It's not always inside museums that you see the past so alive - it may be just down your street. This is what I saw in the Victoria Quarter in the centre of Leeds - sewing machine heaven. It is probably the biggest collection of early sewing machines in the world. Gracing the windows of a fashion store are sewing machines in their hundreds - there are five shop bays with windows on both ground and first floor levels just stacked with sewing machines like this. There are sewing machines from the USA and Europe, all of various ages and all with individual and superb decoration. I wonder if they do guided tours?
That's a lovely picture of a fiddle base Singer. I'll have to visit and see the museum if I'm ever near there.
ReplyDeleteI think what I like most about antique sewing machines is that they're a kind of living history. So many of them have survived and most people value them so little, that if you are willing to put in the hard work to restore them you can have and use them in your own home. In durability and aesthetics they beat the pants off anything we make today! ;)
What a beautiful collection! How I wish there were more pictures! To think that they were the state of the art machines at one time - and the beautiful things they produced!
ReplyDeleteoh my god i love it and would love to spend a few days looking at all of them. what fun. i have an old peddle one my hubby bought many years ago for me and i love it! the name on it is freedom and it is beautiful still works great. thanks
ReplyDeleteApparently there's a display of old sewing machines in ALL of the All Saints shops up and down the country. They were the machines donated to a charity and deemed unfixable.
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Wow - that's incredible! Thanks for letting us know. I suppose it would be a problem with getting parts to fix them now...
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