Reviews

I have participated in a number of sewing and textile art courses run by Jen. I started 4 years ago with a beginners sewing course followed by an improvers sewing course. I completed a beginners dressmaking course and much to my astonishment managed to successfully sew a skirt! My main interest is however in the textile art workshops Jen has run – mostly pre Covid times but I am delighted to read in the most recent newsletter that she will be offering more textile art courses this year. I highly recommend the free motion embroidery workshop. For experienced – and not so experienced sewers – it offers a new skill to add to the sewing skills toolbox – like drawing with a sewing machine! I’ve already signed up to the print, collage, stitch workshop in May and was delighted to read in the newsletter that there will be a couple of textile art courses in the summer school programme this year – am particularly interested in the print, stitch, quilt course.

Jen is a very skilled and knowledgeable teacher – of sewing, dressmaking and all things textile art. She puts even the most inept aspiring sewer (me) at ease, instills confidence, has a wealth of practical tips up her sleeve and is always calm and reassuring. She is not just an excellent teacher, she has a range of examples of her own sewing and amazing textile art on display in the workshop.

I took the two day beginner sewing course and I absolutely loved it. From learning the basics of the sewing machine, to learning hems, to learning so many tips and tricks, the course was thorough and engaging. I even was impressed that I was able to complete two projects over the course of both days. Jen was a fabulous instructor and extremely knowledgeable and patient. Highly recommend this course to anyone pursing sewing, at any level!

Great course and feel I have learnt a lot in a day about overlockers. I did not realise overlockers could do so much until attending this course. Having received one as a christmas present this course was definitely what I needed. I now feel more confident and ready to start to use it for my next dressmaking project.

I took the beginner XL class and loved it so much I just signed up for the next one! I’ve taken classes before but felt like I just followed the instructions for each individual project rather than learning and gaining confidence. I especially liked that we used different sewing machine feet as those have always been intimidating to me. I’m excited for my next class!

I spent a fantastic day learning the technique of Gelli printing with Jen and a lovely group of like-minded ladies. Jen is a great teacher and paced the session very well for everyone who was there. We used paper initially and then moved onto fabric sharing our materials and resources with some lovely results. My aim for the day was to learn another way of preparing some backgrounds for textile works – and thanks to Jens support and others ideas this achieved over and over again.

Thanks Jen – I loved the session and am looking forward to experimenting with my own Gelli plate . Hope to be back for some more of your lovely sessions.