find one to buy used that I can "just" resell later when I'm done with it.

patski

I think I would offer to sew if it was a small thing but I would not lend my machine out, if there is a problem it would cause a rift or if they did damage I'd be upset

ArchaicArcane

You could also say "Sure if I can borrow your <insert the="" name="" of="" their="" hobby="" equipment="" here="">*insert the name of their hobby equipment here*" It would be great to see the look on their face when you ask that.

Some people have no problem trying to borrow a sewing machine, especially if they've seen them at WalMart, because they're "inexpensive", not realising that they can be $1000s of dollars, but if you ask to borrow their Canon 5d Mark3 with all the lenses, I bet they choke on their gum.</insert>

donnajean

None of my local friends or neighbors sew, so I hopefully never have to say No! Lent my tree pole saw to a neighbor & he bent the blade. Lent my power washer to another neighbor & have not been able to get it back for a month now.

maryb119

I totally agree. I might offer to do the sewing for them but I would not lend out my machine.

Caswews

I let my grandchildren use my machines, and I have a couple of friends that come over and use my Brothers. But a stranger ? I really doubt it

Seaside gal

No, no, no, no, no. I would not lend or let anyone use my sewing machine. I did give a machine to a young girl I had never met who was learning to sew. I got the nicest thank you card and some pictures of some items she made with it.

chris_quilts

I have enough vintage machines to loan one out to a neighbor if I think they know how to sew. Mine are all vintage and they'd get a straight stitch machine. I also might just sell them one for $10 and offer a couple of lessons on how to use the machine. I have given a couple away, with a manual and lessons, to people in need of a simple basic machine who are delighted to have been gifted a machine.
I would do a simple mending for a neighbor if asked and my DDs boyfriends do ask me to mend their pants or lengthen their hems. I will do that even though I much prefer quilting to mending.