By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — My husband, Mike, used to buy me pieces of china. One day he bought me a Jasperware blue Wedgwood thimble and I put it aside with my other pieces of Wedgwood. Later, one of his aunts left us a silver thimble, and then my daughter got a christening thimble, and it just flew from there. I don’t sew, so I don’t why. You can’t collect in a vacuum, so I looked for a society to join. I lived in South Africa at that time, and Jenny Scharff had just started her South African Thimble...

Antique Sewing Machine Collector Harry Berzack on Singers and Manhattans

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — I work for a sewing machine distribution company that was started by my late father. We mainly distribute industrial sewing machines. At a very early age, I became interested in sewing machines in a general sense, and I started collecting old machines mainly to see the technology and how it had developed. Then I immigrated to the States—I’m originally from South Africa—and my new life caused about a 20-year hiatus in which I did very little with sewing machines, although the passion never...

Angry Chicken's Amy Karol on Sewing, Vintage Slips, and Her Apron Obsession

By Maribeth Keane — I think I started collecting vintage aprons seriously probably in 1991, my first year of college. I was an absolute junkie for vintage clothing, which was pretty much all I’d worn for a long, long, long time. I was finding aprons everywhere and just started collecting them. I can specifically remember buying a full vintage apron in L.A. at some sort of vintage craft shop. At the time it was $5, and I was like, oh, my God, that was so much money for this. I was so poor, and it was back when...