Sewing classes for kids & teens, aged 8-14 | serving Durham, NC and across the Triangle
Kids learn to sew and make items for neighbors in need.

On Saturday mornings, you will find us at the Southwest Durham Library branch teaching children ages 8+ how to sew. We use a progressive curriculum to help them continue to learn and improve their sewing skills. On any given Saturday, we may be sewing blankets to donate to NC State Vet Hospital or making bags to store all of our stuff in!

Once students complete Learn to Sew (or are experience sewists), they can join us a little later on Saturday mornings to work on several fun projects. These projects will help them to continue to refine their skills and learn new techniques. The projects are always fun and cheery. They will also make something to give away to their community as well.

Get ready to sew this summer!
Grab your friends and spend a few days learning cool new sewing skills — no experience needed!
Choose from two fun themed sessions:
🏊 Pool Time — July 7–9 🍳 All You Need to Cook — July 21–23
Registration opens 10:00am, May 26 — don't miss your spot!
ADULTS: Want to volunteer at one or both of the sessions? Tell us when you're available by filling out this form.
Contact Kristene Furan at connectingwiththreads2@gmail.com with questions!
🍳 All You Need to Cook — July 21–23
Registration opens 10:00am, June 9 — don't miss your spot!
ADULTS: Want to volunteer at one or both of the sessions? Tell us when you're available by filling out this form.
Contact Kristene Furan at connectingwiththreads2@gmail.com with questions!

We can teach students how to sew!
Our curriculum starts simple and grows with the student. They learn how a sewing machine works, and end with a finished project in their hands. STEM skills are woven in the whole way through.
Classes stay small — two to six students so every child gets real attention.
We're dreaming big: a whole community of young sewists who know how to make something and want to give it away.
Let's start with your group. connectingwiththreads2@gmail.com

No classroom? No problem. With our mobile classroom, we bring everything (sewing machines, fabric, notions) and set up wherever there's space. Hallways included.
Kids take to sewing fast. It's creative, it's tactile, and it sneaks in serious STEM skills along the way.

Our goal is to teach children to sew so that they can then give back to the community.
Each child gets everything they need: fabric, thread, tools, and a project that ends up in someone else's hands. A quilt. A bag. Something made with care, given to someone who needs a lift.
We support a Girl Scout troop in Durham by providing 20 young women with instruction on how to sew. We started with the basics and advanced to making flannel blankets for a local hospital, small bags for the girls to take home with them, and Christmas ornaments for a local community. The troop then made pillowcases to take home and to donate to Ryan's Case for Smiles.
This work allows us to follow our mission to share our love of sewing, educate others on how to sew, and encourage them to give items they make back to their community.
Check out our video below to learn more about this great program.
Here's a brief look at all the fun the Girl Scouts had in 2025.
We held two classes for teens at the Durham Public Library. The completed items will be distributed to community members with dementia by the library's outreach team. This outreach team visits community members who are unable to get out to the library themselves and provides them with books and support. Learn more about the OASIS program here: https://durhamcountylibrary.org/older-adult-and-shut-in-service/.
We welcome all teens and adult helpers to join us! If you are an adult helper, contact us at connectingwiththreads2@gmail.com for more information on how you can help with this program!
Giving back is baked into everything we do at Connecting with Threads, and that includes our youngest sewists. As we work with kids, we want to find ways for them to give back that excite them and encourage them to look around for other ways to give back.
By the end of a recent Learn to Sew! session, these kids made small quilts headed straight to the NC State Vet College and the dogs living there.
We hunted down the cutest doggie fabric we could find. We also raided our stash for prints that weren't quite right for human projects. Turns out dogs don't care what's on the fabric, which made for some very happy upcycling.
Click HERE to learn more about the summer camp we supported in 2025!
Connecting with Threads had an amazing time participating in the Amazing Camp Adventure STEAM Camp. At CWT, we seek to excite and educate young people about sewing and encourage them to use their skills to give back to their community and this was our perfect opportunity!

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