Here you can find answers to questions about our site and Sew L.A., hopefully your question is included. If you don't see it below, please use our contact page and we'll try our best to answer you ASAP.
We have sorted the questions below, click the category to display the questions. Clicking the question will display the answer directly beneath, neat huh?
use these links if you experience any problems viewing them below- Alt. Class FAQs • Alt. Gen. FAQs • Alt. Help FAQs
Class FAQ's (7)
Classes are held at our Retail Store location:
Sew L.A.
1637½ Silver Lake Blvd (upstairs)
Los Angeles, CA 90026
323.665.7097
For transferring a class the following conditions apply:
If you have signed up for a class and then can’t make it, you may transfer your tuition to another class up until 5 days before the first class would have commenced. This gives us enough time to contact a waiting list person so we can offer them your spot. If the second class is less expensive, then you will have a Sew L.A. store credit for the difference good towards classes, private lessons or Sewlab time. If you will only be missing one class from a series, see below for "Missing a Class". To transfer, call us, e-mail or stop by.
If you can’t make the class and it is less than five days before the class, the following transfer fees will apply:
5 days or more, no charge.
4 days – 2 days before class begins: 25% of tuition transfer fee
Day before the class: 50% of tuition transfer fee
Day of the class or after the class has occurred: your tuition is forfeit
One transfer is allowed per tuition payment regardless of when you contact us.
If you have to miss a class, you will want to schedule a private lesson to make the class up. Private lessons are $45 per hour. We generally build upon skills in all of our classes, so if you miss one you’ll definitely be behind. If you will be missing the last class of a series and that class is offered again within the next three months, you are welcome to sit in on the class you missed free of charge. Please let us know beforehand so we are prepared!
If you sign up for a class and then can’t make it at all, you must inform us at least five days before the class begins. You will be issued a Sew L.A. store credit for the amount of the class (less a $10 administrative fee) good towards another class of your choice, private lessons or machine time in our Sewlab. We do not offer cash or similar refunds!
If you must cancel within four days or less before the start of the class, the percentages listed below apply to the store credit amount you will be issued.
4 days – 2 days before class begins: 25% of tuition transfer fee
The day before the class: 50% of tuition transfer fee
On the day of the class or after the class has occurred: your tuition is forfeit
Please register early for classes! We realize that peoples' schedules can vary or are uncertain and may be unable to commit to a class until closer to the start of the class. But if everyone waits till the day before to sign up, chances are that the class will most likely be canceled.
If a class needs to be canceled, we’ll contact everyone who has signed up beforehand as soon as we know and issue a store credit or a full refund for that class. We really don’t like to cancel classes, so sign up early! Yes siree!
You will see this listed under the supply list for most of the classes offered at Sew L.A. We suggest that a "Basic Sewing Kit" include the following items:
- fabric shears (nice sharp ones)
small scissors for snipping thread
glass-headed pins (to iron over if necessary) and cushion (tomato or magnetic)
seam ripper (a smaller blade is better for garment sewing)
tape measure (fiberglass – doesn’t stretch!)
tailor’s chalk (in a color that you can see on your fabric)
2” wide clear ruler (way better than the wooden or metal kind for marking hems)
If you are using our machines for a class or during some Sewlab time, you will also need a green plastic bobbin and machine needles.
(All of these supplies are available at Sew LA)
We have classroom machines for students to use during class time if they do not already have one of their own. There is no additional charge to use one of these machines during the regularly scheduled class time. Students may also rent machines by the hour for use in our classroom, outside of their scheduled classes, typically available weekdays between 11am and 6pm. Other times are sometimes available, but we strongly recommend calling the store in advance to ensure availability for the time you are interested in, as there may be a class or private lesson that would take precedence over the use of the classroom space. If you need more information, please give us a call at 323.665.7097.
If you already have a machine, we strongly suggest bringing it to class if possible. It's always best to learn new skills and techniques on the machine you will be using most frequently. Students are welcome to drop their machines off for class at the store prior to parking, so as not to have to carry it from their car.
General FAQ's (12)
- You do not need to create an account to use our site. However, an account will be created automatically if you decide to make a purchase, or if you sign up for one of our classes.
This allows us to view your contact information, and store your shipping address(es). It allows you to, view your order history and details, and view tracking details for any product that you have had shipped.
We do not store credit card information, and we do not sign you up for any email or advertising lists. We only use the information collected to contact a customer if there is an issue with their product order or class. We do not share this information with any outside person or company, unless required by a governmental or law enforcement agency.
- With an account on our site, in addition to being able to view your order history, you are able to simplify and enhance your experience on the site. While shopping as a logged in user, the items you select will appear in a list in the shopping cart block on the left side of the page. You will also be able to add and remove items directly from here, without having to click back and forth between the cart and product pages. During checkout, entering in your user id or email will automatically attach the order to your account, and you can choose any stored address(es) during to checkout. Having an account also enables us to issue discount coupons to individual customers, such as referral discounts or other similar rewards and incentives.
Future plans are to possibly include customer reviews, a gallery of student projects or items made with our product or during a class, a product & classes forum, download-able content such class materials and instructions or patterns, contests and/or giveaways, and possibly video tutorials and tips. Any such additions to our site would be completely optional, however they would require having an account to access or participate in them.
- We specialize in independent fabric designers and harder to find small companies – mostly we get our fabrics right from the designers! Some of our fabrics are even organic and / or made with renewable fibers like bamboo.
- We recommend several different brands of sewing machines depending on what kind of sewing you’ll be doing. First of all, if possible, you want to save your money a little and get the best machine you can afford. Cheap machines (generally under $250 or so) will take a lot of the fun out of sewing when they start to break down, jam up and ruin your fabric. A few top of the line brands are Pfaff and Bernina. Viking and Janome are also very good brands – we carry Janome sewing machines at the Sew L.A. retail store. If you have less than $200 to spend on a machine, you’re best off with a basic mechanical Kenmore – out of all the lower end brands it is the most reliable.
We advise people not to purchase a computerized machine unless it is one of the previously mentioned better brands.
We love vintage machines, but you do have to know a bit about machines and sewing before you pick one up off of Craigslist!
You will see this listed under the supply list for most of the classes offered at Sew L.A. We suggest that a "Basic Sewing Kit" include the following items:
- fabric shears (nice sharp ones)
small scissors for snipping thread
glass-headed pins (to iron over if necessary) and cushion (tomato or magnetic)
seam ripper (a smaller blade is better for garment sewing)
tape measure (fiberglass – doesn’t stretch!)
tailor’s chalk (in a color that you can see on your fabric)
2” wide clear ruler (way better than the wooden or metal kind for marking hems)
If you are using our machines for a class or during some Sewlab time, you will also need a green plastic bobbin and machine needles.
(All of these supplies are available at Sew LA)
- When you're on the shopping cart page, to the left of the small item thumbnail there's a small check box under the heading Remove. Click in the box, and then click the 'Update cart' button to remove the selected items from your cart. If you are already in the checkout pages you'll need to click either the 'cancel' button (in step 1), or the 'back' button if you've made it to the order review page (step 2).
- It depends on how the site views you while you're shopping. In order to keep system resources available to other customers, the site only keeps items in a cart for a short time. For an anonymous user (or a user who isn't logged in) the default amount of time a cart will hold it's contents is 30 minutes after the last user action. For existing users who are logged in, the default time is 2 hours of inactivity. Your cart won't empty itself while you are using it, only after the last activity according to your user status.
As items added to a cart are not actually taken out of the available inventory until an order has been completed, you cannot hold items for an extended period of time to guarantee a later purchase. Items added to your cart may also become unavailable if some one else purchases the last available quantity before you continue through the checkout. While this is actually very uncommon under normal circumstances, it does occasionally occur if there is a sudden run on a particular item.
For very special circumstances we may decide to place a hold on a particular item or quantity for a later purchase, though this is done solely at our discretion and for a strictly limited window of time.
- We use high-level SSL encryption (AES-256bit) for all orders placed through our shopping cart, and all transactions are processed through Authorize.net's credit card gateway servers. We do not process or store your credit card information on our servers. We do list the last 4 digits, type of card and expiration date on the completed orders only as a reference should we need to issue a refund to a customer. Refunds are also processed through the Authorize.net servers as well, where we do not have access to your full credit card information either. We use the same level of encryption on all user account and login pages, and all administrative pages to prevent any unauthorized access to user and customer information that may be collected by our site.
Additionally, our site is tested quarterly by an outside company under contract with our merchant service provider, with a SecurityMetrics® Site Certification vulnerability scan to ensure the security of our site and customers. SecurityMetrics, Inc. is a leading provider of Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) security solutions. SecurityMetrics is certified to perform PCI Scans (ASV), PCI audits (QSA), PA-DSS audits, penetration tests and forensic analysis.
- Yes, the quickest and easiest way is to just log in to the site, and you'll see the 'Click here to view your order history' link under the word Orders. If you've logged in already and are somewhere else on the site, your order history is located on the 'Orders' tab in your account pages. Either click 'My Account' on the left side of the page under your Username, or click your username at the top of the page next to where it says 'You are logged in as ...' The 'Orders' tab will list all your order #'s, the date, status and total amount charged. Click an order # to view the details of your purchase and a link to a printable invoice for your records. If you don't see an order that you think should be listed, please contact us, but the most likely reason would be that your order was not successfully processed or payment was declined and subsequently canceled. If an order's status is processing then we have yet to ship your order. It will be marked completed once it has shipped and you will be able to see the attached tracking number as well as any necessary information or messages regarding the order.
- If you had bookmarked a Class in the past, or if you are following a link to a Class listing that has already started and/or possibly has finished, be advised that we remove past classes from their original location so as to keep the menus up to date with available classes and not full of 'out of stock' listings. You can try the "search box" to search for Classes with the same name to see any available or upcoming Classes.
- If you are looking for details of a class you have taken previously, you can get some basic information by checking the order history tab on your account page. You can then search for an upcoming class with the same number to see the class description, materials and supply list & requirements and prerequisites. Please also see the next topic below.
- We move all the 'out of stock fabric' out of the original catalog listings so as to keep the relevant catalog pages full of items that our customers can actually purchase. As a temporary location, we move fabric to the 'z' keyword listing in case someone is looking for an item that is now unavailable. Some fabric that we sell is re-orderable and as such we do not immediately delete these items. If we do receive more quantity of a sold out fabric this allows us to get it back into the regular catalog pages as quickly as possible.
- We decided that the blogs would be a bit more flexible in terms of what they could offer, if we took them out of the actual shopping cart and catalog pages. With the amount of traffic that the site sometimes experiences, we felt that it was an unnecessary strain on the server to be providing the blog functions as well. The blog pages have been relocated to this address www.sew-la-fabric.blogspot.com and will enable us to expand their potential.
- 'Z' stands for zip (at least in my dictionary), and so these are the fabrics that are currently out of stock. Sometimes we are able to re-order fabric that has currently sold out. We temporarily move the out-of-stock fabrics here so that if we are able to re-order them, it's just a few clicks to get it back into the regular catalog. If someone has bookmarked this fabric for a future purchase they will see that it's been sold out, and won't waste a lot of time looking to see if it moved somewhere else. If we deleted the fabric as soon as it goes out of stock, it disappears from the site completely. It's also nice just to keep some pictures of old friends around for a bit.
Help FAQ's (14)
- You do not need to create an account to use our site. However, an account will be created automatically if you decide to make a purchase, or if you sign up for one of our classes.
This allows us to view your contact information, and store your shipping address(es). It allows you to, view your order history and details, and view tracking details for any product that you have had shipped.
We do not store credit card information, and we do not sign you up for any email or advertising lists. We only use the information collected to contact a customer if there is an issue with their product order or class. We do not share this information with any outside person or company, unless required by a governmental or law enforcement agency.
- With an account on our site, in addition to being able to view your order history, you are able to simplify and enhance your experience on the site. While shopping as a logged in user, the items you select will appear in a list in the shopping cart block on the left side of the page. You will also be able to add and remove items directly from here, without having to click back and forth between the cart and product pages. During checkout, entering in your user id or email will automatically attach the order to your account, and you can choose any stored address(es) during to checkout. Having an account also enables us to issue discount coupons to individual customers, such as referral discounts or other similar rewards and incentives.
Future plans are to possibly include customer reviews, a gallery of student projects or items made with our product or during a class, a product & classes forum, download-able content such class materials and instructions or patterns, contests and/or giveaways, and possibly video tutorials and tips. Any such additions to our site would be completely optional, however they would require having an account to access or participate in them.
- The most likely reason is that during Nov. & Dec.'09 we were in the process of switching shopping cart/sites. If you had previously registered for or taken a class that took place before or during December, it was done so on our old site. You will therefore need to create a new account on this site. We apologize for this one time inconvenience, but it was necessary for the expansion of Sew L.A.. Although your account information from our old site does not currently work to log into this site, most people will be able to simply create their new account reusing the same information. Simply click the create new account tab on the login page or the link in the top right corner on the home page. Enter the username and password from your old account and it should be fine. Because of the change in programs, and with the number of existing accounts on our old site, we weren't able to port over the accounts for our previous customers.
Another reason, although less likely is that while your username isn't strictly case sensitive, check that your caps lock key isn't on. Also check to make sure characters such as the letters I (eye), L (el), O (oh) or the numbers 1 (one), 0 (zero) are being enter correctly as they can sometimes look like another character.
- All user passwords are case sensitive, so check that you are entering it correctly. If that doesn't work, at the top right of any page, click the 'Log In' link. On the 'User Account' page there is a tab to the right that says 'Request new password'. Click this and then enter your username or email address. We will send you an email with a one-time login link that will redirect you to the account edit page where you can enter a new password. The link expires after 24 hours, so if you do not click it no changes are made.
- On the left side of every page under is a link to our contact page, under the 'Information' heading. You can email us directly from this page, and choose from the listed categories to have your email directed to the appropriate person. If you need to contact us sooner, you will also find the phone number for our our retail store/classroom space as well as the hours that someone will generally be able to take your call listed there as well. Generally it is best to contact the retail store during our regular business hours, but please leave us a detailed message if we are unable to talk your call directly.
- We do understand that sometimes people change their minds, so if you need to change or cancel an order you must notify us within one hour of placing your order. It takes us a short while to receive and process your order, so odds are we can cancel your order at no charge to you if we are informed in time. Cancellations requested after one hour may be subject to a 20% restocking fee at our sole discretion, most likely if we have already cut and packaged the order. When in doubt, contact us! To cancel an order, please contact us ASAP via email at orders [AT] sew-la-fabric [DOT] com, or call us at 323.665.7097. No orders may be canceled once the product has shipped, instead you'll have to initiate a return once your product has been received. If we are unable to cancel your order, please review the 'Returns' page linked at the bottom of the page.
- To ship a previously placed order, simply contact us to let us know where you'd like us to ship your order and the method you'd like for us to use. Our 'Shipping Page' lists all of the available shipping methods we currently provide. We'll send you a link to an 'Add Shipping Charge' page on our site with the amount for the shipping charge of your chosen delivery method and destination. Click on the link you receive, enter the amount of the shipping on the page and continue through the checkout. We'll ship out your order as soon as possible after we have received payment. We don't charge any extra handling fees, the shipping charges are not taxed, and the rates we quote for shipping are the solely the costs we incur to ship with the various carriers. Accordingly, coupons or gift certificates cannot be used to pay for shipping charges. We do not ask for a shipping address when paying for this charge, as we will only ship your order according to the method and address you provided when you first contacted us.
- We use high-level SSL encryption (AES-256bit) for all orders placed through our shopping cart, and all transactions are processed through Authorize.net's credit card gateway servers. We do not process or store your credit card information on our servers. We do list the last 4 digits, type of card and expiration date on the completed orders only as a reference should we need to issue a refund to a customer. Refunds are also processed through the Authorize.net servers as well, where we do not have access to your full credit card information either. We use the same level of encryption on all user account and login pages, and all administrative pages to prevent any unauthorized access to user and customer information that may be collected by our site.
Additionally, our site is tested quarterly by an outside company under contract with our merchant service provider, with a SecurityMetrics® Site Certification vulnerability scan to ensure the security of our site and customers. SecurityMetrics, Inc. is a leading provider of Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) security solutions. SecurityMetrics is certified to perform PCI Scans (ASV), PCI audits (QSA), PA-DSS audits, penetration tests and forensic analysis.
- The only contact information we store with your account is the email address used when you created your account. This is only ever displayed to the site administrators. We do require a phone number to be entered when placing an order, however this can be changed on a per order basis. The billing address must match the records of the payment provider, either PayPal or your credit card company, so if you change your payment method you will need to change the billing to reflect this as well. Please read the following question with regards to changing your email address.
- We encourage the use of a strong password with a combination of letters and numbers, and it should be noted that all passwords are case sensitive. On your account page you can click the 'Edit' tab and enter in a new password in the box provided and again below to confirm that they are the same. The site will offer a recommendation as to the strength of the password, you are of course free to ignore this and enter whatever you want and will be able to remember. If an account was created for you by a site administrator, the password is typically set up initially as your email address, and so we strongly encourage you to change it to something that is of your own choosing. If your account was created by the purchase of a gift certificate, you will be instructed to change the temporary password when you first log in to the site.
- You can change your email address and/or username on the 'Edit' tab as well. These should only be changed for important reasons though. The site's ability to track your orders, issue you coupon codes and referral discounts, are actually dependent on your user-id number, but it's more likely that you will remember your username & email address better. Please only change these once & only if it's really necessary. The site can keep track of these changes, but us humans have a harder time keeping up with lots of frequent changes.
- Yes, the quickest and easiest way is to just log in to the site, and you'll see the 'Click here to view your order history' link under the word Orders. If you've logged in already and are somewhere else on the site, your order history is located on the 'Orders' tab in your account pages. Either click 'My Account' on the left side of the page under your Username, or click your username at the top of the page next to where it says 'You are logged in as ...' The 'Orders' tab will list all your order #'s, the date, status and total amount charged. Click an order # to view the details of your purchase and a link to a printable invoice for your records. If you don't see an order that you think should be listed, please contact us, but the most likely reason would be that your order was not successfully processed or payment was declined and subsequently canceled. If an order's status is processing then we have yet to ship your order. It will be marked completed once it has shipped and you will be able to see the attached tracking number as well as any necessary information or messages regarding the order.
- All of our coupons have specific settings governing their proper usage. As a general rule, coupon codes are good for one use per customer, and are only valid for a set period of time. Our classes and items that are currently listed in our site's sale section will not be further discounted by a coupon.
Coupons might be specific to a particular type of fabric, designer, a specific keyword, or even to a specific customer. When a coupon's usage is defined in one of these ways, it will only apply to items that have those particular tags. Other items in the cart will not be discounted if they do match the coupon code's criteria. An item's tags are listed at the bottom of it's main page. If a coupon has been set for a specific user anyone else trying to use the code will get an error message.
Coupon codes may be originally posted at another site of our choosing, yet sometimes these are then re-posted by people to other sites. When they have been re-posted in situations like this, we don't have control over how their intended usage is described.
- Gift certificates can be used for any item or class sold through our site. When a gift certificate is purchased, either a new account is created for you (see above for changing account info), or if you already have an account the site uses the email address of your account to store the amount. To use the gift certificate, you will need to be logged in, or you can log during checkout. The site will automatically deduct the amount of the certificate from the order. If your order is less than the certificate amount, the balance will remain in your account for future use. If your order is more than the certificate amount, the site will deduct the amount and the remaining balance of the order can be paid with either a credit card or PayPal.
If you would like to save your gift certificate balance for a future order, you can do so by not logging into your account. During checkout you will see a box under 'Customer Information' asking for an email address to send the order details to. Put your account email address in here, DO NOT login or enter your username and the site will add the order to your account history, but it will not offer you the gift certificate as a form of payment. Choose either a credit card or PayPal option to proceed through checkout. You should see a message that the site found your account, and after your order is complete you will be able to view the new order added to your history. You should also see the gift certificate balance waiting for a future use.
- Absolutely, at the bottom of the checkout pages, you'll see an 'Order Comments' box. Put any special instructions for us in here. You can also use the 'Contact Us' link found on the left side of the page under the 'Information' heading if you have a question prior to placing an order.
- If you had bookmarked a Class in the past, or if you are following a link to a Class listing that has already started and/or possibly has finished, be advised that we remove past classes from their original location so as to keep the menus up to date with available classes and not full of 'out of stock' listings. You can try the "search box" to search for Classes with the same name to see any available or upcoming Classes.
- If you are looking for details of a class you have taken previously, you can get some basic information by checking the order history tab on your account page. You can then search for an upcoming class with the same number to see the class description, materials and supply list & requirements and prerequisites. Please also see the next topic below.
