The classes

Two classes. Both start where you are.

One is for somebody who has never used a machine. The other is for somebody who wants their clothes to fit and is tired of paying other people to make that happen. Neither assumes you own anything expensive.

A pair of hands feeding fabric through a domestic sewing machine
Class one Sewing From Scratch For someone who has never threaded a machine

You start at the beginning — the machine, the needle, the thread, a straight seam. By the end you are making things on purpose instead of hoping they turn out. No experience assumed and none required.

  • Threading and running a machine without fighting it
  • Straight seams, curves, corners and hems that lie flat
  • Reading a pattern and cutting so the pieces actually fit together
  • Finishing an edge so the inside looks as good as the outside
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A tape measure laid across the back of a tailored jacket
Class two Alterations and Remaking For someone who wants their clothes to fit and their money to stretch

The skill nobody teaches you: how to take something that does not fit and make it yours. Buy secondhand on purpose. Take in, let out, shorten, restyle. Stop paying somebody else forty dollars to shorten a pair of trousers.

  • Taking in and letting out so a garment fits the body you have
  • Hemming trousers, skirts and sleeves the way a tailor does it
  • Buying secondhand with an eye for what can be remade
  • Restyling something dated into something you will actually wear
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Fabric being guided through a sewing machine by hand

What you need

A machine, a table, and something you are willing to cut into

That is genuinely the list. The classes are taught online, so you work on your own machine in your own space — which also means you finish knowing how your machine behaves, not how the one in a classroom behaved.

If you are not sure whether the machine in your closet is up to it, say so when you write in. That question comes up constantly and Gladys will tell you straight.

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How you get in

There is no shopping cart. You tell her what you want.

Gladys matches the class to the person, which is hard to do through a checkout page and easy to do in two messages.

1 Tell her what you want to learn

Beginner sewing, alterations, or something specific you have in mind. One short message is enough.

2 She writes back herself

Gladys reads these. She will tell you which class fits, what it costs and when the next one runs.

3 Take the class online

From your own machine, at your own table. You do not have to live in Texas and you do not have to own anything fancy.

Ask about a class