Museum dedicated to ‘art and craft’ of sewing to open in Wichita’s historic Midtown
Some people dedicate their retirement to travel, and others pick up a new hobby or volunteer.
Katrina Stockton decided to open a museum.
The longtime Wichita seamstress and tailor will celebrate her new venture with a ribbon cutting and open house on Saturday, March 19 at the Sewing History Museum, 1230 N. Waco. The museum occupies the first floor of the Chapman-Noble House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Visitors can view a selection of the more than 400 sewing machines in Stockton’s collection. They date to 1867 and represent the progression of more than a century of technology, from hand-crank machines to treadles to portable electric models. The living-room mantle is covered with antique and vintage toy machines. Stockton says she will rotate out the displays periodically, and she plans to continue acquiring machines to round out her collection.
Although there is a sewing machine museum in Tulsa, few U.S. institutions specialize in this kind of history, Stockton says. Europe is a different story, and she wants her museum to have a “European flair.” The interior decor is little changed from when the house was a bed and breakfast, though Stockton plans to make gradual adjustments, such as custom-built wood shelving to hold the museum’s enormous collections.
Stockton’s history with sewing machines goes back more than 60 years, when her father gave her a Sewmor machine the summer between her second- and third-grade years. Before that, she made Barbie clothes and sewed her brother’s Cub Scout patches by hand.
“My mom sewed, but I wasn’t allowed to use her Singer,” she explains.
The family moved from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Wichita in 1964, and she enrolled in Mount Carmel Academy, where she learned more about working with fabrics in her sewing classes.
“By that time, I was already making prom dresses and swimsuits and all my clothes,” she says. “I was making clothes for friends and friends of my parents.”
In high school, she won an honorable mention award in a national sewing contest sponsored by Montgomery Ward. Her construction of a double-faced wool jacket was so meticulous, the judges noted it could be worn inside out.
Her parents told Stockton that at a very young age, she declared she would open a sewing shop. She never wavered from that path. After high school, she worked for a couple of years at a men’s clothing store in the Parklane Shopping Center, where she “fine-tuned her tailoring.”
Stockton opened the Alterations Shoppe in a small space in Clifton Square, back when it was only three buildings. She says hers was the first alterations outfit that catered to both men and women, and she also offered dressmaking and other custom services. Eventually, she had contracts with major department stores as well as local shops and expanded to two locations. Her four children grew up in the business, and the older kids helped out by taking payments and making change.
The Sewing History Museum feels like an appropriate way to celebrate her retirement from a career in which she thrived, Stockton says. “I wanted to give back to Wichita for supporting me and my family for the past 50 years.”
Although Stockton was never a serious collector of sewing artifacts, she has always been interested in the history of her field, which she considers both an art and a craft.
After her retirement, she began thinking about a museum. She has completed most of the planning and acquisitions over the past year.
Before moving into the Waco house, she had filled two storage units and two different two-car garages with sewing machines and other “artifacts” she acquired on buying trips.
“I had so much fun last year. I went to about seven different states to buy machines,” she said. She bought more than 120 from one woman in Iowa.
Often, the sewing machines Stockton purchased had been in a single family for three or four generations. When possible, she plans to include the history of the women who used the machines in the exhibit text.
Many cabinets came stuffed full of notions, parts and other ephemera, and some of these objects will be displayed in shadow boxes with the sewing cabinet they came from. Stockton will also display one of her own sewing projects: her wedding dress, which she hand-beaded over the course of six or seven months.
Eventually, Stockton plans to offer small-group sewing classes and professional development workshops on the second floor of the Chapman-Noble House. Other space on the second and third floors will be used by the Creativity Preservation Society, a master builder residency program founded by Stockton’s daughter Monika Maddux, who also operates the art venue Monikahouse in Riverside. Maddux’s organization No Craft Left Behind assisted Stockton with marketing and organization for the museum.
The art and craft of sewing are in her wheelhouse, but Stockton acknowledges she’s not an expert in the history of sewing. She plans to become one, however.
“I had to learn a lot, and I still do,” she says. “This will be a learning process for the next ten years, probably.”
If you go
What: Sewing History Museum grand opening
When: 1 to 5 p.m. March 19 with a ribbon cutting at 2 p.m. Winter hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Private tours may be scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Where: 1230 N. Waco. There are a handful of parking spots on-site for visitors with limited mobility. Additional parking is a block and a half away at the northwest corner of 13th and Waco.
How much: Admission is free for the grand opening. Otherwise, admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, military and students, and $5 for children ages 5-12.
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 12:37 PM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story listed the wrong day of the week for the grand opening.
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