Beginners Sewing Summer School
Join us for a back-to-basics yet in-depth Beginners Sewing Summer School in our welcoming and well equipped Dunblane Studio.
About Beginners Sewing Summer School
The course is intended to equip you with a comprehensive set of basic skills that you can develop and apply to a range of clothing types. Learn how to use and maintain a sewing machine, work with paper patterns, and understand different fabrics. We’ll practice basic techniques on small samples, then apply them to constructing a simple top – a versatile pattern that can be customised in many ways to suit your style, in a fabric of your choice. We’ll take you step-by-step through the process of making a garment with lots of demonstrations and sample making as we go, always with sustainability in mind.
Our Beginners Sewing Summer School is suitable for complete beginners, or anyone with limited experience who wants to firm up the basics. We have a sewing machine available for each student but you can bring your own if you like. This course is a perfect jumping off point for anyone looking to start sewing at home, or who would like to join and of our ‘Beyond Beginners’ level weekly classes to explore their sewing journey further with more new skills.
Outcomes
A basic set of sewing skills; a basic understanding of how to make clothes; and the confidence to go on and try more
A beautiful top made by you, to fit your body and in the fabric and style of your choice
A sample book, made by you and full of the techniques you’ve learned. Use this for future reference
An understanding of how to make clothes that consider the impact on people and the planet
A Making Clothes for Beginners e-book for future reference
Course cost includes:
3 x 6-hour lessons
Use of 230DC Janome computerized sewing machine each
Use of 6234XL overlocker (shared between students)
Top pattern (please select your UK dress size from the dropdown menu so that we can order the correct size of pattern for you)
Course cost excludes:
Cost of fabric and haberdashery
Topics Covered:
How to use a sewing pattern
Taking body measurement and determining pattern size
How to cut fabric
Parts of the sewing machine
Sewing basic stitches and seams
Fitting tips
Darts, gathering and pleats
Seam finishes
Hems
About Your Tutor
Cassandra Belanger has 13 years of experience hosting workshops in sustainable design, textiles and garment construction. Her work is an invitation to a more sustainable future and education is at the centre of her creative practice. She is the founder of The Stitchery Studio, is co-founder and Director of the Zero Waste Design Collective and a founding member of Sustainable Fashion Scotland. She is the Resident Sewing Instructor at the Central Scottish School of Craft and a Fashion and Textile Lecturer at Glasgow West College. Her research interests center around sustainable fashion and textile design education and fashion systems for a post growth economy. Her design and teaching practice explores issues such as zero waste, waste colonialism, transparency, colour therapy, feminism, sizeism, and body image.
More Info:
Tea and coffee are provided but participants should bring their own lunch and utensils
All of our classes are suitable for over 18s, younger crafters may be accommodated if accompanied by a participating adult but please contact us before booking
If the workshop you were looking at is fully booked drop us an email and we’ll add you to the waiting list. We will add extra dates to our most popular workshops too, join the mailing list to be the first to know
All of our workshops are held at Craft Central, High Street, Dunblane, FK15 0EE
If you need to cancel or reschedule your workshop we need at least three weeks notice. Please read our cancellation policy before booking
You can pay for this course in two instalments. A non-refundable 50% deposit will be taken at the time of booking and you will be invoiced for the remaining balance which must be paid three weeks in advance of your course starting.
Pattern Credit: LB Pullover by Paper Theory
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