We found this Sewing Workshop at Craft Heart while looking for some fabric. Amy was going to make some burp clothes for a coworker who just had a baby.

The store was a part of a large chain with locations throughout Japan. It was a decent size and had a good selection of fabrics and materials for other Japanese crafts. They also had DIY all in one kits for various small fabric projects, mizuhiki (Japanese cord art), kanzashi (Japanese fabric flowers), and many more.

On our first visit we came by and picked up some fabric and tread to make the burp cloths. While in the store we saw a poster advertising a T-shirt sewing workshop. We asked the shop attendant for more information. After hearing the description we decided to go for it. We scheduled a time, picked out our material, and paid the fee. We also picked up a membership card at a cost of ¥200 which would give us discounts on our future purchases.

T-Shirt Workshop

We came back during our scheduled time. We told them we were here for the workshop and they took us to two preset stations. The sewing machines had already been fitted with the correct colored thread. We were given some extra material to practice on. After we got a hang of using the machines, we were ready to move on to the real thing.

The fabric was pre cut which probably saved us a bunch of time. We used clips to hold the fabric in place. We then worked our way around the shirt and sewed all the opposing sides together. The sleeves were probably the hardest since the holes were small and we had to constantly rotate the fabric. We did learn how to properly fold the sleeves and a special technique to end the thread.

The instructions were all in Japanese, but our basic understanding and context clues allowed us to get through the steps.

The sewing machines were pretty easy to use. Our only gripe was that the pedal was a little touchy and we didn’t know how to ask about an adjustment.

From start to finish, the process took about 90 minutes to complete. It went by really quick, probably because we were so focused on what the next step was. After we were done, our instructor was kind enough to iron our shirts and put them in a plastic pouch.

Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed the Sewing Workshop at Craft Heart. It was a lot of fun and we learned a number of new sewing techniques that we could utilize in our future projects. The price was really affordable too. It was only ¥1,100 per person and included the materials, use of the sewing machines and the instruction. Our only gripe was that the shirts don’t quite fit my broader shoulders very well. They did fit Amy a lot better and the neckline could be styled in a way that made it look more trendy and fashionable. We look forward to participating in more workshops at Tokai Craft Heart in the future.

More to Come…

Here is a link to their website.