John Scoble tells about a "sewing geek" on Haight that uses some mad high-tech equipment, all running a Windows variant (which I note as a courtesy to Scoble, :

You think her machine isn't futuristic? Well, you should see it. She can take your design, scan it in, bring it into Adobe Illustrator to convert the scan into a vector graphic, then move it into one of the digital stitching programs she uses (she has three of them).

…Her home machine, a Bernina 200E, has Windows CE embedded, and does quilts, dresses, and all sorts of things. She trades patterns on the Internet, too, and says there's a huge community of "sewing geeks" who have machines that work off of digital patterns.

…The stuff she does with this hardware is amazing, though. She can do nearly any pattern on any kind of material. Hats, jackets, etc. Her store was full of stuff and she'd happily do something custom for you.

I like my stuff unique, so this is cooler'n hell. And I'm pretty sure I could find similar services in NYC (you don't sell $9000 systems like her sewing setup unless there';s a decent market for it), but I need another excuse to travel so there you are.