I was actually banned from using sewing machines at senior school, as the result of breaking three in the course of two lessons. I still do not know how I managed it, certainly there was no deliberate attempt to do anything to them.
So I have had to sew everything by hand, purely because we had no machine at home, and no money to buy one (nor indeed repair it multiple times, I'm sure it would have needed that

).
I don't claim to be brilliant, but I can do the basics. And as my daughter's pre-school and school seem to enjoy having multiple occasions to get the kids dressed up in various outfits for little reason I can see, I spend quite a lot of time cobbling together various things for her to wear. Last Christmas, she had to dress as a 'child from Malawi' for the Christmas play. This involved sewing what seemed like a million 'leaves' (from various green and brown odd bits of material) onto the skirt of a dress that she had almost outgrown, and tie-dying a tshirt multiple colours, to wear over the top of the dress.
Secretly I love watching the kids plays, if only to see who has thrown up their hands in horror, and gone onto ebay/Amazon/wherever to buy clothes for their kids. Wicked of me!