Vicar's Craft Corner – Online Sewing Courses

Since completing my 'in person' sewing course I have been looking around for some more tuition as I come across new skills and ways in which I want to expand my repertoire. As great as doing a class locally was it was certainly not cheap. Though it was great to have someone there to put your right if you are struggling with a particular technique I realised that part of what I benefited from was seeing things being done rather than reading about them in a book. Reading sewing techniques for me is akin to reading your washing machine manual. You'd just rather not and most of makes very little sense anyway!

Online sewing courses for me have bridged the best of both worlds. They are cheaper and you get to see things done rather than try and read about them. I've recently signed up to two online sewing course to expand my skills, one to learn to sew with high stretch jersey and the other to use an overlocker and design clothes from scratch. I got both of them on sale and under £50 which is less than what you would pay for most full day courses.



The Agnes Top



Looking at the combined video time on the courses I wondered if I was getting value for money but having been in an 'in person' course recently I know that the amount of time someone is demonstrating skills for you in class is fairly minimal. Most of the class is spent practising what you learn.

 

The major downside of Online Courses is not being able to ask someone to take a quick look if you feel like you are going wrong but the advantage of having access to these videos forever outweighs this. I can't even count the number of times I wish I had my 'in person' dressmaking teacher on video to watch her carry out a skill she has taught me again.

So here are a couple of my top tips for some great online dressmaking courses that you might like to try out.

 

The first is Learn to Sew Jersey Tops with Tilly Walnes. I have really enjoyed this course. You get a full downloadable Agnes pattern with instructions as part of your course fee and there are some useful tips in there for dealing with stretch jersey which can be a rather temperamental beast. I wear a huge amount of stretch jersey so I think this course is going to pay dividends in my quest for a handmade wardrobe.

The second course I have recently acquired is The Modern Girl's Guide to Sewing by Merrick and Leanne. I took the Intermediate Course and so far the session on using an Overlocker has been amazing! Leanne and Merrick have totally drool worthy Instagram accounts and make so incredible stuff. They create patterns from existing clothing which is a really useful skill. Their video on that is actually free if you'd like to check out their style.

So there we go, Online Course for your Sewing pleasure! Enjoy!