WASHINGTON 鈥� This isn鈥檛 your grandma鈥檚 sewing circle.
鈥淲e start off with a glass of wine,鈥� says Cecily Habimana, half of the team behind the series at M in Mount Rainier, Maryland.
Sip and聽Sews are workshops that teach beginners basic techniques and guide them through a simple聽project 鈥� with the help of a little vino.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really just to get people to relax,鈥澛燞abimana says.聽鈥淧eople come in with a lot of anxiety about sewing.”
Habimana, the designer behind the D.C.-based fashion聽label, and her friend and former neighbor Tisha Thorne, a full-time sewing instructor and owner of, started the Sip and Sew series years ago as a way to spread their love of sewing all over the D.C.-metro region.
They’ve been sewing since they were school girls and see themselves as filling a void, since there aren鈥檛 many places to find physical sewing classes. A typical workshop has 25 to 30 students with three or four teachers. They鈥檙e held every other month, often with multiple workshops over the course a weekend.
Sip and Sews聽are come-as-you-are affairs.
鈥淲e actually bring everything: the fabric, the pattern, the notions, the sewing machines 鈥� even the wine,”聽says Thorne, who is the lead instructor.
Resurgence in sewing
The spread-fast nature of social media has been credited with聽helping聽DIY rise in popularity 鈥� the latest resurgence in sewing is a product of that. In fact,聽
鈥淵ou can look just as glorious as you want on your own,鈥� says Anika Hobbs, owner and founder of boutique at in D.C.
Hobbs said she saw the potential in offering sewing workshops back when she opened her shop in 2013 and had partnered with Habimana and Thorne on their first wave of Sip and聽Sews. But demand was so strong that the workshops eventually outgrew the boutique space.
Even still, they are still trying to keep pace. The April and May workshops sold out within a matter of hours. As of Thursday evening, there were still tickets available for their July workshop. Workshops cost about $42.
They’re trying to accommodate demand by adding classes. A kid-centric Sip (Juice) and Sew event was added in May.聽They also are looking to partner with major institutions such as the Smithsonian, though details were still being worked out at the time this story was published.
Common mistakes to avoid
Though there’s a lot of good information on the web, there’s still a lot of room for error if you’re starting out and don’t have someone to show you the way. Habimana and Thorne said spending way too much on home machines is a common pitfall for beginners. A basic machine can cost between $50 and $125. The price differences typically聽comes down to the number of available stitches and whether the machine is computerized.
鈥淚鈥檓 a designer, and I use, possibly, three stitches on machine. Ever,鈥� says Habimana. 鈥淯nless you鈥檙e doing decorative type work, you really don’t need a whole lot of features. You really only need a straight stitch and a zigzag stitch. Don鈥檛 get caught up in the bells in the whistles.鈥�
Project selection helps, too. Go for something simple. Thorne suggested trying simple alterations, such as hemming pants and tinkering on thrift shop clothes. Maxi skirts, a common Sip聽and Sew project, are an easy start-to-finish garment. They聽only require a large rectangle of fabric and an elastic waistband.
鈥淧eople love making the skirts, and it really isn鈥檛 as difficult as people tend to look for it to be,鈥澛燞abimana says.
In fact, the聽most difficult聽part about sewing isn鈥檛 the actual sewing. The hardest part for beginners is getting over the fear of messing up.聽 Wine is meant to聽take the edge off, but Thorne鈥檚 gentle reminders also help.
鈥淭hrough your failures, you are learning,” Thorne says.
