Sew, Serge, Quilt, Embroider:
We’ll Help You Create In 08!
Lots of creativity-inspring training and events, including 15 brand new classes!
NEW! 2008 Schedule is here. Click here to see the schedule.
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Need some excitement?
How about learning some new techniques? Take a look at our classes. Sign up for any of our classes and receive a discount coupon good for any purchase of notions, books, and embroidery designs! Sign up for more than one class and watch your discount increase.
1 class = 10% discount coupon*
2 classes = 15% discount coupon*
3 classes = 20% discount coupon*
4 classes = 25% discount coupon*
* discount coupon good for any purchase of notions, books, and embroidery designs expires April 15, 2008. Cannot be combined with any other offer or discount.

Meet Brian Bailie, the developer of
Designer’s Gallery embroidery software.

Organize your embroidery life with Brian Bailie, developer of the popular Designer’s Gallery embroidery software. Brian will be visiting Sew Much More for the first time during 2008. We are very fortunate in being able to have Brian come to Austin as his busy schedule doesn’t allow him to travel to more than a few premier sewing machine dealers every year. Find out how Designer’s Gallery can help you get the most out of your embroidery by giving you the best tools to find a design in less time, allowing you to be an embroidery designer - not just an embroidery collector. Designer’s Gallery embroidery software is for anyone who has an embroidery machine, irrespective of brand or model. Join Brian as he shares some of the best embroidery tools on the market, no matter what the project. Details regarding Brian’s visit will be released as soon as they become available.

The Bernina stitch regulator is revolutionizing
free-motion quilting!

What is the BSR?

The Bernina Stitch Regulator® allows you to use a straight stitch for free-motion quilting, thread painting, bobbin work, quilting, free-hand appliqué, double-needle shadow work, raw-edge applique and Battenburg lace. The BSR has two modes of operation which can be used with or without the foot control:

• Mode 1 - needle stitches continuously; when fabric is at rest, needle keeps moving up and down very slowly. If stitching in place is desired, such as for free motion embroidery, select Mode 1.
• Mode 2 - needle stitches only when the fabric is moved; when fabric is at rest, no stitches are taken and the needle comes to a complete stop. The Bernina Stitch regulator is available on several BERNINA models - come in to Sew Much More for a test drive today!

We’re the Leader

For many years, Sew Much More has consistently been the number 1 Baby Lock and Elna dealer in the southwest. In April of 2007 we became Austin’s new Bernina dealer. We have worked hard to bring you the Bernina products and service you need and deserve. As a result, after only 9 months, we reached the Gold Standard Dealer level with Bernina Of America. This puts us into an elite group of dealers who are also known as the Century Club with special privileges through the Bernina company. We want to thank you for your support as we strive to master the Bernina product line and, to show our gratitude, we promise to bring you more events, trainings and service in 2008! No other store in Austin can match our unique combination of top quality products and excellent customer service. It’s the Sew Much More difference!

Bernina’s Hands-On Embroidery T-N-T
(Tips and Techniques) Event

Looking to make embroidery exciting again? Looking to light your creative fire? Want to re-kindle the embroidery flame? Bernina and OESD are pleased to offer you this embroidery experience like no other. There is sure to be something here to inspire you. Dates and details will be made available as soon as we have them.

Hatched In Africa Trunk
Show & Workshop

Hatched In Africa is coming to Sew Much More! The girls at Hatched in Africa are world famous for their quality digitizing and heirloom projects. Enjoy a couple of days of embroidery and sewing! Santi and Liese Nuss live in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa. They operated a sewing center for several years and that’s where they developed their love for embroidery and digitizing. Details to follow.

Sewing is back : Over 35 Million Women Can’t Be Wrong.

Once, home sewing was perceived as really old fashioned. It was archaic, time consuming and filled with economic distinctions: the poor sewed, the rich bought. Today, nearly one-third of the country’s adult female population — more than 35 million women, mostly college educated, between ages 24 and 54 — are revving up their sewing machines, reports the American Home Sewing and Craft Association, a trade organization. The main reason people are sewing is relaxation. Another: for styles in sizes and colors that women say they cannot find in stores and that can be created in a couple of hours on the latest computer-enhanced sewing machines. TV shows such as Bravo’s Project Runway and Tim Gunn’s Guide To Style have attracted many new devotees to the art of sewing.

The popular idea was that you had to be poor to sew your own clothes. That’s just not the case. A lot of women went out to work and found it wasn’t so much fun, and they started to romanticize what their grandmothers and great-aunts did, back when things like sewing and arranging flowers were valued talents.

It’s also therapeutic. According to a recent study sponsored by the craft association, sewing reduces three stress indicators: heart rate, blood pressure and perspiration rate. ‘’When I sew, I don’t smoke, I don’t eat, I don’t think about anything that bothers me,’’ was the typical comment . ‘’All I do is focus.’’

Whatever your reason for sewing, we at Sew Much More want you to know that we welcome you to our store and we’re here to help you make your sewing dreams, whatever they may be, come true.

We Give Thanks
Twenty five years ago my wife, Barbara, and I decided that we wanted to seek a more secure, happier life in the USA for ourselvesand our two young daughters We had both been born and raised in South Africa and in the 1980’s it looked like violence and bloodshed was the only future for that beautiful country. The fact that we landed up in Austin, Texas is due more to incredible good fortune than any great foresight on our part. How lucky were we to have made Austin, in the great state of Texas, our future home? We arrived in 1984 and before you knew it we had started a business with the cute name of Sew Much More. Because finding good retail space back then was almost impossible, our very first location was a tiny store in a hard-to-find business center on north Lamar boulevard and 183. We’re happy to say that what started out as a small mom & pop business has grown into an award-winning, state-of-the-art example of what a modern day sewing machine store should be.

We’ve learned a lot these past twenty-four years, but perhaps the biggest lesson has been that it takes a strong team of talented, dedicated people to make a store like ours succeed. We’ve had the good fortune to surround ourselves with incredibly passionate sales associates, teachers, service technicians and others through the years and we sincerely believe that they are the best there is.

Customers constantly tell us how impressed they are with Sew Much More. That’s because our entire staff is committed to improving every aspect of the business at every level. Manager Laura O’Connor who has been with us since 2001 and fellow sales associate Coleen Wright, who joined us in 2003, are constantly looking for better ways to cater to our customer’s needs. Full time sewing teacher, Loretta Gradek ensures that every machine owner needing extra help gets the one-on-one attention they deserve, when they want it. Robin White, our newest co-worker, is there to help you find just the right sewing notion or tool for the project at hand. Book-keeper Helen Hastings (since 2003) keeps the office and paper work humming along while our two full time service technicians, Josefa and Martha are always keeping themselves up-to-date on the latest service techniques and they regularly attend technical trainings that are provided by our Bernina, Baby Lock and Elna suppliers. For this, the first newsletter of 2008 we decided to introduce you to our staff, the folks behind the scenes at Sew Much More. To our staff past and present, as well as the many free-lance teachers and trainers we have worked with and continue to work with, Barbara and I would like to say a big thank you for everything you do for Sew Much More and may the New Year bring you good health and happiness in everything you do.