Check Out Shannon Allbright’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Allbright.

Hi Shannon, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Miss Shannon’s Sewing began the summer of 2007. My son Jesse had just completely kindergarten and he wanted to go to a summer camp at the school where he was entering the 1st grade. I recently had to leave my marriage and sell my house to continue to stay at home to raise my child. I was running out of money, so I went to the owner of the camp and asked if I could teach sewing. She said yes and allowed my son to be in her camp tuition-free. Before my son was born, I had a clothing company that was really successful but I gave it up because I was so in love with my baby boy that I just couldn’t leave him for a 60 hour work week plus travel.

My first sewing class had twenty children in it and I was so incredibly happy. I knew with that first class that I had found my calling. I have always loved children and when I was little I would always play ‘teacher’, setting up my dolls in a classroom around my room. The first project was a felt coin bag and we still teach that project 13 years later. Children were soon coming to the camp just to be in sewing. I taught a little boy how to embroider and he ended up embroidering a dragon onto the back of his karate gi. I also found out that summer that hand sewing and embroidery is a de-stresser for children. It’s meditative and lifts the child’s mind up above current problems and puts that into a more detached perspective. A few years later, a mother came up to me at a fair and asked if I was Miss Shannon, I said ‘yes,’ and she told me how sewing and embroidery saved her son’s life… she was battling breast cancer and was going to chemotherapy. He sewed all that summer and she saw that he had stopped being so worried about her… while embroidering a dragon on his gi, she could focus on battling cancer. I asked if she was okay now and she said yes, she was fine. She thanked me and I walked away in tears.

The business of teaching children began that year, still low on money and waking at up at 4am filled with anxiety as to how I was going to take care of myself and my son, the school that hosted the summer camp asked if I could teach hand sewing as after school enrichment. I had no idea what after school enrichment was. I created an eight weeks curriculum and was on my way. I honestly didn’t know if anyone would sign up, so I would bake cookies for the kids, hoping that would be the hook. My class was full and after that first eight weeks, the ladies in my book club told their school administrators about me teaching sewing. That first year, I was at five schools and so many other schools were requesting sewing that I had to teach and train my friends to help me. I was also no longer concerned about money, there was plenty to take care of us. It was also perfect because I could still volunteer at my son’s school and have weekends free to be with him.

Six years ago, I opened a public space on Magnolia in Valley Village to teach sewing machine classes after school and to host our own summer camps. It’s been an incredible place for us to gather and have the most incredible fun. The studio during the summer was so packed that in August, I would have to stop answering the phone because we were so busy but also I was tired of telling parents, ‘I’m so sorry, we’re full.’

Before the Covid shutdowns, we were teaching 50 classes a week and had almost 500 children on our rosters. We had a staff of 17 teachers and then had to pivot to survive. We taught some zoom classes and taught pod groups. Today, we are rebuilding and most of our schools and students have returned. It has been the most difficult thing because sewing has become a sort of therapy for our children. For some of our kids, I was the only other person that they saw outside of their families during the pandemic. I consoled many children while keeping myself safe. There was a day when a child burst into tears and climbed into my arms… I just let her cry at a time when we were supposed to not let people within 6 feet of us. Today is better but it’s still difficult to teach even though children are the most resilient. There was also a day when six little girls made skirts with me and they were so happy to be together that they started dancing and twirling around the sewing studio.

We are currently preparing for more camps and classes and are optimistic about the future.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has been fairly smooth simply because I believe that I’m meant to teach children how to sew. I’ve had careers that I liked but never loved like I love teaching kids. If there has been challenges, I always remember that this is what I love. There is nothing like the joy of a child once they have made something themselves, to witness their sense of accomplishment and to be able to watch them grow. I have students that started sewing with me when they were five years old and are now teenagers still coming to classes and camps. I have the gift of being able to be a part of a person’s happy childhood.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Along with teaching children how to sew, I love the business of it. I love being in charge of my growth and image. I also love how private we are and how parents have to sort of discover us. We teach everyone’s children to sew and because we teach in Los Angeles, we teach celebrities, athletes, musicians, former presidents and a princess, yet every student is treated the same. We teach manners, gratitude and the value of doing something for yourself. What sets us apart from others is the loving-kindness we have for our students. Sometimes we have some rude little kids that think they are on charge and we lovingly let them know that we absolutely know what we are doing and they get to relax and let us teach them. We also have the sweetest little ones that we just get to enjoy their stories. No matter who we teach, we also want to student to have fun and go home with a grateful heart.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m not a big risk taking with my business, it’s fairly simple to teach and I’m very intuitive and pretty much know how to grow at a steady pace. I also have a large circle of friends and family that support what I do. I am a risk taker in my personal life. I ride motorcycles, which can be fairly dangerous but even with that, I trained and became really good at riding. I’m also doing things on motorcycles that push me further but never too much.

Pricing:

• $38 per class for sewing machines
• $19 per class for after school enrichment
• $45 per class for 1 time embroidery

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: missshannon.com
• Instagram: Miss Shannon’s Sewing