Just Fabrics The Academy Online Course Review
DISCLOSURE – THIS EXPERIENCE WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST/S FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW.
Reviewed by Helen Wyatt
I was very excited to be given access to a Just Fabrics course to review as I haven’t done any proper sewing for years and wanted to get back into it; Just Fabrics Academy is an online learning hub where you can learn soft furnishing or haberdashery skills at your own pace, and in the comfort of your own home. The first step of excitement was to actually pick which course to do! There are currently several you can pick from: a roman blind course, a box cushion course, a piped cushion course, a curtain making course, and a frill cushion course. I decided to choose the piped cushion course, as while I have undertaken various sewing projects before, I hadn’t actually made a cushion.
Just Fabrics very kindly sent me some beautiful vintage style fabric to use, along with almost everything else I would need – a cushion inner, piping cord, a zip, quick unpick tool, vanishing fabric marker and various spools of thread. In fact, they sent me enough fabric to make two cushion covers if I wanted! You can purchase all sorts of fabrics and haberdashery direct from the Just Fabrics website, giving you a huge amount of choice so that you can make your sewing project exactly as you want it. The fabric they sent me was excellent quality so I was looking forward to the next steps.
It is very easy to access your course once you have created an account. You can easily navigate to the course you purchase through your course library. You click “access now” and then see thumbnails of all the lessons, broken down into different sections of the course; in my case, things like “measuring and cutting the fabric”, “adding and securing the piping cord” and “positioning and attaching the zip”. Before you launch into your first lesson, you can access a video introducing you to the tutor, a course notes document, and a list of what you’ll need to make the cushion.
The course is very professionally presented and easy to navigate. The course notes download document is helpful, but you ideally need to print it out to use it effectively and it is full of colourful sections so does take a lot of ink to do so. The workbook is useful to note down sizes at the beginning of the course.
The video lessons take you through creating your project step by step, and the course shows your progress as you complete each section. You can rewind and rewatch any video whenever you like, which I did find helpful as there were a couple of videos where the instructions were not quite clear enough for me to follow on the first watch. Overall, however I found this to be a very good course, and I was able to complete my very first piped cushion cover! I didn’t think I’d be able to attach piping but it ended up looking up very effective, following the tips on the course.
I enjoyed following this course as I was able to complete it at my own pace and in my own time. I’m very pleased with my lovely cushion. This would be an excellent Christmas gift for someone who has some sewing skills but isn’t sure what to try next. As long as they have a sewing machine and know how to thread it, then any of these courses would be a great choice, and they don’t require wrapping!
Rating: 5/5
Price from £115.00
This product can be purchased from academy.justfabrics.co.uk.