A storefront on North Milwaukee Avenue in Avondale is about to become Chicago's first dedicated interactive sewing museum, packed with 100 sewing machines dating back to the 1800s, historical needles, irons, threads and buttons. The Sewing Do Museum, at 3050 N. Milwaukee Ave., holds its grand opening from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, offering visitors a chance to tour exhibits on textile design and sewing history while also making their own project on site.
The museum is led by Katie Esslinger, who lives in suburban Elmwood Park but chose Avondale for the project because of its artistic community, as reported by Block Club Chicago. Esslinger said the neighborhood's artistic strip seemed like a fitting home for the museum, and she describes the space as something like an adult children's museum, where guests don't just look at exhibits but actually get their hands on fabric and thread. She also built the purple sewing machine sculpture displayed in the museum's front window.
Before Saturday's official opening, the museum got a trial run during a September 21 soft-opening preview held as an official event of Sustainable Fashion Week Chicago, which included a presentation on local fashion history from expert Mary Robak. The festival featured eco-conscious designers, garment repair workshops and sustainable textile discussions, according to the event's listing. The preview let attendees tour the exhibits and finish a project ahead of the public debut.
A Collection Built on Local Donations
The museum's collection leans heavily on neighborhood generosity. Neighbors and local business owners donated items that now fill the space, and the building's landlord gave two sewing machines that once belonged to a European drapery store that operated at the location for more than 20 years before closing a few years ago. Those machines are now on display alongside the museum's broader collection, which includes pieces from Singer and Necchi — the latter of which Esslinger said forms the museum's most complete collection of machines from a single brand.
Beyond the machines themselves, the museum highlights designers and inventors who shaped the craft of sewing, including figures from Chicago, and it features work from local designers along with a section dedicated to upcycled clothing. Visitors can expect classes and workshops covering tailoring, mending, sewing techniques and garment construction, held in a workshop area behind the museum. Esslinger plans to eventually add a separate makerspace room to expand those offerings.
Chicago's Deep Roots in Sewing Machine History
The museum's arrival taps into a history that runs deep in Chicago. The city was once an early Midwestern hub for sewing machine production, home to the June Manufacturing Company, founded in 1879, before the operation relocated to Belvidere, Illinois, and was reorganized as the National Sewing Machine Company in 1890, according to Wikipedia. In the early-to-mid 20th century, Chicago also housed a bustling garment manufacturing district near Halsted Street and West Jackson Boulevard, anchored by major menswear manufacturers including Continental Tailoring Co. and Hart Schaffner & Marx, per the Fashion Archives and Museum of Shippensburg University.
That manufacturing footprint has shrunk dramatically in recent decades. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2024 shows Cook County contained 86 apparel manufacturing establishments employing 1,721 workers, down from 98 establishments and 2,041 workers in 2016, according to Plucky Reach. Nationally, apparel manufacturing employment has fallen from over 900,000 in 1990 to fewer than 100,000 today, the Chicago Crusader reports. Even so, domestic apparel and textile manufacturing employs more than 240,000 workers nationwide across more than 10,000 manufacturers, per Maker's Row.
Avondale's Growing Lineup of Niche Museums
The Sewing Do Museum joins a small but growing cluster of hands-on, community-focused spaces along the Milwaukee Avenue corridor. Just down the street at 2870 N. Milwaukee Ave. sits The Insect Asylum, which opened in Avondale in 2022 and houses more than 5,000 natural history specimens alongside a gift shop selling handcrafted goods from over 60 local artists.
The museum's debut also lands amid a broader national uptick in social sewing and amateur garment-making gatherings, including Cleveland Heights' inaugural Frocktails sewing and fashion event, which is scheduled to bring together local makers for a runway showcase on October 18, 2026, as Hoodline reported. For now, the Sewing Do Museum will open on weekends, with plans to expand its hours down the line. Admission costs $24, which includes materials for an onsite project, giving visitors a reason to come not just to look, but to sew something of their own.
