Name: Karla Kuypers
Background: Kuypers, 32, grew up in Dowagiac, Mich., where she learned to sew in 4-H. In 1983 she moved to the Chicago area and in 1990 opened a sewing school for children, “Sew Can You School,” in her home. To accommodate growing enrollment, she recently moved her school to a commercial building in Chicago’s Mt. Greenwood/Beverly area. The Evergreen Park resident also sews stage costumes as a volunteer for the Bethel Performing Arts Center. She and her husband, John,
Number of years as a sewing instructor: 3
Anybody can learn to sew. Some people’s motor skills, confidence and patience are better than others, but sewing skill is not something a person is born with, like playing an instrument. It doesn’t have to be practiced on a daily basis, although it does have to be learned over time. However, it doesn’t take long to learn the basics, and the basics can take you pretty far. Once a person learns to sew a straight line, manipulate fabric and follow instructions, he or she can handle it. I even taught my brother-in-law and father-in-law to sew.
Up until a few years ago, I was a full-time homemaker. When my children were in school all day, I was ready to do something for myself. Sewing was my main outside interest, so when I read an article in a sewing magazine that described how to start a school in your own home, I sent in for the information.
I went out and bought four used sewing machines, put ads in the newspaper and paid the monthly licensing fee for the rights to teach “Kids Can Sew” patterns in my area. My first summer I had 27 students, and I figured, this is working.
I’ve now taught over 250 students. I own eight new, standard sewing machines, two (or industrial) machines, and one computer sewing machine, as well as the rights to teach KCS patterns in four ZIP code territories. And, for the first time, I’m operating out of a storefront instead of my basement.
My classes are definitely geared to children. With kids, the easier the method, the better, because if it’s simple, they want to stick with it. Kids are in a hurry, and if it’s harder, they shy back from it. However, my motto is: A slow sewer is a good sewer.
They have to learn by making mistakes. The students make little mistakes all the time, which I teach them to correct. I constantly tell them that every time I sew, I make mistakes too. They learn to use the seam ripper right away. We rip out and do it over and over. I help the younger children rip out because it can be a long process. In general, the littler kids make fewer mistakes because I’m usually standing beside them.
All the class projects are clothing, things like blouses, shorts, jogging suits, circle skirts, lined vests. I don’t teach them to redo things that can be overlooked. When you’re making something yourself, there’s a tendency to look at every stitch. There’s a rule of thumb: if you can’t see it 3 feet from your nose, don’t worry about it. I am a perfectionist with my own projects, but I don’t teach that way.
I hold two classes a day, six days a week, plus evening classes. Each class has eight students and meets once a week for an hour and 15 minutes. I have two assistant teachers, so I always have one teacher for every four students. My students range in age from 6 to 16, but the biggest age group is 9- to 11-year-olds. Teenagers are scarce; they’re just too busy.
I had five boys last year, and two this year. Boys don’t do better than the girls, but they seem to pick up sewing quicker because for some reason they have this knack with machines. I find if I show them once, they’ve got it. The boys are more dedicated when they’re here, but they don’t stick with it. They usually drop out around ages 11 and 12, when peer pressure pops in.
I only have a couple of adult classes. Each adult student is working with a different commercial pattern. I have to teach the women to read the instructions for each one, and it gets real hectic. Also, adult students come in with all different degrees of skill, usually no experience at all or very little. It’s harder for adult students because they have so much else in their lives, and they can’t always make it to class.
I like to teach children the best. They’re not picky. They’re more fun. They walk out of class smiling, wearing what they made. With adults, I never know if they’re happy with what they accomplish.
In a typical class, the kids come in, thread up their machines, cut their fabric out and work on their projects. At the end, they all clean up. It takes a student three to five weeks to finish a project, although I have second-year students who can finish a pair of shorts in one class.
Each child works on something different, at their own pace. If they’re all doing the same project, it’s a race. So they’re not competing with the person next to them, although sometimes I run into a little competition between friends.
I’ve had three students run their fingers over with a needle; one girl did it twice, and she’s one of my best sewers. And funny things do happen. One student was working on a pair of shorts and sewed around the entire thing. Sometimes students sit down to sew without threading the machine. One student’s mother started taking the adult class. The mother sewed the pockets on a dress backward, and the daughter was tickled pink that she knew more than her Mom.
To do this job, you have to have patience and enjoy children. I like seeing the very quiet students get confidence. After six months, they’re smiling and proud and more outgoing. Some of my students had to do a paper for school on what makes them proud, and they all wrote “sewing” or “making an apron for my mother.” That makes me feel good.
I can’t say sewing is economical any more. It is if you want it to be. Leggings and biker shorts are a big thing with the kids in my classes, and those you can make economically. But if you’re going to add buttons, bows, lace and other details like that, you’re going to run into money. But that’s how you make it unique; no one else will have one like it.
To like this job, you have to love to sew because you do it every day. However, people think I sew all my own clothes, but I don’t because I don’t have the time right now. I do miss that, because I like to create.
I’m an advanced sewer, but I’m not a dressmaker, a couture sewer, the kind of person who can see a dress and cut it out. But give me a pattern, and I know how to do what needs to be done. I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about sewing, because nobody does.
It seems that learning to sew somehow skipped my generation, possibly because it became scarce in school. I think so many parents and children are interested in sewing again because it’s a skill that will benefit a person forever, and you can use it in so many ways. A child takes ballet for one year, but few grow up to be ballerinas. But one year of sewing instruction will benefit them into adulthood. Sewing is something that’s an advantage to know.
