Private Lessons at Sew LA

Why would you take a private lesson in sewing? Many good reasons! Perhaps you are interested in learning something that you can’t find a class for. Maybe you are in the middle of a project and you are tearing your hair out! Or your schedule doesn’t work at all with the classes we have listed, or possibly you learn at a different pace... these are all reasons why we have had people call us for private lessons. You will be amazed at how helpful it is to have someone who has been there before help you through a project – definitely money well spent. Check out student feedback section to see what they are saying about our great teachers!

Projects: We love helping with projects! We encourage you to get as far as you can with something on your own, then come to us when you get stuck. We have helped with prom dresses, handbags, men’s vests & coats, vintage aprons, sundresses, historical costumes... the list goes on and on!

Interest: A specific skill that you’d like to learn, like hemming jeans or how to put in a zipper. We’ll let you know what supplies you’ll need to accomplish a specific task, and you are free to bring along what you are working on. You’ll learn the technique on scrap fabric first, then try it out on your garment.

The skinny on the lessons:

Private lessons are $45 per hour of instruction for one person, and $65 per hour for two people. Call us or e-mail classes at sew-la dot com to let us know what your project or interest (see above) is, and we’ll give you an estimate as to how much time it will take. Please note: when you e-mail, be sure to change the ‘at’ to @ and the ‘dot’ to . – we like to correspond with humans as opposed to spambots.

When you call or e-mail, we’ll confirm a date and a time with you, then you can either pay your deposit or your full lesson time via the Paypal button below before the day of the class, or you can stop by Sew LA during storefront hours to pay with cash or a check. If you pay for only your deposit via the Paypal button below, the balance will be due at the end of the lesson, payable with cash or a check or via Paypal.

Please arrive on time as the lesson will begin at the scheduled time whether you are there or not. If you are running late, give us a call! Please respect our amazing teachers!

Lessons are available by appointment from Tuesday – Friday between 11am and 6pm. On Saturday & Sunday, they are from 5pm – 8pm. Occasionally we have other times available, so please do contact us to see if we can accomodate you!

Purchase Lesson time by the hour:

Supplies to bring:

(all supplies can be purchased at Sew LA)

A basic sewing kit which should include...

• fabric shears (nice sharp ones)
• glass-headed pins (to iron over if necessary) and cushion
• seam ripper (a smaller blade is better for garment sewing)
• tape measure (fiberglass – doesn’t stretch!)
• tailor’s chalk (in a color that you can see on your fabric)
• 2” wide clear ruler (way better than the wooden or metal kind for marking hems)

We’ll have some supplies on hand for students to use, but it’s so much nicer to use your own, well-loved tools when you are sewing.

And of course, the pattern you’d like to work with along with the required fabric, thread & notions! If you have any questions about your pattern or project before the lesson (like ‘What kind of fabric should I get?’), send us an e-mail and we’ll try to shed some light on the situation. Generally for beginners, though, our answer is going to be a good quality, medium weight woven cotton – the easiest fabric to work with.