Historic Macon

MACON
SEWING
CENTER
❖
Top: Marilyn Sheldon, owner of
Macon Sewing Center in Macon,
Georgia.
Bottom, Left: Present store location
2007.
Bottom, Right: Original store location
1975.
“Quality is what I look for,” exclaimed Marilyn
Sheldon, longtime owner of the Macon Sewing
Center when she was asked to describe the
essence of her approach to business. “Since 1975
the Sewing Center has been committed to service
and selection with quality products at the best
competitive price that can possibly be offered.”
The Macon Sewing Center offers a complete
line of high-end products, including not only
sewing machines, but embroidery machines,
combination sewing-embroidery machines, and
sergers, plus fabrics and notions, which include,
Marilyn believes, “probably the largest selection
of buttons of any fabric store in the state.”
The Sewing Center’s brand product is the
popular Baby Lock sewing machine and sergers
made in Japan. Macon Sewing Center is one of
the few sewing centers to offer instruction
classes with every machine purchased, with
emphasis on one-on-one instruction and
guaranteed follow-up service.
When Marilyn bought the Sewing Center
from her friend Ralph Smith in 1988, she
owned her own business, “Windows and More,”
a home decorating business where her specialty
was making draperies and home items. Smith,
who founded the business in 1975, had
continually urged her to buy the Center because
he felt she would be a good manager and take
good care of his customers. “I really didn’t know
that much about sewing machines,” she said.
But that very quickly changed, and with the
help of her husband, George, who does repairs
on the Center’s machines, she has built a
business with a loyal and steadily growing base
with a long list of repeat customers, fulfilling
Smith’s prophecy that she “would be good at it.”
In 2003 a major fire destroyed the business,
but in only three weeks the Sewing Center was
back in business down the street at 3076
Riverside Drive.
Active in the local Macon business
community for years, Marilyn has served as
president of the Greater Macon Women’s
Business Owners, and in 1999 was named
Women’s Business Owner of the Year.
94 ✦ HISTORIC MACON