Become a Crafty Bird and run your own sewing courses.

Here’s how….

If you’re a Textiles teacher looking for a way to earn additional income, or would simply like to compliment the daily life of teaching with some “no pressure” sewing lessons to a group of friendly adults, Crafty Birds can help you do that. There’s next to no planning involved for you, you just teach the course, go home, and get paid!

The role of Crafty Birds:

Crafty Birds designs and advertises the courses, handles all the bookings, and prepares all the customers’ kits. These tasks are labor intensive, time consuming, and requires high amounts of (potentially unknown) expertise, which you most likely don’t have time for. And probably why you’ve not been running your own sewing lessons already, even though you would love to do it, and earn some extra cash. Here’s a breakdown of what Crafty Birds does:

  • I have 8 courses already designed, tried, tested, refined, ready for you to choose from and deliver (and I’m constantly adding more!)

  • I market your course for you; this means that I promote it on Google and on Social Media, in person at regional shopping locations, with posters and leaflets in your area, and process the bookings and payments through the website

  • I source the materials and patterns your customers need, prepare them, and send them to you in advance of the course

  • I send you two kits-one to make the project before the course starts - this is your “preparation time” (your time spent doing this is fully paid as well btw), and one to use for demonstrations during the course

  • I have already written the session by session schedule with all the steps of making, when to provide demonstrations, minute by minute, for each week of the course

  • I gather customer details, collect signed customer waivers, and provide you with a list of customers attending your course and key details about them

  • I take care of all of the complicated legal and financial requirements that come with running a business

The tutor’s (you!) role:

You can run your sewing course from your own school classroom; I’ve done the same for the past 5 years. My school is hiring out their sport pitches, music rooms, and classrooms, for an hourly rate, as does yours. They manage this through a website called schoolhire.co.uk. Speak to your Head of Department to check they’re happy for you to use your Textiles classroom to run your own private sewing courses. My Head of Department was fine with me doing this, providing the courses didn’t disrupt day to day lessons, damage equipment, or use school supplies (which they don’t).

Once you’ve chosen a course that you want to run, and the dates and times of it (which is completely up to you), place a hire request on schoolhire.co.uk, let me know, and I’ll publish the course on the Crafty Birds website, and start promoting and processing bookings. The specific details of this process will be explained to you and provided in an information pack, when you sign up to be a Crafty Birds tutor.

Your earnings

I pay tutors £20 per hour, and you will be paid for both your preparation and delivery time.

Your earnings will vary depending on the course you choose to run. The sewing courses vary in length, from 6 weeks to 9 weeks or more, and each session runs for 2 hours. In each week of the course, it’s advised that you spend 20 minutes before the customers arrive, setting up your sewing machines, getting out equipment, and moving chairs around if necessary. Then the customers arrive and you will deliver the 2 hour session. The customers usually help pack up some equipment, so you only need to spend 10 minutes packing up before heading home. So if the course runs from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, you will work from 6.10pm to 8.40pm. This is called your “delivery time”.

There is an advised “preparation time” for each course, which you are also paid for. This is time for you to make the product before the course starts, to ensure you will be confident delivering the instructions and demonstrations. This is a non-negotiable expectation of being a Crafty Birds tutor, to maintain Crafty Birds’ reputation of delivering high quality sewing courses from knowledgeable tutors. Plus, when customers perceive you as prepared and informed, they will be more likely to book another course with you in the future!

For each course, preparation and delivery time is fixed. Depending on the course, you could earn up to £800 per course you run! To view the courses and the earnings that you can make from each course, go to the course page here.

Getting set up as a Crafty Birds tutor

If this has made you realise that it can now be possible to run your own sewing courses, then get in touch! An initial chat on the phone would be best, then an information pack can be sent over to you to include comprehensive details about the process, our contract, and insurance. Complete the form below, and Anneka will be in touch: