4-Week Live Course · Starts April 20

Sewing Machine
Embroidery Basics

Four weeks of live classes where you learn free motion embroidery from scratch, with me guiding you the whole way.

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Weekly recorded lessons and two live calls every week, at different times so you can join from anywhere.

Weekly recorded lessons.
Two live calls every week.
Four weeks to your first finished piece.

You've probably been watching videos and saving them for later, thinking you'll try it when you have more time or figure out the right setup. Maybe you did try it once and it was a mess and you're not sure what went wrong.

Nobody showed you how to start. That's the whole problem. That's what this course fixes.

Why live and not just videos?

I've been teaching free motion embroidery online for years. The students who get the best results are always the ones who can ask questions in real time.

When you get stuck, and you will get stuck, you need someone who can find what's wrong and give you the solution so you can keep moving forward instead of giving up.

You get the recorded lessons to watch at your own pace. Then you show up live and we work through it together. If you miss a call, you watch the recording and ask your questions in the pop up community.

After four weeks you will have a finished piece and real skills you can keep building on.

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I Figured Most Of This Out By Breaking Things.

I started in 2007, stitching simple line drawings on thrifted shirts and selling them at markets. Those shirts sold fast so I kept going, kept learning, kept experimenting.

In 2020 I discovered the zigzag techniques that mimic hand embroidery and got completely addicted. I started embroidering my own colorful drawings on clothing and those pieces sell out every time.

I'm not a formally trained artist. I figured most of this out by doing it, breaking things, fixing them and doing it again. And I think that's why my students say I teach well. I know exactly where you'll get stuck because I got stuck there too.

This course is the closest thing to sitting next to me at the machine.

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What We Cover

Four weeks. Each week a recorded lesson plus two live calls. Starts April 20.

Week 1 · April 20

We start with your sewing machine. Which machines work best for embroidery, how to set yours up, the right settings for free motion, and your very first stitched lines.

Week 2

Straight stitch and thread painting. This is the foundation of everything. You'll learn to draw with the needle and start building texture and depth with thread.

Week 3

Zigzag stitch and what it can do: fills, shading, solid coverage. This is where your work starts to look impressive.

Week 4

You bring everything together and complete your own piece from start to finish. By the end of this week you'll have a beautiful embroidery you made yourself.

Every Week

A recorded lesson to watch on your own time, plus two live calls at different hours so you can join no matter where you are. I answer every question that comes up.

Between Sessions

Access to the pop up community to ask questions, share your work, and see what everyone else is making.

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After Four Weeks

You'll know your setup, your stitches, and how to fix things when they go wrong. You'll look at a design and know how to approach it.

But the thing my students talk about most isn't the technique. It's what sitting down at the machine gives them beyond the skill.

People in my community are retired teachers finally doing something just for themselves. Hand embroiderers whose hands are getting tired. Artists from other mediums finding a completely new way to work. People going through hard times who sit down at the machine and feel better for it.

The sound of the machine, the rhythm of the hoop, the thing you make at the end. It does something to you.

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Christine

"I absolute love Vania's encouraging teaching style as well as her ideas. And the fact that she uses mostly thrifted clothing and fabrics as part of her designs was right up my alley."

Yesenia

"As a creative, I can get bogged down with perfectionism. When I fall into that rabbit hole, I hear Vania telling me to get it going and that imperfections are beautiful too."

This course is for you if

You own a sewing machine and want to learn free motion embroidery properly from the beginning.
You want real guidance, not just videos to watch alone.
You tried before, got frustrated, and want to understand what actually went wrong.
You want to finish the four weeks with a real completed piece in your hands.

This course is not for you if

You expect to be an expert in a week.
Or if you need a computerized embroidery machine course. This is free motion, guided by hand.

Questions

Will this work on my machine?

Yes. This works on any sewing machine that does straight and zigzag stitches, Singer, Brother, Janome, old, new, basic. If it makes stitches it will work.

Do I need to know how to draw?

No. I can't draw a straight line freehand either. That's kind of the whole point.

Do I need special supplies?

You need your machine, a hoop, thread and some fabric. Some people like a darning foot and a stabilizer when starting out and I cover both in the course, but you don't need to buy anything before you begin.

Is this for beginners?

Yes. If you know how to turn your machine on and make stitches, you're ready. We start from the very beginning in week one.

What if I can't make a live call?

There are two calls each week at different times so you have some flexibility. If you miss both, you can watch the recording and ask your questions in the pop up community.