Lauren Johnston is doing her part to ensure sewing doesn’t become a lost art.
Sew Easy, a business she started 15 years ago in Needham to teach kids and teens how to sew, expanded this summer into a second floor space in Wellesley at 159 Linden St. 3C.
Sew easy, which begins its next 8-week session in Wellesley on Sept. 17, has taught more than 9,000 girls and boys to sew over the years. Students range in age from 5.5 to about 16, and classes are held after school and on Saturdays. Sew Easy charges about $325 per session, which includes materials. The Wellesley location has 12 sewing machines.
“I want to teach the world to sew,” says Johnston, whose programs mainly involve using sewing machines, though also include hand sewing. She says that she thinks sewing is coming back, even though most kids’ parents don’t sew and even though sewing classes are rare in school these days. “They’ve seen grandparents sewing,” she says.
At Sew Easy, kids learn how to sew buttonholes, zippers, pockets and hems as well as how to thread the sewing machines. They get to use a variety of fabrics, including cotton and fleece. Students complete between 5 and 10 projects per session, creating clothes, bags and even American Doll outfits.
While Sew Easy’s two locations are just a few miles far apart, Johnston says she appreciates that the closer the better for parents shuttling their children from activity to activity after school. She said parents of kids who have taken classes at the Needham spot have been begging her to open a place in Wellesley.
It would be a stretch to call Wellesley the sewing capital of the world, but there is maybe more needle-and-thread action around here than you might think. For example, there’s the Button Box shop on Rte. 9 that caters to quilters, the Wellesley Needlepoint Collection on Grove Street, and local artist Abby Glassenberg has made a name for herself via the soft sculptures she sews.
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