Teaching sewing classes

Teaching sewing or embroidery can be an ideal home business income opportunity for retirees. Having run a needlework business for 15 years, I have found teaching to be one of the most fun parts. Passing my skills on to others is very satisfying as well as being profitable. I have just launched a new ebook that gives an insider look into starting your own needlework business and I devoted a whole chapter to teaching. You can read more about the book on my other site, by clicking on the link above.

What age group do you want to teach?

Children

The younger generations may not have the chance to learn needlework at school nowadays, but many of them are keen to make their own clothes, or create beautiful embroidery.

Books are great, but sometimes being shown how to do something face to face makes it a lot easier to pick up new skills.

My first students were the children in my daughter's class at school. I popped in once a week and taught them how to cross stitch a card for Mother's Day. I wasn't paid for my time, but we all enjoyed it immensely.

Adults

If you are more comfortable with adults then you can really go to town!

A one-off class, perhaps at a local craft group, is fun, but it is more lucrative if you can arrange a course of lessons. This gives you an opportunity to increase the difficulty of the projects your students will undertake, or to lead them through all the steps required to complete a larger finished item.

Where to find your students

Local groups

You may find that there is a local women's, craft or stitching group that meet once a month who would be interested in learning a new technique. Even if their diary is full for the upcoming months, it can pay off to at least let them know that you are available and what techniques you are adept at teaching.

Sewing and Knitting Shows

Sewing and knitting shows often offer classes for attendees. Purchasing consumer magazines or signing up for a trade periodical can help you to find out when these events are held and who to contact.

Needlework shops

If you are lucky enough to have a local needlework or craft store, you may find that there are interested in you teaching sewing to their customers. One shop that I taught at had an upstairs store room that was not only half empty but also full of natural light, that they were happy to offer me. The students paid the shop for the class and the shop paid me my percentage.

Another, smaller shop, arranged for classes to be held after the shop closed. These evening sewing classes were held in the middle of the store, around a big table. Yet another was happy to book a room in a local school on a Saturday morning and the classes were held there.

Everyone wins with this arrangement: the students learn a new technique, they then purchase their materials from the shop, and both you and the shop owner share the class fee.

Private classes

Word of mouth can bring the opportunity of teaching sewing classes to small groups of people, in their own homes or a local hall. These can turn out to be fairly informal and friendly meetings, and the benefit to you, as the teacher, is that you do not need to share your fee with anyone else.

The video below was taken at a private class and illustrates the good natured banter that goes on and a doggy distraction!

Lesson length

Evening or full day?

Before you start planning what you are going to teach, it is important to know how long the class will run for. My own classes used to take either two hours of an evening, or all day at a weekend.

Try not to start them too early; 10am is a reasonably civilized time to expect people to arrive at the weekend, and if you aim to finish around 4pm they have time to get home before supper.

When arranging an evening class, you need to allow time for people to get home from work, have a bite to eat, and get changed, so 7 or 7.30pm seems to fit in nicely.

Your main challenge is to create a lesson plan that will fill the time available, perhaps leaving some catchup work for the students to do before the next class.

Test it first!

I used to pride myself on my track record. When teaching sewing in a two hour class, with 12 students, I could roughly estimate that; around 4 would finish completely, or have very little left to do; 6 would be well on the way, and have covered all the techniques taught in the lesson: and 2 would be further back, being perhaps totally new to stitching.

However, this record flew out the window the day I met Alison. She picked up the idea straight away and was a fast stitcher. By halftime she had completed her project! Luckily I had some extra supplies with me, so I gave her a different color thread and asked her if she would like to start another. By the end of the class that second one was almost finished also!

So how do you find out how long a project will take? One option is to stitch it yourself and double the time taken. However, it is nice to have a guinea pig, someone who will read through your instructions and try it themselves, preferably with you close by. That way you can spot if something is not understandable and where potential problems may exist.

Often after testing a new class out on a friend, I would realise that amendments were needed. In fact, each time I taught a particular lesson I learned from the students as well, and the chart or instructions would be tweaked to make it simpler for when I was teaching sewing classes in the future.

Supplies and equipment

You will need to decide whether the students are going to bring their own supplies or if you are supplying everything they need. Obviously you will need to price your classes accordingly.

If you are providing materials and equipment at least you will know that everything needed will be at hand. Even if you send a list of requirements to your students beforehand, it is almost inevitable that someone will turn up without something essential.

If a sewing machine will be needed during the class then it is best to ask the students to bring their own if possible.

I always carried spare embroidery hoops, scissors and cut pieces of the correct fabric, to my embroidery classes, just in case.

I also liked to take a camera or videocamera with me when I was teaching sewing to a group of people. It is amazing how different a piece of embroidery can look when a group of people stitch it! Photos of the finished pieces were always useful to show to future students.

Is teaching sewing ideal for you?

If you have the relevant needlework skills, have plenty of patience and enjoy spending time with people, then this could be a way to earn extra income and have a good time while doing so. I know I have enjoyed the experience.

Don't forget you can learn more about actually running classes of your own in my start your own needlework business ebook.