A warm, start-from-nothing sewing course for absolute beginners. No experience. No fancy machine. No idea where to begin. That's exactly who this is for.
Learn at your own pace · watch from your kitchen table · beginners only
You remember it. Someone in your family who could make anything. A machine humming in the next room. A drawer full of fabric. Something they made by hand that you still keep, because they don't make things like that anymore.
You always meant to learn. Maybe you even tried once, got tangled in a bobbin, watched a video that used words nobody explained, and quietly gave up.
But the pull never left. And underneath it is a worry you don't say out loud: that when the older generation goes, this knowledge goes with them.
It doesn't have to.
Decades in the industry. Sewing, pattern making, and creating clothing seen right across New Zealand, Australia and around the world.
Nanna Jill was part of the key development teams that grew Macpac, Kathmandu and Canterbury Clothing Company (CCC) into the names you know today. She has seen the evolution of fabrics and textiles up close, in a way few people ever have.
And now she wants to teach you. Not the way a textbook teaches. The way a grandmother teaches, slowly and warmly, assuming you know absolutely nothing and making sure you never feel silly for asking.
The course is built in three parts. Each one hands you real skills, and by the end you've made a garment, not a sample.
As with any machine, the setup and settings are everything. Get these right and the machine stops being scary, for good.
Time to get that fabric under control, and learn the moves that turn flat cloth into shape.
This is the payoff. You put it all together and make things you can genuinely wear, with the finishing touches that make them look properly made.
A garment you made yourself and can actually wear, and the quiet, steady confidence that comes with knowing you can do it again. That first piece changes something. The clothes you'd have thrown out. The gift you could make instead of buy. The skill you can now carry forward.
Good. Neither were most of Nanna Jill's students when they started. Crafty isn't a personality, it's a skill, and this is where you learn it.
The lessons are short and you go at your own pace. Ten quiet minutes here and there is genuinely enough to begin.
You'll get Nanna Jill's simple guide to exactly what you need to start, and it's far less than you think. You can begin with almost nothing.
You didn't fail. You were never properly taught. That is the whole difference here.
When you join, you're invited into the Nanna Jill community, a place where people just like you share what they're making, ask their questions, and celebrate every win, from a first wonky stitch to a first finished dress.
Because the best part of making something isn't just the making. It's showing it to people who understand exactly what it took.
A warm optional add-on. Full details when the doors open.
The first intake is coming. Join the waitlist and you'll be the first to know the moment enrolments open, before anyone else.
Beginners only · no experience needed · no spam, just the open date
Now let her pass it to you.
Join the waitlist →