About So You…

So You studio was created in 2005. for the past decade, So You… has been teaching youth and adults sewing and design.

Sewing is a life-skill. Sewing used to be taught in schools along with cooking, wood shop and automotive. While cooking is taught in some schools, sewing has mostly been eliminated. Learning to sew empowers independence and self efficacy. It builds confidence, focus and patience. Sewing improves eye-hand coordination, spacial relations, visualization and fine motor skills. and finally sewing helps develop process thinking, problem solving, interpersonal skills and creative expression.

Sewing as a “soft technology”. In today’s world, with an strong emphasis on STEM principals, problem solving, visualization, spacial relations and process thinking are backbones to higher STEM functioning. Sewing is a fun way to develop these underlying skills.

Sewing is a vocation. There are thousand of jobs for alterations specialists, and seamstresses. These positions will further train you in the specific skills necessary for the job itself, but one must know basic sewing language and have a rudimentary skill set.

Sewing is a means to entrepreneurship. Look around, so many things in our world are sewn. Learning to sew opens up the door to self employment and entrepreneurship on small and large scales. Once you enter the world of sewing you begin to see clearly the local opportunities, from teaching others to making custom clothes, home furnishings, selling at craft fairs, product development and sample making, fashion design, alterations
or up-cycling/redesign. So You studio and So You Can will help along the way.

Sewing is part of Fashion Design. Students often do not realize that one must know how to sew in order to apply to Fashion College or design appropriately for the human form. Students must understand the language of sewing to best succeed in the fashion industry.

Fashion Design. Fashion design is a career that many young people strive for. It is an exciting, fast paced career. Having working in the Fashion Industry, i can also tell you it is highly comparative and highly creative..Fashion design – like any other design field – requires thinking in a creative manner. Thinking creatively is also critical to STEM. Thinking creatively is developed. So You…has developed tools to develop these skills.

So You Studio team has developed tools to support the young learner how to sew and design clothing. All our products have been widely tested for success in both the learning of sewing and fashion design as well as the FUN of the process. We offer products to assist all our potential students in their individual goals. Our fashion blanks are perfect for teaching fashion design. The So You design cards.. is the tool of choice for learning creative thinking, our sewing kits not only allow for a quick sewing camp, but can be used for beginning your entrepreneurial endeavors by sewing the kits already cut. Want to teach? use the sewing kits we have prepared and eliminate your prep times. And of course we are here to help every step of the way. just contact us HERE.

Our fashion blanks and sewing kits are made by the women of So You Can.org. These women come from disadvantaged areas in NJ and NY and have learned to sew for vocational purpose. Proceeds from the purchases st the So You Store go directly to expanding our programs into schools in these disadvantaged areas. For more information as to the mission of So You Can and how you can help, go to www.so-you-can.org

–Vivian Burns