Introduction to Sewing: Giftable Holiday Napkins with Rachel Beck

About this event

Learn the basics of sewing, and complete a set of giftable napkins just in time for the season of gatherings and gifts!

Introduction to Sewing: Giftable Holiday Napkins with Rachel Beck

Date: Saturday December 5th, 2026

Time: 10:00am-1:00pm

Description: Sew a set of 6 napkins for holiday gifts, or for your holiday table, with fabric of your choice.

In this workshop you will learn how to make a double hem using an iron, sew straight seams on the sewing machine making mitered corners along the way.

This is a beginner-friendly workshop! Rachel will guide you through the process of using a sewing machine if you are unfamiliar. And, if you are not new to the sewing machine, you might want to bring extra fabric, as you will probably have time to make a few more than 6 napkins!

This workshop is part of Contemporary Craft’s Gift Guide suite of workshops. Learn a skill and make a gift—all in one evening!

Materials: BYO fabric, or use the “scrap” fabric here in the studio (a lot of it is cute, and is looking for a project to call home!)

How much fabric to bring:

Standard dinner napkins are 15-19 inch squares. To make six 15-17” square napkins, you will need 2 yards of standard 54” wide fabric (allowing for 1/2” seam allowance and some wiggle room for cutting on each side). To make anything larger than 17” square, you will need 3 yards.

Bring matching thread for hems, or select a thread color from our assortment in the studio.

Tuition: $65 + $5 studio materials fee

Registration : If you are viewing this listing on your phone via the CC website, please click this link to go to the Eventbrite Registration.

Scholarships: We really want you to join us in the studio! Full and partial tuition scholarships are available—with limitations— to offset some of the financial burden of attending a class.

Please fill out the scholarship application here! You can expect to hear from someone on the CC staff within 2 weeks.

If you have any questions, email Jamie Boyle, Senior Education Manager, at jboyle@contemporarycraft.org, or leave a voice message for them at 412-465-1628.

Location: Contemporary Craft, Timmons Studios (5688 Butler St., Pittsburgh, PA 15201). Note, this workshop will take place in the Fleischner Family Fibers Loft, which is on the second floor of the building.

There are 2 entrances to the Timmons Studios.

• One entrance is facing Butler Street. To access the Fibers Loft from the Butler Street facing entrance, there are a total of 32 stairs to ascend.

• One entrance is facing 57th Street. This entrance is accessible by ramp, with no stairs to ascend. There is a lift inside the building to access the second floor.

We strive to create a welcoming experience. If there are accessibility accommodations we can provide, or if there is anything you would like us to know before you arrive, please leave a message for Jamie Boyle at 412-465-1628 or by email jboyle@contemporarycraft.org.

Cancellations and Refunds: Workshop cancellations are decided three business days before the start date. If workshops must be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment, the entire class fee will be refunded through Eventbrite, or you may leave your workshop fee in your Contemporary Craft account for future workshops.

Refund Policy: Student refund requests must be made at least three business days before a class begins. There will be a $25 cancellation fee. No refunds will be given without three-business days notice. Processing of refunds takes approximately three weeks.

About the Artist Rachel is a lifelong creative with a long time obsession with trying to make sense of the tensions of the pain and joy of being alive through her art: the contrast between fired permanency of ceramics and soft temporality of fibers; between the use and implications of organic and synthetic materials; between easeful and harsh ways we can use our bodies, including how we are treating (harming) our collective body and home planet Earth. More recently Buddhism has become a great source of refuge and inspiration to continue this exploration.

She used to make fanny packs from upcycled upholstery fabric but decided that running a small business was not her path. She spent over a decade immersed in pottery and ceramics, spending her high school years at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, a short stint at University of Michigan Stamps School of Art, and as an studio apprentice to a potter in Vermont. Rachel dabbles in giant paper mache art/public art pageants/puppet parades, and did an apprenticeship at Bread & Puppet Theater. She also leads Yiddish folk dancing with a local Klezmer band and is currently studying the diverse uses of and rules around fibers in Jewish religious text and Jewish cultural history.

Rachel really loves teaching, finding it a continual inspiration to her own work and nourishing to share these very basic human skills and the unique insights on being human one can develop from practicing them. She has taught visual arts for preschool through high school students in a variety of settings in Philadelphia, where she lived for the past 13 years, prior to returning to Pittsburgh in 2025.

From Contemporary Craft