Free Sewing Class at North Michigan Park Recreation Center

On a Saturday afternoon at the North Michigan Park Recreation Center, the comforting click-click-click of sewing machines mingles with the squeak of sneakers and the swoosh of a basketball net from the gym across the hall.

Inside a cheerful lavender-hued classroom, the DC Threads monthly sewing lounge is underway and organizers Laura Lee and Allison Lince-Bentley are busily greeting attendees, making introductions and distributing name tags. Lee and Lince-Bentley have hosted these monthly classes since the fall, after meeting in a sewing group and dreaming up the notion of a monthly salon-style sewing class.

The group started small, with only a handful of students and five sewing machines, but has grown to about 25 attendees each month, who trade off working at 15 machines. "We wanted it to develop very organically," says Lee, a hospital administrator who has been sewing for 43 years. "We knew there were a lot of structured classes out there, but we wanted this to be a place where there was a lot of exchange happening. It's sort of controlled chaos, but everyone seems to find their niche."

During the three-hour sessions, Lee, Lince-Bentley and a handful of "sewing coaches" mill around the room, instructing novices as they select projects, choose material from a table stacked with colorful fabrics and learn their way around the sewing machines. At this particular class, the featured projects include a simple tote bag, a pillowcase and a breezy summer dress.

The level of expertise among the attendees runs the gamut: At one table, Bethesda resident Alyson M. Olander, an experienced quilter who showed her work at Artomatic, traces a blouse pattern onto wide white drafting paper. At another, Angela Stark of Greenbelt sets up her personal (but never-been-used) Kenmore machine and gets instructions from one of the sewing coaches on threading a bobbin. In a far corner, District resident Sha-Keea Briscoe and her daughter, DaiJon Davis, sit at a sewing machine together for the first time, stitching a tote bag in brightly patterned cotton.

Besides providing sewing machines, irons, a serger and plenty of sewing notions, fabric and advice, the lounge offers an air of familiarity and friendliness. By 4 p.m., a constant hum of chatter has developed among the students as they trade scissors for pincushions and take one another's measurements for dress patterns.

Lee emphasizes this community angle as much as the actual craft. "You can't plan ahead too much for the classes: Come, have fun and be ready to learn from really experienced people," she says. "We want people to come and learn and have something to take back and share with others."

-- Holly E. Thomas

WHERE IS IT? North Michigan Park Recreation Center, 1333 Emerson St. NE, 202-541-3522.

WHEN IS IT? Sessions are from 1 to 4 p.m. the second Saturday of each month.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Free. Students are encouraged to bring fabric and any special notions or supplies for their projects.

WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFORMATION? Visit http://www.dcthreads.org.