Love of Knowledge / Sew at Home

Can you believe that schoolwork might take precedence to sewing?!!!  I had one of those weeks with my schoolwork.  I’m a student through BYU-Idaho online.  Currently, I’m enrolled to have a degree in University Studies with an emphasis in Family History, sewing and entrepreneurship.  If you want to learn more about BYU-Idaho Online, check this out www.byui.edu/online.  It’s a great program and fairly inexpensive.  (I could get on a soapbox about how wonderful the program is, but that will have to be from another blog.)

So, for breaks in between doing my schoolwork, I watched videos from Love of Knowledge (AKA Sew at Home) babylockknowledge.com.  

A 2 year membership came with the purchase of my Triumph serger.  For me, signing up was a little tricky, but it’s because I don’t read (or follow) instructions well.  A nice lady, April, from Tacony helped me (twice!) to get it right.  

This is where you sign in:

Once you've logged in, this page will appear.  Click on MY CLASSES to the left of the screen.

IF you have a Love of Knowledge membership, you DON’T put anything in the cart or it really screws things up (trust me, I know).  Then click on "Click here to see your classes".  A lot of classes will appear like this.  The video that appears on this page is helpful to watch about finding the classes you want and the class notes.  (Not all classes have class notes.)

Ugh!  I thought I had included the url that appears in the address box.  After you click on the Members Sign in, the URL (sometimes) changes to sewathomeclasses.com.  That really confused me.  If this happens to you, don't be alarmed.  Just keep finding and watching classes.

There is a 102 page catalog (as of October 2017) of all the video classes offered for at Sew at Home.  They are Babylock machine specific, but a lot of these classes can be used on other brand machines.  The catalog gives a class title, the product (machine) featured, which other (Babylock) products the class applies to, and a class description which includes the length of the video and the instructor’s name.  A nice feature about these classes is there are several Specific Model Feature videos (no cost).  If you’re interested in a specific Babylock machine then you can watch a video about what makes it so special.  (The Triumph is at the top of the serger list and is 83 minutes long!)  Not all of the Babylock machines are featured.  I’m assuming it’s their current offering of machines.

There aren’t a lot of serger specific classes, but enough to keep you busy for a little while There are currently 5 serger projects to do.  After watching a number of the videos, I’m even ready to get back into heirloom sewing (there is a Serger Heirloom quilt project.) 

You can also purchase the classes separately and without a membership.  That's what the cart is for and the Sew At Home URL.

I chose to focus on the classes for sergers.  I highly recommend the Serger Techniques and Tricks class taught by Sara Gallegos.  There are no class notes for this class (just an FYI).  This class is $14.99.  She explains how to do corners, both inside and outside.  The outside corners are a little trickier (I think) than the inside corners, but with some practice I’m sure I’ll get it.  She explains how differential feed works.  (I know if you’ve been serging for awhile you may all ready know these techniques and tricks and information, but it was a good refresher for me.)  With the differential feed you can control the rippling of the fabric as you go around the outside of curves.  She even demonstrates this on polar fleece.

Since knits are the fabric that usually gets people interested in sergers, they have a four part series on knit sewing with Joi Mahon.  She specifically demonstrates how to sew a pair of yoga pants on a sewing machine (see Part 3) as well as the serger.  I love how she makes an elastic waistband for knit clothing.  She even shows you how to take a pattern meant for woven fabric and convert it to knits (see Part 4).  She explains the best stitches for knit fabrics (see Part 2).  These classes are priced at $19.99 each except Part 4 which is $14.99.

Have you taken any classes with Love of Knowledge/Sew at Home?  Which are your favorites?  The other nice aspect of having the membership or purchasing the classes is you can watch them over (and over and over) again if you need to brush up on a technique or your forgot a certain part.

UPDATE:  I just received an email from Susan at the The Stitchery in Rome, GA.  The MSRP on the 2 year membership for Love of Knowledge is $749 and the 4 year membership is $1499.  She said they are GREATLY REDUCED!  They cannot take internet orders but you can call them Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 5:30 pm (eastern time) and Saturday, 10am to 2pm.  706-622-2345.  They will be closed the days before Thanksgiving, but will be open for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.  (I don't know if that GREATLY REDUCED is just for the holidays or their normal price.)  BTW, I'm not getting any kick back from The Stitchery, they are just a great place to do business with.