Today I went on a sewing course and made a lovely cushion! I had never even touched a sewing machine before so I was pretty clueless. Luckily I had a great teacher! I heard from Sarah about The Make & Do Studio in Stockton Heath, Warrington. They run a range of crafty courses – knitting, sewing, jewellery making, quilting etc.. I have wanted to learn to sew for ages so I was so excited to sign up for the Everything You Need To Know To Sew workshop!

The classes are kept pretty small but I had special 1 to 1 tuition today – talk about pressure haha!

My tutor, Maeri, talked me through everything – from where to buy fabric and supplies locally, to how to set up my sewing machine. Note, I didn’t have my own machine, but they are supplied on the day for you to use (as is all the fabric etc).

I practised my stitches on a scrap of fabric first and had a play about with all the different types and lengths of stitches. I had a bit of trouble controlling the speed of the machine with the foot pedal haha but that will come with practice. I also didn’t like having to reverse the machine to do the “stay-stitches” but I think I got the hang of it in the end!

I had cups of tea & lovely lemon drizzle cake to keep my energy levels up!

Making my first cushion was quite simple really – I measured, cut & ironed (!)* my fabric, pressed & pinned the sides, stitched my seams etc etc.. I had a bit of trouble keeping the seams straight, but I didn’t make a complete mess of it. I was left with a rather impressive cushion – yay! So pleased with it.

* The exclamation mark is because I never use an iron at home, so today was the most I have used one in years haha!

I always thought I was the most un-creative person ever, but I really loved my first experience of sewing and can’t wait to make more lovely cushions, and bags!! Sarah can sew stunning bags – see HERE, hopefully I will be able to make them too soon…

Oh – I also got to take a sewing machine home for a couple of weeks to practice on – how fab is that?! I am wanting Santa to bring me a machine for Christmas but if I had left it till then I probably would have forgotten a lot of things!

A big thank you to Maeri from The Make & Do Studio for a fab day. Most courses are about 3-4 hours long and there are day & night classes available. You can get 10% off your first class that you book online as well – if anyone lives near Warrington and is interested in crafty things I would really recommend the courses! You can see a complete list of the courses available HERE!