We regularly hear from people who want to take our programs so they can volunteer their skills in their communities. Sometimes, those inquiries include a request for free access or a scholarship because the person does not plan to charge for their work.

We appreciate that desire to help. We share your enthusiasm for keeping sewing machines working and making service available to more people. We also want to explain why we aren’t currently able to offer free enrollment or scholarships, including for those who plan to volunteer.

What enrollment fees support

Enrollment fees pay for the education we provide: the time, knowledge, preparation, and ongoing work required to offer our programs. Those costs exist whether a student plans to build a business, add skills to an existing role, volunteer, or learn for personal reasons.

Choosing to give your time to others is a meaningful contribution. The training that helps prepare you for that work takes time and resources, too.

People are sometimes surprised to learn that we’re just two people with a passion for providing an entryway into sewing machine service and functional restoration. We saw a longstanding need for accessible training and decided to do something about it.

We care deeply about keeping that training affordable. Even as our technology and infrastructure needs have grown, we have never increased our enrollment fees, and we have no current plans to do so.

Keeping our programs financially sustainable allows the two of us to continue creating, maintaining, and providing this education. Enrollment fees make that possible.

 

Fairness to our students

Many of our students have paid for their training with the intention of volunteering afterward. People join our programs for many reasons, and so many contribute to their communities in meaningful ways. We are grateful for the care and generosity they bring to this work.

That is also why we need to take a consistent approach to tuition. Offering free enrollment based on someone’s intention to volunteer would mean making an exception that many students with the same intention did not receive.

We would love to offer a scholarship program someday. Before we can do that, we need both the funding to support it and a thoughtful, fair process for awarding scholarships. We are not yet in a position to do that.

We recognize that tuition can be a real obstacle and that our programs will not fit every budget. Our inability to offer free training is not a judgment about anyone’s circumstances or the value of the work they hope to do. It reflects the resources we need to keep our programs available.

If we introduce lower-cost options or funded scholarship opportunities, we will share the details publicly so everyone has access to the same information.

 

Other ways to fund your training

Some students have found support for their enrollment through the communities and organizations they serve. These possibilities won’t work for everyone, but we hope they offer a useful starting point.

Support from an organization 

If you volunteer for a school, nonprofit, or another organization, consider asking whether it could pay for or contribute toward your enrollment.

Organizations have helped students in our programs cover their fees so they could service machines on the organization’s behalf.

When asking, it may help to explain how you hope to use the training and how having someone available to maintain and repair machines could benefit the organization.

Community support and crowdfunding 

Friends, family, neighbors, sewing guilds, and others have contributed toward students’ enrollment fees, particularly in areas with few or no sewing machine service resources. For those communities, helping someone access training can be an investment in a much-needed local resource.

If you’re comfortable asking for support, sharing what you hope to learn and how you plan to put those skills to use can help others understand what their contribution would make possible.

We appreciate everyone who uses their training to help others, whether through paid work, volunteer work, or a combination of both. Thank you for understanding that caring for our community also means keeping this small, two-person educational effort sustainable.