02/16/2022
We are in the news for our sewing class!!
“Thread the machine 10 times before starting. Muscle memory is very important.
Use quality thread. The cheap stuff will just tear and ruin a project.
That’s Step 1 of Christie McGuire’s approach to teaching a beginner’s sewing class.
“I learned sewing from a lady who was in her 70s,” said McGuire, a northern California native who moved to Powell last May. “So many teachers will just start you on a project. I start my students on a step-by-step process.
“So many people new to sewing know the frustration of sitting down at the machine without knowing how to fix it when something goes wrong. The way I was taught, and the way I teach it, is starting with the basics and building into making things.”
“We’ve got one girl, who’s about to be in high school, who already knows she wants to be a fashion designer,” McGuire said.
Before moving to East Tennessee, McGuire ran an Etsy business “Sew Gingery.” The online business is shut down, but remnants of what she made are still around her home.
One premise of McGuire’s instruction is that everyone moves at their own speed. The individual attention that she and Natalie give the students makes that possible.
“The students have a choice in what they work on,” she said. “If we’re around a holiday, something for that is always an option. They like being able to have a voice in what they do.”
Most of the students come into class with their own sewing machine, but McGuire said loaners are available.
The yearly registration fee of $65 goes for a pattern packet that provides the different options. After that, it’s $80 a month to handle the instruction. Classes are conducted year-‘round. If a student wants to begin the curriculum this week, while all the other students are at an advanced level … no problem.
“Nobody is working on the same project,” McGuire said. “Go at your own pace and we’ll make it work.”
While the classes have primarily been filled with teenage girls, McGuire said she welcomes boys, adults, and anyone age 10 and older.
“I focus on safety first,” McGuire said.
If you are local to the Knoxville area & are interested in learning to sew, contact me!
