In 1954, five years after immigrating to the United States from Switzerland, my father Hans Neuenschwander took a flight back home to visit his parents. During that stay, my grandmother gave him a brand new Bernina model 530 sewing machine as a gift to his future bride (my mom). Dad returned with it on his Swissair flight back to the States. (By an odd set of circumstances, that very machine, which he had sold many years ago, is now back in our possession!)

At night, after arriving home from his full-time job in  New Glarus, he became fascinated with the mechanical aspects of the sewing machine. He reached a point where he was able to completely take apart the machine and reassemble it to its original state without any special gauges - something the Bernina factory told him "couldn’t be done." After becoming proficient in the machine’s mechanical aspects, he learned to demonstrate the sewing functions of the machine. 

Soon, he began showing and selling the machines door to door to farmers in the New Glarus area. A few years later, while Dad visited the Bernina factory in Switzerland, then-president and Bernina founder's son Fritz Gegauf honored Dad by telling him he was the best sewing machine mechanic he’d ever seen.

In 1956, Dad moved to Madison and  joined with the former Duerst’s Sewing Center. Dad purchased the business and changed the name to Hans’ Sewing Center ("Neuenschwander’s Sewing Center" would require an awfully large sign!).

In the summer of 1963, when I was five years old, we moved three doors down to a new and "much larger" facility at 1521 Williamson Street (about 800 square feet). As was the case with our first location, our family lived right upstairs from our business, so everything we did in our life revolved around what happened in our very active and growing business. For several years during this period of our history, we were the number one selling Bernina dealer in the United States. Dad worked incredibly long hours to satisfy the needs of our customers, often coming upstairs to bed at 11:00 at night, and getting up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning to do repair work to keep up with them. I admire him so much for the sacrifices he made, and the hard work he performed in the interest of our family business and the satisfaction of its customers.   

At eight years old, I started learning to repair sewing machines and vacuum cleaners. I can still remember my first repair - finding a broken motor winding on a Montgomery Ward rotary machine, one that my dad had "given up" on - whether real or faked. Imagine the thrill, at the tender age of eight, of telling your Dad something he didn't know! Dad always stressed the importance of selling the highest quality / value products, about expert workmanship when you're repairing or refurbishing a product, and the merits of hard work and honesty in everything you do, in business and in life.

As word spread about us and as your needs grew, our space needs grew as well. In 1972, we built our 4,000 square foot facility right next door to our previous (1521) location. Each of our three locations have kept us in 1500 block of Williamson Street, centrally located for easy access from just about anywhere, and in the historic Third Lake Ridge District of Madison.  (get directions here).

Today, we strive to maintain those same values at Hans' Sewing & Vacuum. When you come into our store, you’ll find that our goal is to educate you and to give you the best possible customer (and repair) service - hence our slogan "Our Strength is our Service". Our staff is dedicated to guiding you to exactly what you need, not what we want to sell you. We encourage you to shop our competitors before coming in, and to experience the difference we offer: our service, experience, knowledge, value, quality, warranty and support!