Craftsy Review

I purchased and iPad a few months ago and now I've become a Craftsy and You Tube junkie.  There's a ton of sewing related videos on You Tube and the Craftsy platform is great for inspiring new sewing projects. My iPad is seeing a lot more of the sewing room than I had expected.

I must admit I've watched more Craftsy classes than I've created projects for.  My review is for one of the courses that I've create a project for.  Design your Own Handbag with Brett Bara.

Brett is a great teacher with lots of experience and tons of great ideas.   The methods that she uses in the class will allow you to create a beautifully finished handbag.   She provides you with the foundation skills and inspires you to add your own design details.  My challenge was picking the details that I wanted to use in my bag.  I decided to keep it simple for my first bag.

The course starts you with planning your project and then walks you through all the steps needed to create your bag.  You'll want to watch course once from start to finish before starting your project as the videos are organized based on construction concepts and don't flow exactly from start to finish.   Although Brett's Craftsy course provides you with the pattern specs for you to draft the pattern, you could also use this as a foundation for any handbag pattern.   

Here's my project based on the pattern included with the course.

Now that I've got the foundations down, I'm exploring all kinds of options.  My Pinterest sewing board is full of handbag samples and the Craftsy platform also allows for students to post their projects.  So, I've got lots of ideas flowing. Currently on my cutting table, is the Metro Bag using the Clover trace and create templates.  I'll be using some of the techniques I learned from the Craftsy course on this bag as well.

I'd definitely recommend Brett's Craftsy course and I have a bunch more Craftsy courses in the queue.  If you are into making totes, bags or zipper pouches there are also a few free classes on the Craftsy platform for you to enjoy as well.

I've also learned not to pay full price for a Craftsy course, put them in your wish list and wait for a sale.   Thanks to all those Craftsy sales, I now have huge list of Craftsy courses in my library for future enjoyment.

Happy Sewing
Christiana

Craftsy Review

Many of you by now have heard about Craftsy, and I'm sure many have tried their on-line courses.   They have a variety of learn it and make it courses, including several sewing courses.  The courses are hosted by a variety of popular sewing experts including Sandra Betzina, Linda Lee, Kenneth King and many more. 

I really like their platform, you learn through a series of video workshops that you can take at your own pace.  The videos are broken down into modules that allow you work through smaller chunks  which I find helpful as I don't the have luxury of devoting larger blocks of time to taking a course. They also have an iPhone & iPad app that allows you to take their courses with you; I can review the course content while waiting for a flight or while sitting in the doctor's or dentist's office.  They also have a Q&A section and a place for students to post their completed content.

The pricing of the course varies by content.  There are smaller courses available for free and others that vary in price, most are under $50.  Some include the patterns, others do not.   They also feature classes and sale prices that have ranged from 20% to 75% off.  And you can view the course as many times a you want.

I've signed up for a number of courses and have completed viewing the content for Design Your own Handbag, with Brett Bara and Design and Sew an A Line Skirt with Deborah Moebes.   I haven't started my skirt project yet, but I have picked out my fabric and drafted the pattern for my handbag.   Stay tuned for more updates on my projects as well as more specific course reviews.

Have fun learning and Happy Sewing!
Christiana

Wow!  In the business of life time does slip away.   It's hard to believe that it's been several months since my last post.  My lack of sewing has prevented me from posting to my blog.  I haven't really been wanting to do any garment sewing as I've been on a quest to get back to my goal weight.   Thanks to some perseverance and some help from Weight Watchers,  I'm back at my goal and wearing my "skinny jeans" again.  YIPPEE!!

For the past several months I've been lurking in the back ground reading blogs, checking sewing stuff on pintrest, checking out the latest reviews on patternreview.com and I've recently started a few classes on Craftsy.   I've gone through most of the videos for Design a Handbag and Design and Sew an A line skirt.  Now it's time to put all that learning in action!   I'm trying to find some Canadian Sources for handbag hardware and fabrics so that I can get started making bags.   My head is full of ideas, but some days I just can't seem to put the ideas into action.  

If you're looking to find some sewing ideas, I've managed to round up 483 pins on my sewing board checkout my sewing board on pinterest and I'm sure there's more to come...

Does any one else have those times where they spend more time reading about and researching sewing topics than actually sewing?  I'd love to hear about how you get back in the groove...


Cheers!
Christiana