Sue Junkin learned how to sew when she was 9 years old in WestVirginia, and now she’s teaching others about the perks of beingable to make their own wardrobe from scratch.

Junkin teaches two sewing classes at the Brookhaven RecreationDepartment, and she said sewing is something anyone can learn to doif they just take the time.

“If you can follow a recipe or drive a car, you can sew,” shesaid. “The machine is just like driving a car – it takes the gaspedal to make it go.”

The rest can be a matter of following directions, Junkin said.Once you’ve learned the lingo, it’s all downhill from there.

“Just following the pattern is a lot like cooking, because thereare certainly terms you have to learn and know, but once you learnthem you can put together whatever you want,” she said.

She said the class started with the basics, and their firstproject was one that is easy, but practical.

“The first thing we’re doing, we learned to sew a straight line,then what different seam allowances are,” she said. “We’ve made apillowcase, and machine appliquéd a letter on that. Then we’remaking a pair of pants.”

The pants were a big project for the group of seven that meetson Thursday night, with each student bringing fabric of their ownchoosing to turn into outerwear, and excitedly clustering around towatch how to cut out the pattern.

Junkin said that in the past, sewing was a less-expensive optionto buying clothes, but with the rising costs of fabric, the two areabout equal.

“At the last class, (one of the students) said, ‘It cost me $16to buy this fabric, and I could pretty much go out and buy somepants for that,'” she said. “Fabric is not cheap anymore. If you’regoing to end up getting some really cute fabric, it’s going to costalmost as much as just buying clothes off the rack.”

Junkin said, however, that there are still good reasons to sew,and a lot of it has to do with creation and personal touch.

“It’s therapeutic for me. It’s a creative outlet,” she said.”It’s the personalization. I can make whatever I want. I have threechildren, and my youngest daughter, I can make her jumpers andlittle things like that.”

The class began as an idea that sprung from some of thosecreations, she said.

” My favorite birthday gift is a personalized pillowcase, and Idon’t know how much the kids like it, but the mamas love it,” shesaid. “I think most of the kids like it, though, and I’ve givenseveral away. Several people have said they want to learn to sew,so I went to the recreation department to see if this is somethingthey’d want to do.”

And based on the positive response this time, Junkin said therewill be future classes. For the next one, there are already fourpeople on the waiting list.

“I’ll probably do another class in January, and I’ll limit it toeight students absolutely,” she said. “I want to give each studentindividual attention, and that’s hard.”

But whether the students come out as advanced fashion designersor just proficient enough to make a pillowcase here and a jumperthere, Junkin said the point is just the being together.

“The goal of the class as much as to learn how to sew is to havefun. It’s a creative outlet,” she said. “That’s what I told themfirst class, if you don’t find this fun, don’t do it. What’s thepoint?”