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Looking to grow your quilt store’s customer base?
Hosting sewing workshops is a proven way to attract new customers, build community among your clientele, and showcase the products you sell.
Of course, running successful classes requires attention to many details — registration, scheduling, pricing, curriculum, and classroom organization. Addressing each of these thoughtfully ensures your students have memorable experiences that keep them coming back.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through eight practical steps for setting up and hosting sewing workshops in your store.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Know Your Quilters
To offer workshops that fill up, you need to teach skills your audience wants to learn. That starts with understanding their experience level. As customers shop, ask them about the projects they’re working on and the techniques they’d like to master.
If attendees are at a variety of skill levels, you can teach beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes to accommodate all your students. Here’s what this might look like in practice:
- Beginner: At this level, teach students the basics, like how to use sewing machines, rotary cutters, and other standard quilting tools. This group can learn traditional and easy ways to sew a quilt.
- Intermediate: Students at this level already have a basic understanding of how to sew, so you can show them more advanced techniques and trendy projects.
- Advanced: This group is full of experienced quilters and is ready for more complex techniques and projects. For an advanced class, you can schedule multiple sessions and take them through the entire process of creating a large, complicated quilt.
Modern technology gives business owners powerful ways to understand their customers. A point of sale (POS) system, for example, can track customer purchase histories. You can record who bought what and which products are most in demand. This insight makes it easier to gauge the skill levels of your customers and design classes accordingly.
Step 2: Design Classes That Boost Fabric Sales
To participate, students need to purchase fabric, thread, and other supplies. You can include these costs in the class fee and provide materials at the start of the session, or publish a supply list and ask students to bring their own. Even with the latter approach, many participants are likely to purchase the items from your quilt store.
You can also create a class fabric kit with everything a student needs for the workshop. Pricing the bundle at a slight discount encourages attendees to purchase the full kit instead of selecting items individually, which helps increase sales volume.
Pricing these kits correctly can be tricky. While a discount makes the bundle more appealing, cutting prices too deeply can eat into your margins. Aim for a middle ground that drives sales while maintaining profitability.
Step 3: Manage Registration Without Chaos
Your goal is to make the class experience as smooth and convenient as possible — and this includes the registration process. Letting customers browse your class selection and register through your website is an easy option, and many POS providers support this functionality.
When you manage workshops through your POS system, you can send automated reminders to students in the days leading up to each session. For high-demand events, create a waitlist to prevent overbooking and ensure open seats are quickly filled if someone cancels.
Related Read: Customer Communication: 7 Tips for Keeping Quilt Store Customers Updated
Step 4: Prep Space Efficiently
Before the workshop begins, take time to prepare your space. If your students need fabric in precise measurements, pre-cut those sections and set them aside. Gather other materials like thread, needles, and cutters, so you can avoid spending valuable class time on these steps.
Make sure each student has plenty of room — especially if the project involves making a large quilt. Ideally, classes take place in a separate area from the sales floor, but if space is limited, you can temporarily convert part of the sales floor into a classroom by clearing shelves and adding tables.
Pro tip: Make sure that the teaching area is well lit. Students need clear visibility to do precise work.
Step 5: Create a Welcoming, Social Atmosphere
For many students, a sewing workshop is more than a chance to learn new skills — it’s an opportunity to meet new friends and connect with a community of quilters. You can highlight this social aspect by introducing yourself and giving students time to talk with one another.
Set aside dedicated free work time during class to encourage deeper interaction. This gives students a natural opportunity to get to know other attendees. Use this time to walk around the room, talk with students about their projects, and build rapport. The more comfortable students feel with you and their fellow quilters, the more likely they are to sign up for another class.
You can also create a sense of unity by inviting attendees to bring in finished projects for show-and-tell. Sharing work helps students connect, sparks inspiration for future projects, and, over time, builds loyalty that can turn them into regular shoppers.
Step 6: Turn Students Into Regulars
Think beyond a single class. Focus on creating a great experience that motivates attendees to come back for future workshops. One way to do this is by offering class series — perhaps three or four sessions — where students can complete a quilt or another project.
You can also encourage repeat business with a loyalty program. The more classes customers take or supplies they purchase, the more points they earn, which they can redeem for discounts or free materials. Another option is a block-of-the-month program, where customers work on one block each month and finish a quilt by the end of the year.
A referral program is an effective way to attract new students. When a customer signs up with a friend, give them both a discount on the class fee.
Step 7: Promote to Guilds, Online, and In-Store
Strategic promotion helps boost class sign-ups. A great place to start is with local quilting guilds — you might offer to host a guild event in your store. Partnering with these groups increases your visibility with your target audience.
Social media is another effective channel. Create accounts on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, post about your quilt store’s products, and share information about workshops with a link to register.
In-store signage and finished samples from your classes also raise awareness and encourage sign-ups.
Related Read: Word-of-Mouth Marketing in Retail: 6 Tips for Fabric Stores
Step 8: Measure Success and Iterate
Tracking key metrics for your classes helps you monitor progress and uncover opportunities to improve your strategy. Some important metrics to watch include:
- Average class attendance
- Repeat enrollment
- New customers acquired from classes
- Average fabric spend per student
These numbers show whether you’re retaining students and if they’re making purchases. While tracking this data may seem complicated, many POS systems simplify the process by recording information and providing customizable views.
Related Read: The Dashboard View: Store Performance at a Glance for Fabric Store Owners
Host Unforgettable Sewing Workshops With Like Sew
Offering sewing workshops is an impactful way to reach new customers. As students spend time in your store and get to know you and one another, a sense of community forms, building loyalty to your business.
Managing the logistical side of workshops is easier with digital tools designed for fabric stores. Like Sew is a cloud-based POS solution that lets you create a website with a simple sign-up portal, send automated confirmations and reminders, and track key metrics to see how your classes are performing.
Our software also includes essential retail features like payment processing, inventory management, and e-commerce. To discover how Like Sew can support your business, schedule a demo today!
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