178 Fashion Crafts courses

Learn to love your overlocker - AKA serger. Spend 3 hours playing with your overlocker to develop your knowledge and gain an understanding of how these work.

A simple pattern drafting course for anyone wanting to learn how to make their own blocks from scratch - great for teachers of GCSE & A Level Fashion & Textiles for both Art & Design and D&T.

Mending garments extends their life. Learn how to properly sew buttons, restore stitching, fix hems, and employ undetectable repairing techniques. You'll also appreciate the social and artistic sides of mending with others, as well as lowering your carbon footprint by avoiding fast fashion. Book your place today and revamp your wardrobe with some basic but efficient clothing mending techniques!

Improving with stretch fabric - next steps with your overlocker / serger. Spend 3 hours playing with your overlocker to develop your knowledge and get to grips with Seaming, Flatlocking, Blind Hems, Pintucks, Lettuce edging, Rolled Hems and Complex fabric handling e.g. velvet/chiffon/spandex

In this fun and creative course, you'll learn how to use sashiko mending techniques to patch your jeans with elegance. You will learn the fundamentals of visible mending jeans, which uses simple stitches to create stunning patterns and designs on the cloth. A step-by-step demonstration and guidance on how to execute sashiko stitching on jeans will be provided. You must bring your own ripped jeans or work on the sampler provided by us. Join us for this enjoyable and relaxing course to experience the delight of visible mending jeans!

Join our Beginners Dressmaking Class and sew a stylish skirt from scratch! Learn pattern reading, tracing, waistband construction, adding pockets, and seam finishing with an overlocker. Perfect for beginners! £100. Sign up now!

Learn to make on-trend garments, develop your sewing & pattern cutting skills, whilst getting into the mind of a designer. We have a range of compelling and sustainable workshops taught by expert tutors and industry professionals.

If you’re a beginner bag maker, this Retreat is perfect for you. A whole weekend to immerse yourself in fabrics, stabiliser, professional techniques and tips to boost your confidence and your skills. Hopefully, there’ll be a lot of chat and laughter too! **This retreat is a little different from many others in that making a bag isn’t the point of the weekend, although you will indeed make one. The focus is on learning new transferable techniques and skills that you will be able to use on so many bags you make in the future. We have our own ‘Retreat Suite’ of rooms, including a spacious, light and airy sewing room which is equipped with a display screen so everyone can easily see demonstrations from a working viewpoint. We also have our own bathroom and kitchen facilities. If you wish, you are free to continue work after dinner and until as late (or early!) as you like. You will need to bring your own sewing machine, fabric scissors and any other favourite sewing tools, but everything else is provided. Come and join us in the exclusive Facebook group Bag Makers Retreat at https://www.facebook.com/groups/bagmakersretreat/ for all the latest retreat info, chat, gossip and more, plus a chance to meet other like-minded folks.  If you have dietary requirements, please tell me before you book, so I can be sure we can meet your needs. All meal main courses are included in the retreat fee, as are Saturday and Sunday lunches and breakfasts. Starters, desserts and drinks with meals are not included but the meals are so huge you probably won’t want starters and desserts anyway!! Tea and coffee is available whenever you need, but you do have to make it yourself!  If you’d like to stay an extra night or two, maybe to arrive on Thursday or leave on Monday if you have a long drive, let me know and I’ll check availability with our host. If you’d prefer to travel by train, we are happy to ferry you to and from the station, just ask. Please aim to arrive no later than 2pm as we have a lot of pattern cutting and fabric choosing to get through on Friday! Friday The fun starts here as you arrive at your weekend home-from-home – a beautifully refurbished, 4-star 18th century coaching inn with all the comforts you would expect. You’ll have time to settle into your own delightfully comfortable en-suite room which has all the anticipated little luxuries, before an introductory get-together with me and your companions in the sewing room at 2pm. You’ll be given your own copy of the bag pattern, which is very beginner- and domestic machine-friendly but which will incorporate a lot of features and techniques that are also in much more complex designs, making this an excellent springboard to any bag you want to make. Then you can wallow in the plentiful stash of fabrics to choose from, including some of my exclusive feature panel prints which aren’t available anywhere else. All the materials, interfacing, stabiliser, threads and bag hardware you need are supplied. As soon as you’re ready, you can start preparing and cutting out your pattern and some of the bag pieces so we can hit the ground running in the morning. After a superbly-cooked and substantial evening meal at around 6pm or so, you are welcome to continue working in the sewing room or to simply relax and chat there before bed. Saturday After an excellent breakfast, we can really start work adding to and adapting your bag pattern. You’ll work at your own pace from around 9am with no pressure – I want your weekend to be fun and not stressful! We will walk through the techniques together and I will be there the whole time to answer questions and troubleshoot any tricky bits. You’ll also have the chance to try sewing with faux leather , if you haven’t already, and we’ll explore ways and techniques to use and apply rivets.  Refreshments are freely available all day and you can take a break whenever you wish. A light lunch (with homemade cake!!) is also provided and we’ll have a short break in the middle of the day. The rest of the day will be similar to Friday – sewing, dinner at 6ish and more sewing if you wish to before bed. Do feel free to have a walk or just sit outside for a breather if the weather is kind. Sunday How can it be Sunday already?? Breakfast over, we’ll get back to work. You will need to allow a few minutes to pack and check out of your room, as it has to be made ready for Monday’s guests. Apart from that, it’s uninterrupted sewing (with refreshments and lunch breaks!) until your bag is finished. We’ll be heading off for lunch at 12.30pm or so. We have the sewing room for the rest of the day. If you don’t quite get done, there’s absolutely no need to worry as you’ll easily be able to complete your bag at home. If you finish earlier feel free to head home whenever you’re ready. Amongst loads of other hints and tips, you’ll learn – Interfacings – what to use and not to use Using stabilisers – which is best and why How to create a zipped pocket the pro way Adding a recessed zipper main closure to almost any bag Installing hardware Incorporating a built-in key fob Installing a rectangular base Sewing the bag together and topstitching A sneaky way of getting your bag right-sides-out without ugly seams! An easy way to add a zipper pull without tools Working with different types of rivet machine Faux leather on a domestic machine You’ll have handouts on all the techniques to take home. And I hope you have a lot of fun and make new friends while you learn!!  I never abandon my students at the end of the course so if you get stuck on anything at home, you are welcome to give me a shout on Messenger and we’ll sort out your problem together. The not-so-small print Book your place using the simple booking system below – just click on your choice of dates and go from there. The full price is £395.00. The deposit of £60 is non-refundable if you cancel but can, however, be credited towards a future retreat booked within the next 6 months. It is completely refundable if I or the venue cancel. The booking page only shows the Friday, but the course is running until Sunday. The balance of £335.00 is payable by approx 6 weeks before the retreat date and payment instructions will be sent to you in good time. Cancellations 4 weeks or less before the retreat date can only be refunded if someone on the waiting list can come instead. *Don’t worry that your booking confirmation may be headed Unicorn Studios – it’s just the site that I’ve run my booking system from for years… it’s not a scam!! *

Runs on Sundays 25th Februrary and 2nd March 10:30-3:30 Make the fab Tilly and the Buttons Coco or Billy dress in this one day class. These dresses are made from knitted fabric and therefor a great pattern to make in a short time - No zips or buttonholes! It should just fit straight out of the envelope. This is a good class to learn about using stretch fabrics on a domestic sewing machine. For a more in-depth class covering fitting please join the 3 day dressmaking course instead.   The pattern for this garment is included in the class fee, as are the machines, haberdashery, endless tea and coffee. All you'll need to bring is the fabric for your dress, I will discuss the exact amount and what kind is suitable once the class is booked.    This is a small class so you will get lots of time with me. I will have a maximum of 4 students in the class but usually we just have 2 or 3.  Event Terms & Conditions Classes need to be paid for at the time of booking. They will only run once the minimum number of students is met. My studio sadly isn’t accessible to those with mobility issues. I have cats but no soft furnishings or carpets in the studio so most people with allergies are fine with antihistamines.

Fashion craft workshops teaching top tips and tricks on how to customise shoes and add crystal embellishment