Basic Sewing Machine Skills for Textile Artists

Basic Sewing Machine Skills for Textile Artists

Instructor – Trenia Bell

Schedule – October 5 (Saturday) 10 AM – 3 PM

Member Tuition - $27.50, Non-Member Tuition - $34.38

Materials Fee – $20.00 for kit from instructor. Kit includes : Sampler fabric, fabric marker, seam ripper, needle threader, pin assortment, needles, batting

Materials: Students for the machine class should bring their machine, attachments, bobbins, a pair of safety glasses. Materials provided by instructor: Threads to borrow during class, scissors to borrow, box of objects that are useful in textile art, textile art books. For the machine class instructor will bring two sewing machines for students on first ask/first use basis.

Ages – 13 and up

Class Description - This course will teach machine skills, including:

• machine set up and threading
• setting stitch length and width
• sewing attached objects
• free motion sewing
• fabric quality for best results finishing, thread tension
• decorative stitches
• creating textures
• sketching designs on fabric
• types of attachments, buttons/found objects/repurposed
• Students will have a hand out and a sampler of work at the end of the course.

About the Instructor: I am not a working artist in the traditional definition. I work as a sewing craftsman in a creative job, custom sewing. I have been career sewing for about 35 years. At one point I taught sewing frequently at small seminars and trade shows. I am a master of the stitches and their application. My goal for teaching an introduction to sewing would be to give students skills and applications to accomplish textile artworks.