308 W Main St.
Arlington, TX 76010

(817) 460-4992
ArlingtonSewingMachine@gmail.com

Many of our customers have requested that we focus our form of communication more heavily on our web site and through emails. To ensure that you are up on the latest, please doublecheck that we have your correct email address in our register, not with a teacher and that you have added our email address to your contact list.

We strive to keep on top of our field so that we can bring our customers the best in products and service. We appreciate all of you for supporting our store. Thank you for telling your friends about us too!

A family-owned and operated business for the past 35 years.

David Plant, bought a small sewing machine business at 308 W. Main St. in Arlington back in 1976 in what was by then a five-store building complex, his store being the smallest of the five. He was only 20 at the time.

Arlington Sewing Machine did so well that whenever another tenant in the complex moved out, the sewing machine company took over the space. Today the company occupies all of the space in the aging building with the exception of a small cobbler company that is in itself an Arlington institution.

“I think that every time more space here becomes available we ask ourselves if we should really take it,” said Larry Plant, the general manager of the store and also Carla Plant’s brother-in-law – it’s a family business in a family where several other brothers and sisters also own sewing machine operations in other cities. “So far we’ve always taken the expansion route, though we never want to leave our downtown location.”

Arlington Sewing Machine has 16 employees, including a near-legend in the sewing machine industry, 85-year-old Billie Teeter, the first-ever female store manager in the Singer chain. She’s the company’s top sales woman and works every day the store is open.

Other employees express similar dedication. “I don’t have a life. This is it,” Larry Plant said with a laugh and a wave at the interior of the store. “We offer expertise in an industry in which expertise is increasingly difficult to find.”.

At the same time one tearful customer might be working with a repairman in an effort to salvage the ancient sewing machine “that mother used,” while another customer ponders the potential purchase of a $5,000 computerized, video screened machine that receives its programming wirelessly. The old Singer brand is still around but these days the business is dominated by Japanese, Swedish and German engineering – names like Brother, Sharp, Janome, Viking and Pfaff.

“Your typical customer these days is more interested in sewing as a craft or even art form than in saving money by sewing their own things,” Larry Plant said.

Sewing machine buffs these days lean toward computerized models and scanner technology. It’s not your grandma’s sewing machine anymore. In fact the big buzz in the industry involves sewing machines that combine computer and video technology. Sewers or embroiders view their work through a magnified screen, enabling highly precise designs.

Arlington Sewing Machine has two small classrooms in its store, but frequently has to find larger accommodations for special events like the store’s two-day “Embroidery Party” featuring embroidery design digitizer Steve Wilson, whose clients include companies like Disney and the NFL.

“We’ll typically have 150 people or so sign up for that, so we have to rent facilities like the Johnny High auditorium,” Carla Plant said.

Meanwhile, Arlington Sewing Machine conducts an ongoing series of smaller classes, some for beginners, some for quilters, some for embroidery enthusiasts and with some courses designed for owners of specific brand machines.

(excerpted with permission from Fort Worth Business Press)

You can rely on us for a good product at a fair price. You don't have to shop around various stores and ask people who haven't got a clue what they're talking about - you can come to us and trust that we know what works and what doesn't. We have done substantial research on the products that we carry and can show you how to use them for reliable results!

Read what real customers have said about us at:

(hint - we have 5 stars!)