SEWING CLUB

A dedicated work space, a few deeply discounted bundles of material sourced at Lens MillHouse, many meters of washed and upcycled curtains, sheets, pillow cases and other random fabric finds from our local thrift stores, add a few needles, spools of thread and 2 fabulous new Janine 525S sewing machines and what do you have have? Nothing, until you open the door to an eager group of makers, and an amazing student leader.

Welcome to the Queen Victoria Makerspace sewing club.

On October 2nd, the TLLP team used a ½ day release to host a local expert Liz Simpson, who co-owns Needleworks, a charming shop in the vibrant James Street North art community dedicated to the craft of sewing. We made attempts both to learn to knit, and to understand the basics of our newly purchased sewing machines in 2.5 hours…under her excellent tutelage, we all had small measures of success.

Enter Queen Vic. in-house expert Nazia, a grade 7 student extraordinaire. Her calm, patient demeanour, combined with a high level of confidence for both hand and machine sewing brought a vital ingredient to the creation of a sewing club. She joined the the TLLP team for our training session, and has taken the lead in selecting projects to launch the club and build basic skills at drop-ins during nutrition breaks in our MakerSpace. Nazia finds videos, gives instruction, and offers advice as participant learn to pin, cut fabric, hand and machine stitch their way to creating pillows, stuffed toys, hair scrunchies and…who knows what next!