Vintage Sewing Machine Mania

Hello friends of First Fridays!  I can’t believe another month has rolled around on us.  I hope you all made it through April Fool’s Day unscathed. Did anybody glue your pins into your pin cushions or put a light coat of clear nail polish over your thread?  Next year I should get us prepared and post Ways to Prank a Seamstress.  Imagine the fun we’d have with that!

In March I shared Miccosukee Indian Patchwork with you since it was national quilting month but now I have another little gem up my sleeve.   On the same trip to Florida where we stumbled across the Indian village I also came across the coolest store I’ve ever set foot in.

Words cannot describe this place.  Thank goodness I took a whole bunch of photos to share with you.

You are going to love me for this!  Seriously.  You’re welcome.

 

Imagine a place where the window dressing is floor to ceiling vintage sewing machines:

No, this is not heaven.  This is All Saints in Miami Beach, Florida.  And it wasn’t just the front wall and windows filled with these machines.  There was an additional faux wall of machines inside the middle of the store:

Yes, that’s right.  Among this cool, super chic retail clothing store you are surrounded by sewing machines and stage lighting.  This place is styled like nothing I’ve ever seen.  The lights are on accordion arms that made me wonder if they could reach out pinch the customers.  That would be particularly useful for customers like me staggering around with their cameras in awe.  I could have said, “somebody pinch me” and then just like that the lady behind the sales counter could get out her remote control and one of the accordion arms would reach down and give me a squeeze.  They should totally do that.

Row after row of sewing machines were strapped down to a big pipe wall.  It was smart that they strapped them down.  People like me would want to take the particularly pretty models and shove them in their purses.

It was interesting to see how intricately decorated these old models were.  They were so ornate.  It made me want to lay down in the store and scream dramatically, “Where has all the craftsmanship gone?”

There were models I hadn’t ever heard of.  Grand, Vesta, Frister & Rossmann, Jones, Winselmann, B.S.M., of course Singer, and one nameless model who’s gold lettering simply declared it “Made in Germany.”  My goodness, even a German orphan machine.  I wanted to adopt them all!

Did I say floor to ceiling?  In case you didn’t catch that, floor to ceiling machines.  367 machines to be precise.

You know I wanted to turn that little porcelain hand crank.

Quite possibly the coolest store ever decorated in the history of mankind.  But don’t take my word for it.

All Saints Retail Limited.  910 Miami Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Fl.  33139  Tel: 786-517-8181

TJ Goerlitz is a mixed media artist who pretends to be a seamstress whenever possible.  Come connect with her on her site, Studio Mailbox, her Facebook page, or in Pinterest.  Join her on the first Friday of every month where she shares her latest sewing tales with the readers of The Sewing Loft.