Owned by mother-daughter duo Julie and Rachel Marquez, who acquired the business from its previous owner in 2017, Sewing Arts is an authorized Bernina dealer and service center that repairs most sewing machine brands but exclusively sells Berninas.
“Our goal is to build a community, a makers space versus just a retail space or school,” said Julie. “Our shop is the ‘home store’ for the L.A. Modern Quilt Guild, the original guild the Modern Quilt Guild came from.”
The Marquezes are the third owners since 1955 of the business, originally known as Bay Cities Sewing. That store stood on what is now the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica before moving to Pico Boulevard and finally to West L.A. last summer.
Julie, who learned to sew from her mother when she was 5, originally began as a garment sewist before beginning to quilt in earnest in the late 1990s. Rachel, who holds dual degrees from USC’s business and film schools, serves as the webmaster in charge of the online side of the business.
Among Sewing Arts’ workshop offerings are bag making, a kids camp and adult classes in garment making and sewing. Garment sewing classes, offered in three levels, are offered in four-session packages for $299 including $100 in materials costs.
I took a garment sewing level one class, in which manager and master quilter Susanne Cole led a class of seven through the construction of a pair of drawstring, elastic-waist pajama pants. We were invited to select a fabric from the store’s troves of printed options before Cole cut us each 3 yards. No sewing took place in the first class as Cole helped students take measurements, cut out pattern pieces and wind bobbins using the studio’s state-of-the-art Bernina machines.
While true beginners may feel supported by the slow pace, after having to endure a cross-town commute, I chafed against it. But it came in handy when I had to miss a week’s class and was able to catch up in the next one (dedicated make-up classes are not offered).
Sewing Arts is geared more toward aspiring quilters than sewists, with multiple quilt offerings including three levels of piecing and quilting courses, a foundational paper piecing workshop, a lecture on quilting as a graphic designer and other quilt presentation and trunk shows. The shop offers specialty long-arm services for large pieces of fabric. It also hosts sew-ins and workshops for local quilt guilds, with teachers flying in from across the country (and, in one case, Australia) to teach workshops.
Parking: Dedicated lot parking
Price: From $79 for a three-hour youth sewing workshop to $299 for a garment sewing level one four-week course
What to bring: Materials are covered in the class fee and Bernina machines are provided to work on. Bring a face mask, as Sewing Arts still abides by a strict mask policy.