Needlework needed a new image – and seamstress Sheila-May Green had an idea brewing. Diane Parkes finds out why her cafe club is oh-sew special.

There is a hum of machines whirring and a hum of chatter this Sunday lunchtime as the Sewing Cafe gets under way.

In a shop front on the edge of Northfield, a group of women meet weekly to stitch, pattern-make, hem – and share ideas.

With the increased interest in traditional crafts and the growing popularity of knitting clubs, this sewing club was the obvious next step for owner Sheila-May Green.

Sheila spent more than ten years teaching textiles to youngsters before deciding to share her skills with adults.

She set up the Birmingham School of Sewing last year, and soon discovered how many people still loved to try their hand at crafts. And so she launched the Sewing Cafe.

Here, people can book sessions of at least an hour to sit and stitch – and enjoy a cup of coffee and a cake at the same time.

“The cafe is somewhere informal where people can share their ideas,” Sheila says.

“They don’t need to bring any equipment and they don’t need to worry about their level of experience – they can just come along and have a go at something.

“Anyone can sew, it is just a case of having the confidence.”

Sheila says she has always been fascinated by needlework.

“I started when I was about nine,” she recalls. “I used to use my gran’s sewing machine, which still had a treadle.

“I used to make little smock dresses and I would take my brothers’ socks and turn them into dresses for my dolls.”

Sheila went on to run a bridal business and to create bespoke handmade silk lingerie. She set up in business selling prom, bridal and communion dresses but decided she also wanted to teach.

Taking a BA in Fashion, Design and Technology and then a PGCE at Cheltenham College, she moved into education, reaching the position of head of the textiles department at Turves Green Girls’ School And Technology.

Her teaching experience was invaluable as she embarked upon leading a series of short courses from her own base in Northfield. And she saw a great response.

“I have had people come from Leicester and London because they cannot find a course like this near them – or because London is too expensive,” she says. “The youngest person so far was 14 and the oldest was a woman in her 70s, who wanted to make a corset.

“I have had one man come to one of the courses. He was fixing up his flat and he made a cushion.”

Sheila says crafts such as sewing are making a huge comeback – but there are many people who do not know where to start.

“I have had people say to me that they have never used a sewing machine or don’t know how to thread one,” she says.

“The problem is that we have lost these practical skills. They weren’t being taught in a lot of schools. People were learning the technical side of textiles but they weren’t learning how to sew.

“People come here not knowing what to expect and it is so lovely when you see them leave with something they have actually made.”

But not everyone wants to sign up to the commitment of a course.

“That is why I set up the cafe,” says Sheila. “It is a way for people to come along and have a go at sewing without having to pay for a full course.”