Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Amelia, Summerset, Beth Conky, Elaina, Becky, eword10, Claire S and MeredithP for talking back to my confession last Friday! I asked about experiences with online sewing classes.

Five people had taken at least one online sewing class (all through Pattern Review, I think) and three people had not taken any.

Classes that were specifically recommended included:
- Shannon Gifford’s class on Making a Pants Muslin
- Kenneth King’s class on Strap Seam Construction
- Anything by Sarah Veblem

The major pros cited were:
- Convenience (if good classes aren’t available locally)
- Excellent written instructional materials
- The opportunity to practice something immediately (not always true in those one hour classes at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo, for example)

The major cons mentioned were:
- Chats can be difficult to follow
- It would probably be more fun in person
- If you were making a mistake, a live instructor would probably catch it more quickly
- Chats were too close together to allow busy people time to finish the homework

Most people recommended the online classes at PR – the ones who hesitated generally called out a mismatch between the teaching approach and their learning styles. More specifically, a couple of folks mentioned being visual learners who prefer watching over listening. In fact, eword10 suggested that PR add videos to their online classes – that sounds like a good idea to me. :)

I’m looking forward to my class on Couture Hand Stitches! It starts in the second half of June. I’ll be sure to tell you how it goes!

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences! :)

Photo credit: Stas Kulesh