2022 MADAM CHINO SEWING WORKSHOPS AND KIDS SEWING CAMP PROGRAMS ARE NOW LIVE!
Madam Chino's exciting list of 2022 in-person sewing classes are now available for online sign-up with new programs listed through the entire year! What makes sewing at Madam Chino so unique, besides a beautiful, spacious classroom with large separate tables and access to industrial machines? Madam Chino seeks out reuse fibers so that class products are made with new-cycled, up-cycled, or recycled fabrics directly from our community: from industry upholstery samples, community sourced denim and T-shirts, your very own bedsheets and towels, thrift-sourced Snuggies and sweaters, donated upholstery fabric rolls, discarded tents, awning & sailcloth, or even your own clothing that you alter and repair; handmade utilitarian art objects leaving the studio are bringing new life to post-consumer material. Check out the summary below with hot-links directly to the listings! Download the Calendar at the bottom of the page!
SUNDAYS 1-4PM & 5-8PM: Machine Operations, Open Sew Lab, & One-Off 3 Hour Sew Projects!
The Sunday staples of bi-weekly, alternating afternoon 1-4pm Machine Operations (1st & 3rd weeks) and Open Sewing Lab (2nd & 4th weeks) will continue. Additional Open Sew Labs are also offered bi-weekly in the evenings from 5-8pm on the 1st and 3rd weeks, right after the afternoon Machine Operations classes. On the alternate Sunday evenings from 5-8pm (2nd & 4th weeks), sign up for any exciting single-session One-Off 3-Hour Sew Projects! These are the best of the projects from MC camps and themed sewing sessions which you are sure to enjoy! Bring a sewing partner to any of the Sunday classes, sit at the same table, and team up on the same project for the price of one (make it a parent-child or partner date!). All Madam Chino Sunday classes are all-ages, but children under 8 are required to bring a parent!
FRIDAYS 6-9PM: 3-Week Sew Sessions for Long Term Projects, & Free Community Sew Patchwork Installation!
Fridays nights 6-9pm are new at Madam Chino, with 3-Week Friday Sewing Sessions (1st-3rd weeks) reserved for longer term guided patterning projects like t-shirt quilts, blanket coats, & costuming that appeal to those who want to spend a weekend night doing something constructive and cathartic! These are really fun projects that cannot be fit into single sessions and you will get an in-depth experience in each course, bringing a project with many steps, to full fruition under guidance.
4th Fridays from 6-9pm are a new way to connect to community through sewing, this time for FREE! Madam Chino is now hosting monthly Community Patchwork Free Sew "Positive Words" Fabric Mural Sewing Sessions, and you don't need to know how to sew! Transform community donated reuse fabrics into a positive community word-art fibers installation to be displayed in an impactful street-facing billboard. MC is currently working on developing the building permit plans to install a rotating community art mural billboard installation site on the 63rd street side of the new Madam Chino building at 6301 W. Lincoln Ave in West Allis! Sign up online in advance to reserve one of up to 12 spots per week. Your contribution is valuable and impactful, no matter your sewing experience, and names of community partakers will be installed in a plaque next to the installation, which will stay up as long as it takes to make the next one!!
MONDAY-THURSDAY 1-4PM: Kids Weekly Summer Sewing Camps (9 Different Weeks with Amazing Themes!)
This year, Madam Chino is offering 9 themed weekly summer kids sewing camps for upper elementary and middle school students from ages 8 to 13, where kids learn and practice sewing, measuring, patterning and 3d construction, visually design their own fabrics using a variety of processes, and sew up to 6 amazing projects in their matching fabrics each surrounding a specific area of interest, while using community reuse fibers! Early Enrollment is 10% off, at $186 per session using code "SEWINGSKOOL" at check out! Click these links to explore what each weekly session includes:
EDUCATOR BIO:
Vanessa Andrew, as Madam Chino, has been teaching sewing, entrepreneurship and community arts to kids and adults in the Milwaukee area for 20 years through her own shop and these amazing local organizations and schools: UW Studio Arts and Craft Centre, Discovery World, Boys and Girls Clubs, Fasten Co-op Clothing Gallery, Cream City Conservation, Agape Community Center, Project Ujima, Milwaukee Rec Department, Milwaukee Public Schools, Arts at Large, Waukesha Community Art Project, Cloud 9 Workshop, and the Exposure to Creativity Program, completing hundreds of residencies across these organizations combined. The studio houses over 15 table top sewing machines, 3 treadles, and 12 industrial sewing machines; 90% are re-homed pieces of Milwaukee's sewing history from the parents and grandparents of individuals, to local factories like Junior House, Canvas Backs, and Sunbias. The Madam Chino sewing school, shop and services was forced to move from it's native Brewer's Hill location during the economic stress of Covid, in the winter of 2020, due to the condo development of Milwaukee Buck Pat Connaughton, and by the grace of God has relocated into a permanent home in the fine community of West Allis at 6301 W. Lincoln Avenue.
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