Thursday, May 28, 2009

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

6 comments:

CarlaF-in Atlanta said...

I haven't taken a class with PR because I wasn't sure if this would work for me. I'm looking forward to hearing about your online sewing class.

CarlaF-in Atlanta

gwensews said...

Good luck with that class. I'm definitely willing to take an online class. Looking forward to your opinions.

Tee said...

I took the bustier class on PR with Kenneth King. I was disappointed---not about the content, but because I thought I was going to see him live or tapped actually putting together a bustier step by step! I'm a hands on person, and feel the benefit of an actual live instructor works best for me. I'll probably never take a class on PR again. As for the couture hand sewing, I took that class at the ASG Conf in Sacramento with Susan Kahlje (sp) and it was GREAT!!!!!

Good luck with your class.

BConky said...

I would jump on board to video classes for sure. I buy many dvd's about sewing. I started my own blog come take a look.

Donna Hodgson said...

I took one class and will never take another one again. It was on PR...build a better t shirt.

I work full time and all I did was save the lessons. I'll look at them some time.

The class went way too fast. They act like no one has a job and are all SAHMs.

Claire said...

since I missed Friday's question, I'll add my 2-cents now...anything Shannon Gifford teaches I would take. I don't have time right now, but she is THE BEST!!!