Hartford Stitch Sewing Studio in West Hartford

Please note: This post was written in 2018, and while it should still give you a good idea of the overall experience, it may also contain some outdated information. For the most up-to-date information, please visit their website.

UPDATE AUGUST 2019–HARTFORD STITCH HAS MOVED! But not far 🙂 Check out their new, larger location just down the street at 207 Park Road.

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2018 POST:

Cut to the chase. Take me to the Momsense.

When Out and About Mom launched in 2011, my boys, known on this website as Mr. Fix-It and Ninjaboy, were five and two. We loved the spirit Shawna and Mandy encouraged in our community through OAAM, inspiring families to explore Connecticut. My kids grew up on OAAM-recommended outings and we even shared some of our own adventures on the site at the Connecticut Historical Museum and Buttonwood Farm’s Sunflowers for Wishes.

Gratefully, my family grew (“Princess Anna” arrived in 2014) and grew UP (they are now 11, 8 and 3) and our excursions grew UP as well. Though there are so many awesome offerings for kids in our area, as the kids get older, some of these become drop-off activities that don’t include the whole family.  After over a decade of parenting, I welcome a little exile to the parents’ waiting room.  Still, I know these years are fleeting and I love finding ways to explore and create with my kids.

This winter, I surprised my boys with a gift certificate for a sewing private lesson for the three of us at Hartford Stitch. Like most gift cards, it might not have been the most exciting gift to open – but a Greater Hartford treasure unravelled with that piece of paper.

Laura Kasowitz opened Hartford Stitch in June of 2015. Initially, Laura held classes at Imagine Studio, but pretty soon needed to find a permanent home. She turned a Park Road office space into a bright and cozy sewing studio, or what Laura has aptly named a sewing community. Laura offers adult and child classes, birthday parties, drop-in work sessions and private lessons.

Laura is sweet and relaxed and a natural teacher.  Laura’s professional background is in event planning, but she has been sewing since childhood. We met her at the studio during her private lesson hours on a Saturday morning.  The Park Road studio is easy to find in the Walsh Brothers and Sisters building across from Steben Autobody and right off of Washington Circle. We entered through the red door and a set of stairs led us to the two-room second floor studio.

In our first lesson, Laura showed us around the sewing machines, with a driving metaphor that made sense to all of us – even the boys who don’t yet have their licenses. “Get in the car” and “shut the car door” means slide your fabric under the presser foot and lower the presser foot down to hold things in place.  “Buckle your seatbelt” means hold onto both threads as you put the key in the ignition and press the pedal. We wound bobbins and threaded the sewing machine needle.

Within two hours, we made patchwork pillows. We practiced our sewing skills while adding one scrap of fabric to another until we had a square or rectangular shape for the pillow. Laura had a great bucket of fabric scraps and encouraged us to pick designs and colors we liked and just keep sewing. Then we added a fabric back, stuffed it with filling and stitched it closed.  This was a great first project — it involved very little measuring or precision.

Laura even worked with Princess Anna for a few minutes on this patchwork handbag!

We decided to make pajama pants next and returned this spring for two more lessons with flannel fabric we selected. We learned how to follow a basic pattern and sew in an elastic waist and a nice even hem on the bottom.

There is a certain amount of pride in hand-making clothes that cannot be underestimated in the digital age. We made pants! I mean, WE MADE PANTS!!!  There is definitely a song and dance that this feeling generates.

It is a pleasure to learn from Laura; we were sewing within moments and completing real projects in our short lesson periods. In our six hours of sewing lessons, there was never a mistake we couldn’t fix. We sewed over uneven lines and used a seam ripper when we needed a fresh start. We progressed at our own pace and Laura kept up with instructions for each of us, even if it was repetitive for her. There was no pressure or stress and we did each step ourselves.

In addition to a limited amount of evening and weekend private lessons, Laura offers weekly after-school classes in six-week sessions during the school year and a variety of summer camps with irresistibly adorable projects like unicorn pillows, mythical creatures, floor pillows, handbags and fashion tees.  In the Campout Sewing Camp, running July 30th through August 3rd from 9:30 am to noon, campers will make everything they need for a sleepover, including an insulated lunch pack, sleeping bag carrying sack, lounge pants and a pillowcase.  The following week, Laura will host Fashion Camp in the afternoons.  Classes and camps often sell out so sign up for Laura’s mailing list here.  Hartford Stitch also hosts birthday parties, adult classes and open workshops where you can work on projects of your choosing.

As Laura says on Hartford Stitch’s website, you can learn to sew from a book or YouTube videos. Learning at Hartford Stitch is ridiculously more fun, productive and engaging. The studio is stocked with everything just where you need it (for example, an iron and a large, safe ironing space) and having Laura’s guidance is invaluable. Besides, learning to sew or learning to sew clothes are the kind of life goals that can fall to the wayside without actual sessions scheduled in your calendar.  I should know. In my first grade autobiography, I wrote I planned to become a fashion designer yet I’m still waiting to find the time to finish that “quilt in a weekend” that I started in high school. When I look through Laura’s adult class offerings — learning to sew a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt or a dress with pockets – I hear those six-year-old’s dreams calling.

Jodie Sadowsky has lived in West Hartford since 2004. She married her high school prom date and their family has since grown to a happy, noisy party of five — with two sons and a daughter (and two of the longest living goldfish ever won at the Celebrate! West Hartford fair). Jodie is a lawyer who has worked in her family property’s management business for 14 years. She also used to publish a blog – Love Them Madly – which documented her family’s adventures in life, crafts and cooking. Though the blog is no longer, Jodie reports her family is still up to the same creative antics. You can read all of Jodie’s Out and About Mom posts here.

Hartford Stitch

UPDATE AUGUST 2019 ***NOW LOCATED AT 207 PARK ROAD***

298 Park Road, Suite 1, West Hartford, Connecticut

(860) 785-3093 or Laura@hartfordstitch.com

Find Hartford Stitch on Facebook!

You can also check them out on Instagram!

Hours (2018):

Open during class hours, primarily weekday afternoons, evenings and weekends during the year and camp hours during the summer. Afterschool classes are typically 75 minutes long in six-week sessions.

Pricing (2018):

Varies for classes, 2-hour private lessons are $100; see their website for additional information on offerings and pricing.

Details:

Stroller Friendly: Not really; it’s located on the second floor, with no elevator. But you wouldn’t really be bringing your baby here anyway, would you? 🙂
Coffee Mug Friendly: YES; snacks and drinks allowed in the studio, but away from workspaces.
Restroom: YES
Baby Changing Station: NO
Parking: The building parking lot has limited spaces. Free street parking available on Park Road and Washington Circle Extension.
Food for Sale: NO
Outside Food Allowed: YES; snacks and drinks allowed in the studio, but away from workspaces.
Cash Required: NO; credit card payments accepted to book reservations online
Age Recommendations: Age 6 and up for hand-sewing classes and parties. Age 8 and up for sewing machine, though Laura will work with younger children in private lessons with a parent present.
Dress Code: You must wear something you sewed yourself. Kidding! 🙂 No special dress code.
Evening/Weekend Hours: YES
Discounts: N/A
Birthday Party Venue: YES! Get more info here. Also, a great space for a bridal shower, baby shower, adult gathering!

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