ASFD provides a creative and educational environment to explore all aspects of fashion. Young and old are welcome to illustrate, design, construct, market, model, and even study fashion through the decades. The curriculum is great but the staff and friendships are even better. My daughter has been participating for the past year and truly loves this opportunity.

Im so happy they have this program in Austin. My daughter takes classes year round and they have helped her discover her true passion. She wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up and Im so grateful that she has the opportunity to explore this. Ilonka, the owner, is wonderful and is so passionate about what she does.

We have been associated with the school since its inception. Last year the school was taken over by Ilonka SP. She has brought some fresh ideas to the school that we enjoyed and she hired good teacher to be on staff.They have diversified the offerings and expanded the curriculum. They even had a course that allowed students the chance to participate in Austin fashion shows. Such experiences gives them a better understanding of the fashion business. And weve witnessed firsthand the wonderful output from the students.The school remains an active part of the fashion community and garnered great respect. We appreciate it.

I adopted a beautiful sewing machine from my neighbor, and since I didnt have proper sewing knowledge I took the Garment Construction I course. It was worth every penny. I am sad and having sewing-withdrawals now that the course it over. I gained basic knowledge about how the sewing machine and serger operate, how to troubleshoot typical sewing problems, and about a variety of stitching and zipper techniques. We wrapped up the course with a final project, creating an A-line style skirt, which was a blast! The skirt is something I will wear all the time, (and Im going to make a matching necktie for my dog.) The classes are so engrossing and fun that the 3 hours you are working really flies by. The best thing about the whole experience was becoming friends with my fellow students and teacher, Cecilia, who is incredibly knowledgable, patient, and hands-on. Shes amazing and Ill really miss learning from her! Im planning on signing up for the Garment Construction II course as soon as my schedule opens up a bit. Do yourself a favor and get enrolled! You wont regret it :)

This schools summer camp is awesome for beginning sewers. My daughter was able to sew a whole dress within 2 weeks of being introduced to a machine.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with my experience at ASFD. I am an adult woman who is very serious about learning to sew clothing. I knit, quilt, reupholster and refinish furniture and was looking forward to learning to sew clothing as a new hobby and possible income stream. I drove the 2 hours, one way, from my home to ASFD to check it out before I dropped $500 on one class. I spoke with the owner, Ilonka and left believing that this would be a serious, intensive class, well worth the hefty price tag. In my opinion, it wasnt. The class was taught by two different instructors- one who I felt took her job seriously and another less so. During this class, we were shown how to do something and then left to struggle at the machines for the rest of the class with no help while the instructor stood at the back and texted. There were 3 students, including myself, in this class and often sufficient equipment was not set up to accommodate us. When 3 people need to use a serger before moving on to the next step of the project, there should probably be more than one serger set up for use. Much time was spent waiting to use the iron, serger and work tables (tables were often covered with supplies and not available for use). Because I have some experience with sewing through quilting, I was able to catch on relatively quickly. The other two students had never touched a sewing machine before and because they were left to try to execute what they had been shown without any help, they often spent time ripping out seams over and over again while I waited for them to catch up. I actually brought in another project to work on while I waited (since there was so much time spent waiting) and on one occasion had a lovely conversation with one of the teachers while working on it and waiting for the others to get caught up, so I guess thats a plus? On the first class meeting, we were released 20 minutes early with the promise that in repayment, we would be able to meet with the instructor for 30 minutes for free. I made an appointment to do that with one instructor...I showed up for the appointment, but she never did. Of the 3 of us students, NOT ONE of us finished the project the class was oriented around. I spoke with a friend who has recently taken sewing classes near Dallas and discovered that the curriculum of the ASFD class was very similar to the class she had spent $150 to take-not that we even completed the curriculum, because we didnt. About a week after the class ended I emailed Ilonka and asked what the next classes encompassed. Honestly, I had decided to consider my first class a loss and take classes in Houston instead, but I wanted to know what they claimed they taught in the next level classes. She responded that she was glad I had reached out because she wanted to offer to let me retake the class free of charge. This would not be a possible repair for me because I had already spent $160 in gasoline costs and about 30 hours driving to and from the class the first time and was not willing to do that again. I asked if I could instead meet with the teacher who I felt took her job seriously. I only wanted to meet once for as long as it took to teach me the parts of the class that we hadnt been taught. I specifically requested that one teacher. What followed was 11 days of back and forth emails. By the end, the instructor I wanted finally agreed to meet with me, but by then, I had given up. I am signed up for my next class in Houston at a MUCH lower rate and am hopeful that Ive found a good place to learn. It is my opinion that until ASFD makes some substantial changes, anyone seriously looking to learn to sew clothing would be better off looking elsewhere.

I love it

Is this for kids