Textiles & Clothing in your Local Community Education

I was thoroughly impressed, when we received a catalog for summer 2009 term community education classes, to find an amazing selection of fashion design courses being offered. More surprisingly was the majority of courses, not just fashion, were being offered at no charge to residents (the city picks up the check). So I wondered, hmm, what the courses may be liked. So this past week, I went to a serger, pattern making/sewing and design-it-yourself: fabric surface techniques classes.

I found all three of the instructors to have a belt of experience! Most of them are retired from the industry so you have 20-30 years of professional experience and wisdom at your fingertips to tap into!

In addition, some of the older students were retired home economics teachers (think junior high sewing & cooking classes), that were taking classes just for fun & motivation. I'm looking forward to silk screen printing, stamping & lace making in the do-it-yourself design class.

The serger class will be a great excuse to use my newly acquired serger to construct a garment. The pattern-making/sewing class was full of young entreprenuers, many immigrants from all over the world, who are gaining these skills to make money for themselves, some sell sewn products on e-bay, to shops, offer tailoring and so forth. I was amazed by the spectrum of students!

Anyway, why would I blog to you about this new resource that I tapped into in my local city? Because, I have often noticed that these types of fashion design courses are available to take at a low cost in community education programs. So if you have ever wanted to learn sewing, serging, pattern-making and so forth but your budget restricts you from enrolling full-time in a degree program, having private lessons and so forth, I'd encourage you to check out your local community education catalog!