When he was 11, Brian Hurita found a few yards of canvas and hand-stitched his own French Foreign Legion hat. "It was cool -- with a flap down the back," he remembers. "I'd seen them in movies -- back ...

I remember the first time I used a sewing machine to make clothing. I was a freshman in high school, 1969-70, taking a home economics class. My classmates and I were instructed on how to use a sewing ...