The Sewing Basket is a small business that provides lessons in the fabric arts that include quilting, garment construction, crafts, and home decorating.  Lou Ann Rudeseal is the owner and teacher. Her classes include weekly classes for children and teens, monthly classes for quilters, and specialty classes in quilting, garments, and crafts. She is has been certified as a Martha Pullen Bernina Licensed Teacher which has equipped her to teach heirloom sewing. She is a member of the American Sewing Guild and the Home Sewing Association.

     Lou Ann has especially enjoyed teaching children and teens ages 8 to 18 in her weekly classes. They learn hand embroidery, cross-stitching, how to use a sewing machine safely, how to read a pattern, how to lay out a pattern, how to cut efficiently and neatly, and how to finish garments and craft items that will be useful and beautiful.  Projects include doll clothes, pillow cases, laundry bags, potholders, aprons, scrunchies, scarves, pillows, mini-quilts, and their very own clothes. They have learned how to appliqué, how to use fusible interfacing, how to overcast fabric raw edges to prevent fraying, and how to “press as you go” to insure accuracy and neatness. They have also learned how to make the most of the various types of presser feet for the sewing machines to achieve the best results.

     The other joy has been to teach others how to make quilts. This instruction includes rotary cutting, machine-piecing, “sandwiching” the layers, quilting, and binding them. These classes have encompassed those for adults, mother/daughter groups, teens, and children.

The Sewing Basket offers a wide variety of sewing classes. There are monthly Block of the Month classes for quilting. There are weekly sewing classes for girls 9 years and older. There are special one day classes for exciting and cute projects such as tote bags, table runners, holiday decorations, home decor items, skirts, scrunchies, pillowcases, and more! We provide sewing machines and other tools, so all you have to do is come prepared to have fun and learn along the way! We have group classes and private lessons.

If you have a sewing machine, but just do not know how to use it, we have special 2 hour classes that will allow you to bring your machine here and if you have the manual, we can figure it out together. We teach safety, how to clean and maintain your machine, how to choose the best needles for each project, and how to use the multitudes of presser feet that are available for your machine.

We teach rotary cutting, which is a technique that revolutionized the quilting industry. Cut your fabric quickly and accurately with the help of a rotary cutter, precise rulers, a specially designed mat with a grid for accurate layout. It sure beats scissors!

We also teach basic garment construction, how to read a pattern, how to select the appropriate fabric, how to layout and cut your fabric with the pattern, how to mark it, sewing accurate seams, and finishing the seam allowances.

Come join the fun!