Arlete Dos Santos
I first learned to sew from my mother. She was an accomplished seamstress in Brazil who sewed clothes, quilts and did embroidery by machine and hand. I learned in my early childhood by watching my mother work, but she also formally taught me to sew, first by hand and then by machine. When I was seventeen I took machine sewing classes, and in my early twenties I took machine embroidery classes. Once in the United States, I studied sewing with a top Wyzant tutor. I completed three semesters of class instruction with her, including an advanced design and construction class. For two of the three classes I served as her assistant and translator. I later took private lessons from her as well where I learned a method for teaching in success-based steps that build student skills systematically with projects growing in complexity as students are ready.