Sewing Life Skills: Mending and Altering Garments
Learn how to make common repairs and alterations to your clothes without using a sewing machine.
You've probably experienced at least one of these problems: a button coming off your shirt, a zipper on your dress or pants coming off its track, pants or skirt that needs hemming, a hole in your jeans, or a drawstring that came out of your hoodie.
It can be very frustrating when you experience problems with your clothing, and often these are issues you can easily fix yourself with basic hand sewing stitches and techniques.
What You'll Learn
- Tie a tailor's knot
- Reattach a button
- Apply techniques to hem pants or a skirt
- Fix a zipper that has come off its track
- Repair a hole with a patch
- Rethread a drawstring
Prerequisites
This class is for the absolute beginner with no experience or someone who wants a refresher on the tools or techniques learned in this class.
Tools & Supplies
You will need a basic travel or hand sewing kit that contains needles, thread, scissors and other tools that I'll show you how to use. These can often be found at your local crafts and fabric stores, and below are links to a few examples of sewing kits:
- Clover Compact Sewing Kit
- Singer Survival Sewing Kit
- Simplicity Vintage 60's Tin Box Sewing Kit
- Singer Travel Sewing Kit
If you have a garment that has one of the problems described above, bring it to the class so you can learn to fix it there.
Price
ON-DEMAND CLASS
Schedule as an instructor-led private class at a time that is best for you.
Number of StudentsSee discounted price for multiple students
Live Video Chat
Discounts
On-Demand Group Classes
Discounts are available when you sign-up multiple people for on-demand classes so get friends or family members together too. Select the number of students above to see the discounted price per person.
New to Sewing Class
As part of the "New to Sewing" group of classes a discount has automatically been applied to the standard prices shown above for this class.
Online Sewing Classes
We've developed an advanced online learning experience to make it as close as possible to being in person that may be quite different from what you've seen elsewhere. I make the same project along with you and show you the actions from multiple cameras as I guide you step by step. Learn more or contact me to schedule a demo to show you what it's like.
Duration
About the Instructor
Vanessa has been teaching children and adults for over 20 years. In addition to offering beginner to advanced sewing lessons she is an instructor in the Fashion Design Program at Austin Community College. Previously, Vanessa was an instructor at The Stitch Lab where she taught intro and specialty sewing classes, gave private lessons, hosted parties, and ran summer camps. Beyond sewing Vanessa has taught art, yoga and English, and her experience extends overseas when she was in the Peace Corps. She has taught adults and kids of all ages and enjoys seeing her students apply their newfound sewing skills to express themselves.
Vanessa is a full-time designer and seamstress working with clients on a wide variety of custom sewing and product development projects for fashion, wearable tech, decor, accessories and soft goods that keep her current with the latest sewing trends and technologies. She is also a machine service technician and has intimate knowledge of a wide range of sewing machines that enables her to personalize sewing lessons for the types of machines students are using.
