About 15 years ago, I was working at a sewing (缝纫) machine when I lost focus and put the needle straight through my left middle finger - the wound never quite recovered. I's the kind of warming teachers tell new sexists，but it also creates a metaphor for a feeling that maybe familiar to the 7. 7 million people who enjoy sewing as a hobby: the effect of sewing lives on under our skin. It's a theme that runs through historian Barbara Barman's book exploring the cultural history of sewing: The Point of the Needle: Why Serving Matters. For Barbara，her own interest in sewing is something that can be traced back through her life.
"I grew up in a poor household, and I had two very practical parents, "she recalls. "My mother actually taught sewing，dressmaking，and soft tailoring，so I was surrounded by people making things and talking about tools. My interest in sewing comes from an interest in the history of ordinary people，particularly women's lives. I feel that it's a kind of untold story. We're so used to it that we don't think about it. We put our clothes on，and there we are. But l wanted to look at what sewing actually means at an individual level, as well as a more global level. "
We notice the invention of electricity and countless other creations-but sewing, despite the fact that we couldn't go about our daily lives without it，is often overlooked. When I ask Barbara why the story of sewing is largely untold， she has some insight.
"Mostly because it's connected so thoroughly with women，and women have always been，as it were。' second rate', " she explains. "We've also lived with this quite false separation between working with our brains and working with our hands. So manual work is thought of as secondary to head work. But，in fact，our hands，and particularly our sense of touch，give us such a huge amount of information in the world. Countless studies have confirmed how beneficial crafts can be for our mental health and well-being. "
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