Last Sunday was our first sewing workshop with Tanya.

Tanya Burdina is our new dressmaking tutor; she makes bespoke high end wedding dresses and is a highly qualified and very experienced fashion designer maker.

Even so I’m always a little nervous when someone new starts, but there really was no need to worry, everyone came away really proud of, (and at times astonished at) what they’d achieved in the day!

Our Group of sewing novices turned up having not used a sewing machine in years, in fact one lady arrived and unpacked her brand new machine out of the box, along with instructions for us all to have a go at fathoming! Each machine is always a little different, so it took a little while for everyone to get to grips with their machines and the basics, but once they did, they flew.

The aim of The Basic Sewing Skills Day Course is to give people the basic skills of using a machine, putting in zips and creating button holes, (admittedly the button holes may require a little more practise), but most importantly it’s about giving people the confidence to use their machine.

I left Tanya and her budding seamstresses to it after lunch, (a homecooked veggie stew and dumplings followed by Black Forest Trifle), in order to get on with e.mails. What I heard was; plenty of laughter, then gasps and cheers and then the absolute silence of deep concentration.

On my return I was amazed at what had been created; the lined bags looked incredibly professional and passed my Sewing Bee style inspection and those who made cushions went on to mass production with one lady creating 3 cushions all with nice neat zips.

Obviously I’m going to big up the course, but honestly, everyone came away really happy, their comments were so positive and 2 ladies signed up straight away for Tanya’s 5 week Dressmaking Course.

Tanya will also be teaching our dressmaking courses. Our June course is full, but we’ll have another set of dates in Autumn. She also suggested doing an alterations course showing you how to take things in, take things up, let them out and adapt them to your shape.

New dates coming soon for all these courses, so do let us know if you’d be interested.