Here at Canberra Sewing, we offer a wide range of classes that cover a huge range of topics to suit all abilities. Our teachers have years of experience in teaching a wide range of subject areas that cover on sewing and fitting garments to patchwork and quilting. We have small class sizes for the best participant experience and ensure that classes all have the relevant paperwork so you know what to bring and what to expect.
Class bookings for the classes below can be made on-line. Click on “More Information and Booking” at the end of each class description to register.
Full payment must be made at the time of booking for a place to be allocated.
If a class is full, or listed below as available for waitlist, and you would like to be added to the waitlist please click here for the waitlist form.
If you are interested in other classes please let us know at info@canberrasewing.com.au
Available Classes
Drop in Tuesdays with Kerry Turner
Cost: $20
Date: Tuesdays 10am – 2pm
This is a 4-hour session where you can “drop in” at a time to suit you. If you can only do an hour then that’s fine or stay for the whole session. This is a social session and is run at a time when Kerry is also doing her shop shift. This does mean that its not a teacher “supervised” class and you will get intermittent help and advice from a sewing teacher while picking up tips and tricks from each other.
These sessions will run every Tuesday from 10am to 2pm
The teaching area is available for student to come and have this time to sew and finish projects with no home or family interruptions. Tea and coffee is available (included in the cost of the session). We also have a great café next door where you can get some sweet treats or lunch if needed.
Each student will pay a very small fee of $20 regardless of how long you wish to stay for.
To manage numbers and owing to space we are limiting this group size to 6 students initially. There are no “no minimum” numbers for each session to run.
Please Bring your machine in working order with your project. You can hire (small fee please email the shop first) or test drive machines for limited times only.
Kerry’s “WIP” (Work In Progress), on Wednesday nights, with Kerry Turner
Cost: $35
Date: Wednesdays 5.30pm – 8.30pm
Come along Wednesday night’s 6pm-8.30pm make new friends or sew peacefully in a helpful and friendly sewing orientated environment. This session is after hours and therefore Kerry will be dedicated to assisting ll students on whatever project they are working on.
This is a great class to finish off projects you are having issues with; get advice on new projects; and get help with alterations and measurements and fabric cutting advice.
Uninterrupted sewing without stopping and starting, it will be your time! Tea and coffee available.
Bookings are essential – maximum of 6 per session.
Drop in Thursdays with Kirstie
Cost: $20
Date: Thursdays 10am – 2pm
This is a 4-hour session where you can “drop in” at a time to suit you. If you can only do an hour then that’s fine or stay for the whole session. This is a social session and is run at a time when Kirstie is also doing her shop shift. This does mean that its not a teacher “supervised” class and you will get intermittent help and advice from a sewing teacher while picking up tips and tricks from each other.
These sessions will run every Tuesday from 10am to 2pm
The teaching area is available for student to come and have this time to sew and finish projects with no home or family interruptions. Tea and coffee is available (included in the cost of the session). We also have a great café next door where you can get some sweet treats or lunch if needed.
Each student will pay a very small fee of $20 regardless of how long you wish to stay for.
Please Bring your machine in working order with your project. You can hire (small fee please email the shop first) or test drive machines for limited times only.
To manage numbers and owing to space we are limiting this group size to 6 students initially. There are no “no minimum” numbers for each session to run .
Child Quilt Bag with Kerry
Cost $85 – includes $25 kit.
Date: Thursday 16th Jan 2025
Times for each day: 10am – 2pm (9.30am setup)
Class Focus: To learn to sew and maintain consistent seam allowance. To sew a simple shopping bag and to line the bag and add handles. To work well in a group and to also meet other children that have an interest in sewing.
Suitable for girls or boy’s colours can be tailored to suit both.
Level of skill required for this workshop: Beginner, although some may not finish, but this is ok we will support them, or we can modify the bag as we go. Also suitable for more advanced sewers.
This workshop will develop the following skills:
- Learning the machine
- Winding a bobbin
- Threading your machine
- Unpicking
- Pinning
- And maybe lining a bag
Cross Body Bag with Leonie Fraser
Cost: $115
Date: Friday 17th January, 2025
Time: 10am – 2:30pm (9:30am setup)
Class Focus: Sewing bags on your home sewing machine.
In this workshop we will be inserting zippers, installing bag hardware, and exploring how to sew materials that will make our bags have a professional, even glamorous finish. The top pic is the bag front, and the bottom is the bag back – plenty of pockets on this one! The sample on the left is made from decorative cork fabrics, and the one on the right from faux leather with a quilters cotton trim. If you have ever wanted to try using cork fabric, canvas, faux leather, or microsuede – this is the workshop for you.
This bag uses a minimum of material and gives a very effective result. And, of course, it can be made using lightweight upholstery fabric or traditional quilter’s cotton. Why not try both? It is a bag you will want to make again once you master the techniques in this workshop!
Level of skill required for this workshop: Suitable for all interested sewists. Being familiar with your machine; knowing how to thread it, change the bobbin, stitches, and the presser foot; is important.
A materials list will be supplied on registration.
Garment Mending with Lynne Johnson
Cost: $100
Dates: Wednesdays 22nd and 29th Jan 2025
Times for each day: 10am – 12pm (9.30am setup)
Focus: To Learn the skills of mending a garment, e.g. taking up jeans, blind hemming, sewing on buttons, replacing zips taking in or replacing elastic.
Level of Skill required for this workshop: Beginner to advanced.
Are you into ethical garment management and would rather repair than discard. Are you fed up with paying exhorbitant prices for others to do simple repairs/alterations to your garments, or purchasing a new garment only to find the buttons fall off or seams rip on the first wear. If so this course is for you.
This 2-week course will provide you with the skills and confidence to mend a garment like a professional. In no time you will recoup the cost of the course from the savings you will make on repairing your garments. And believe it or not repairing a garment can be fun and innovative – far from boring!
A materials list will be supplied on registration.
Child Over Dress/Shirt with Kerry
Cost: $95 – includes $35 kit.
Date: Thursday 23rd Jan 2025
Time: 10am – 2pm (9.30am setup)
Class Focus: To learn to sew and maintain a consistent seam allowance. To follow instructions, and pin and match points on a garment to keep the garments shape and fit. To learn about neck and facings and to hand sew fasteners. This is also suitable for boys or girls as the pattern can be over shirt also. Or night shirt or top.
Level of skill required for this workshop: This is a more advanced children’s class. This class is aimed at children that can work independently, follow instructions, and have some sewing understanding.
This workshop will develop the following skills:
- Understanding of how a garment sits
- The importance of seam allowance
- Matching and pinning the garment
- To know when to unpick and resew
- Learn about facings and binding
Finished item: A garment dress, pool dress, or nighty that the child can wear that they personally made to show off their hard work. This is also suitable for boys or girls as the pattern can be over shirt, or night shirt even just a top.
A materials list will be supplied on registration.
Beginners Guide to Sewing with Lynne Johnson, commencing 5 February 2025
6 Week Course
Cost $300
Dates: Wednesdays 5, 12, 19 & 26 February and 5 & 12 March 2025
Times for each day: 12.30pm – 2.30pm (12pm setup)
Focus: Getting to know your domestic sewing machine
Level of Skill required for this workshop: Beginner to intermediate. Perfect for new sewers and those returning to sewing who need a confidence boost.
This course is aimed at the beginner sewer, or someone returning to sewing.. The course is suitable from a confident 14 year old up.
Each lesson is 2 hours long and the course has been designed to take you through all you need to know about getting to know your machine including threading, tensions, needle and thread selection and basic sewing machine maintenance right though to learning different seaming and sewing techniques that you can apply to several different projects.
There are four projects you will complete during this course (one of which is a fun homework project) including creating a Stitchery; making a needle nest and pin cushion; Cutting and sewing a thread catcher; and cutting and sewing a useful sewing organizer that converts into a sewing cover for your machine.
The course is designer for beginner sewists but may be also considered by someone who wants to refresh their skills.
Introduction to Ruler Work with Leonie Fraser
Cost: $115
Date: Saturday 7th February, 2025
Time: 10am – 2:30pm (9:30am setup)
Class Focus: Learn to use your domestic sewing machine to quilt using specialty rulers
This workshop will cover the technical aspects of changing from straight line quilting using your walking foot to quilting patterns using a ruler work foot and a range of special rulers that allow you to quilt curved lines and intricate patterns. You will need to have the correct equipment for this class, which will focus on setting up and achieving a successful result. You will need to have an extension table and ruler work foot for your machine. Most ruler work feet available in Australia come with a ruler that we will use for this class. We will be working on a sample that can be finished as a cushion cover.
Level of skill required for this workshop: Familiarity with your machine, changing the presser foot and lowering the feet dogs.
A materials list will be supplied on registration.
Beginners Guide to Sewing with Lynne Johnson, commencing 8 February 2024
6 Week Course
Cost $300
Dates: Saturdays 8, 15, 22 February and 1, 15 & 22 March 2025
Times for each day: 10am – 12pm (9.30am setup)
Focus: Getting to know your domestic sewing machine
Level of Skill required for this workshop: Beginner to intermediate. Perfect for new sewers and those returning to sewing who need a confidence boost.
This course is aimed at the beginner sewer, or someone returning to sewing.. The course is suitable from a confident 14 year old up.
Each lesson is 2 hours long and the course has been designed to take you through all you need to know about getting to know your machine including threading, tensions, needle and thread selection and basic sewing machine maintenance right though to learning different seaming and sewing techniques that you can apply to several different projects.
There are four projects you will complete during this course (one of which is a fun homework project) including creating a Stitchery; making a needle nest and pin cushion; Cutting and sewing a thread catcher; and cutting and sewing a useful sewing organizer that converts into a sewing cover for your machine.
The course is designer for beginner sewists but may be also considered by someone who wants to refresh their skills.
“Yes” I Can Sew with Lynne Johnson, commencing 8 February 2024
6 Week Course
Cost $300
Dates: Saturdays 8, 15, 22 February and 1, 15 & 22 March 2025
Times for each day: 1pm – 3pm (12.30pm setup)
Focus: To Learn to progress from a beginner sewer to a intermediate one, you will learn how to read lay and cut the correct size pattern you will learn all about pattern language and instructions and sizing.
Lynne Johnson is an experienced and sharing teacher who has many years of sewing experience.
This course will help the beginner sewer move on to the next step, it will look at the world of patterns and how to read them. Checking sizing, pattern markings and what size is best to cut do we need alterations. We will discuss the fabric and notions choices, on the back of the pattern. How to lay up the pattern, grain lines pinning and notches. There will be discussion of cutting tools and interfacing and marking tools. We will take about the order of assembly and the pattern and what seam allowances you will need to take and the importance of seams.
At the end of the course you will be able to move to more intermediate to advanced clothing patterns.
Trace a Pattern from a Preloved Garment with Kerry
Cost: $100
Date: Monday 17 February, 2025
Time: 10am – 2pm (9:30am setup)
Class Focus: To learn the rules to make pattern pieces successfully so you can make a similar garment
We all have that perfect fitting store bought garment that has been loved to death but we can’t bear to part with. This class will teach you to create a pattern from that garment so you can sew it over and over again – how good is that!
No more pattern alterations to make to new patterns – just well fitting garments that you will love in different colours and fabrics.
In this class you will produce a pattern that you can use to make endless copies of a “garment that you love”. It’s very hard sometimes to find the perfect fitting pattern. Sometimes you have an item at home, and you want to make more of them, or use it as a starting point. Starting from a “fit block” can sometimes be a long process and can be very challenging. Even working out proportions in design lines that suit you.
This is a one day 4-hour class in which I will demonstrate how to make a pattern, without taking the garment apart. You will start with a basic top no fitting to understand rules. We will also talk about what constraints a flat pattern has and how to transfer this across so you can sew the garment up and make it for you. Seam allowances, grain lines, fabric types, darts etc will all be covered.
A materials list will be supplied on registration.
Introduction to Seminole with Leonie Fraser, commencing 14 March 2025
Cost: $225
Dates: Fridays 14th March and 21st March 2025
Times: 10am – 2:30pm (9:30am setup)
Focus of this workshop: Piecing for Geometric Strips.
Seminole work was developed using sewing machines by the Seminole People of the Panhandle area of Florida, USA. It has an interesting history, and is still used widely to provide decorative strips to incorporate in quilts, clothing and household linen. In this course, we will spend some time developing strips with different patterns that we will then incorporate into a lined tote bag
that can be immediately put to use. We will also learn how to resize the patterns so that the strips can be made large enough to make borders for your quilts – my favourite way to use Seminole work!
A materials list will be supplied on registration.
Machine Embroidery & Applique Tote with Leonie Fraser
Cost: $350
Dates: Fridays 28th, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th March 2025.
Times: 10am – 2:30pm (9:30am setup)
Focus of this workshop: Using your embroidery machine to complete a project using stabiliser and batting.
Your embroidery machine can be used to create beautiful objects – and the key to a great finish is knowing about the correct materials to use.
In this workshop we will be using the Embroidery Files developed by Sweet Pea to create this bag. There are two styles to choose from. The bag features quilting and machine applique as well as embroidery. Once we have made all the panels, we will complete the construction using our machines without the embroidery unit attached.
You will need to purchase the files from Sweet Pea (swpea.com.au) for this workshop and have the appropriate hoop for your machine (one that is equivalent or larger than 6×10 or one that I equivalent or larger than 8×12 in size).
A sample of this bag is in the shop for viewing.
A materials list will be supplied on registration.
Other Classes available for waitlist:
Please email us if the above class dates and times do not suit you, Please also let us know if you are interested in any of our past classes:-
All things Jelly Roll
Overlocking,
Beginners guide to sewing,
Free Motion Quilting,
Bag construction,
Quilted bags and clothes,
Quilting – Kaleidoscope or Pinwheel of other amazing quilts.
Beginners Quilting Class,
Pattern alterations,
Basic garment construction,
Making a garment fit,
Trace a pattern from a preloved garment,
Children Classes.
Click Here for Wait List Form if you would like to be contacted when one of the above classes becomes available