After selling and servicing thousands of sewing machines over the years from their store in downtown Mount Airy, Sue Shrader and Timmesa Wishart this week found themselves down to just one.
Effective today, the mother-daughter partners are closing Creative Sewing Machines at 247 N. Main St., a one-of-a-kind business operating locally since 1997 after originating in Tazewell, Virginia, in 1983.
“My mom is 77 years old,” Wishart said of the motivation behind the closure, rooted in a realization that it is time to retire.
Creative Sewing Machines has been the spot in town for the machines and fabric, thread, software, parts, accessories — pretty much everything needed for the make-your-own crowd to turn raw materials into items that might include beautiful garments or quilts.
“We’ve been kind of a go-to place for a lot of people,” Shrader — the mother part of the combination — said at their shop this week in between greeting customers lured by going-out-of-business discounts or just saying good-bye.
Not only have Shrader and Wishart sold sewing machines and supplies, they’ve repaired the increasingly sophisticated devices while also instructing buyers on how to work with them.
“Every single thing we sell, we teach people how to use it,” Wishart said of various classes conducted at the store.
“It was never a pick-up-and-go (situation),” her mom agreed.
Along with being dealers for Brother and BERNINA sewing machines, the local business has served as an authorized repair and technician center for the two brands
When Shrader and Wishart close the doors for the last time, it will be a final chapter not only from their standpoint, but the end of an era as far as such a business being available for local consumers.
There’s none similar in the Mount Airy area.
“You might have to go to Winston,” Shrader said of finding a comparable store. “There are not a lot of sewing machine dealerships in small towns.”
When Shrader and her late husband Don decided to relocate their Creative Sewing Machines operations from Virginia in the 1990s, dealership officials gave them the option of setting up shop in a metro area.
However, the Shraders decided to do so in Mount Airy instead — which no one has regretted.
The family business has been successful over the years, despite Don’s becoming paralyzed from a fall while building a house on Cardinal Drive and later dying in 2021.
Yet Sue Shrader’s and Timmesa Wishart’s longtime vocation as experts in the sewing field was not part of any grand plan.
“It was a career neither one of us expected to go into,” said Shrader, a special education teacher for a couple of years right out of college, while Wishart graduated from Virginia Tech.
“We’re just grateful that this store has allowed us to raise families, educate our children,” Wishart observed.
Though owning a business can be demanding, it does allow a certain flexibility she said came in handy while raising a special-needs child.
Personable touch
In addition to their knowledge and expertise, the store owners have relied on a simple philosophy to stay in business for decades.
The two have made a point of being on a first-name basis with customers and treating them like friends and-or family.
“I know how I feel when I go into a store and they recognize me,” Shrader said regarding the value of making people feel special.
By the same token, “they’ve made us part of their family.” This has included some customers from Tazewell in far-southwestern Virginia visiting the store in Mount Airy.
Creative Sewing Machines seems to have become a sort of community or village for area sewing enthusiasts.
“That’s why it was very difficult to make the decision,” Wishart said of closing the store.
Since this was announced in early July, folks have been coming by to reluctantly bid farewell.
“They all say, ‘we’re happy for you, but sad for us,’” Wishart related.
“I’m really going to miss it,” she added at one point while fighting back tears.
“It’s been a wonderful business.”
“I’m going to miss the people — the socializing with everybody,” Shrader said.
Retirement realities
The other side of this equation surrounds the fact that there comes a time for folks to enjoy themselves after a lifetime of work.
Shrader is looking forward to traveling, with both women saying that in addition to “new adventures” they now can tackle sewing projects of their own just for fun.
“So I will be able to do more of that and I really enjoy that part,” Wishart said of making quilts in particular.
“It doesn’t have to have an end result, other than our own happiness.”
“I’m going to enjoy sewing for myself,” Shrader remarked.
Despite hailing from Virginia originally, the two women plan to remain residents of Mount Airy.
“I love this town,” Wishart said.
“This is home.”
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