Meet Laura Coia host of Sew Very Easy YouTube Channel. Celebrating her 10th anniversary on You Tube, Laura shifted from teaching sewing and quilting in person, to online long before Covid. She makes sewing and quilting accessible to people with all skill levels with her videos.
How did you get started quilting?
I made my first quilt when I was about 16 years old. I know that was a long time ago. The church ladies wanted me to help and when they discovered that I could sew, they asked me to help them with a quilt. I got hooked. I’ve been quilting ever since then!
When did you start teaching quilting?
Probably about that long ago too, as soon as I learned to sew and quiltI began helping others learn as well. I taught in person as videos weren’t around back then. Then as technology developed at the encouragement of my son, I turned to video instruction. Soon, I will celebrate 10 years doing YouTube videos. It’s incredible to think that it’s gone this long.
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I’ve been teaching for years. My son encouraged me to begin making YouTube videos. He said, you’re teaching one person or two people at a time, he said, you could do a couple of hundred, mom. That’s why I took my teaching to the YouTube world. And now it’s thousands upon thousands. It’s incredible. It is absolutely mind boggling,
Tell us about your new book, Sew Very Easy, Patternless Sewing.
The patternless sewing book is all about starting with some simple shapes. To make a little pocket to hang things up. Start with a square. What size square do you want? I don’t know. What do you have? The book gives you the exact size, but also helps do it on your own. You can follow the instructions in the book, or use it as a guide to create your own design. That is my second book and I do have a third one out, Sew Very Easy, Quilt-As-You-Go Clamshells.
When it comes to creating for yourself, are you more of an improviser or a planner?
It goes a little bit of both. Sometimes I plan. I’ll be planning and working on a project and everything’s going along, and then I’m inspired by something else. At some point, I’ll get back to what I originally started.
I think all quilters do that. We plan on doing something, and then we get distracted. There’s that shiny star. I know I’ll just see a piece of fabric over there, and it’s like, Ooh, I hadn’t planned on putting that in there, but I think it’s going to work. My girlfriend calls it squirrel. There we go. We’re off.
You balance a lot. How do you manage your creative time, the behind the scenes work? When are you most productive?
I’m most productive when I should be sleeping. I just love what I do so much that there are times that I lie in bed and my mind starts going and I start rehearsing videos that I’m going to do. I start designing quilt patterns and other projects in my mind.
And then of course, I don’t sleep. I think because it’s the nighttime and I’m quiet, I allow thoughts to come in without dishes and all of the other stuff. I find that when I’m laying in bed is sometimes my most creative time. I should go to bed earlier and maybe I would get more sleep!
You’re always creating new projects for your videos. Do you ever have time to make things for yourself? And if so, what are the things that you enjoy making for yourself?
All of the videos that I make are based on what I want to sew. When I begin to sew, I just turn on the camera. It kind of works out in both ways. If I want to make a skirt, then I just turn on the camera and I film as I’m making that skirt. If I want to do a quilt, again, I just turn on the camera. I just love it. I have the opportunity to try new notions, old notions, new fabrics, old fabrics, patterns, and I just want to do it all.
I never lack ideas. I get to sew for myself as I am actually filming. It just takes me a lot longer when I’m filming.
What’s your favorite less lesser known tool that you use? Have you taken something designed for one use and repurposed it for something else?
I think my favorite thing to use, and I never ever wanted to admit this to myself, is glue. Good old Elmer’s kids glue and a glue stick can be a savior for so many things. You don’t need a lot, just a little drop in and it can hold things for you until you get to it. It can help things from slipping. Instead of using a spray adhesive, if I only have a small thing, I could just do a couple of little dots of glue. It can help that zipper from sliding off and it washes out. I really do love the glue stick. It’s a silly thing, but I use it all the time.
Do you use a journal or a sketchbook? How do you come up with your ideas and bring them to life?
I do try to keep my ideas in a sketchbook. But, of course whenever I have the ideas I don’t usually have the sketchbook with me so I’ve written on napkins and on the back of receipts. I go outside and I see something and sometimes the simplest things like a brick wall can give me inspiration. I’ll go digging for something to write my idea on. I try to keep a notebook in my purse just so that I don’t have to use the back of my receipts. I do try to use a sketchbook and that way I can refer back to them and take my notes from there.
Do you work in silence? Do you have TV on, do you have music on? How do you like to work?
I do not watch TV. I think because I’m on a computer screen a lot, TV just does not hold interest to me. I love audio books and I like music and sometimes just silence.
If I’m designing, I need silence so that I don’t get distracted by listening. Once I have the project done and I’m doing the meditative sewing, sitting for a couple hours and just enjoying the whole process, then I’ll put a book on. Or, maybe I’ll put music on. And sometimes I need the music because I want some sun and it’s dark out so I might play the Beach Boys just to give me that little up. I will put on music to put me in a mood that I need.
How often do you start a new project and do you work on more than one project at a time?
I work on more than one project at a time. I do a video every Tuesday and Thursday, so that’s at least two projects a week, I like to film in advance. Sometimes I will work on more than one project at a time. I might do a smaller video in between filming the larger ones.
When I make a quilt, I do it all myself. I cut it, sew it, and quilt it;I do it all myself. I do not have an assistant. A quilt can take 40 hours. And I can’t have the camera running all that time. You don’t want to see me sewing 352 inch squares! In the meanwhile, I still have videos that need to be done. A lot of the time I don’t need the camera on for those larger projects. That’s when I can just sew and get to the next stage. If I need to get a video done, I stop, put it in another gear, get the other video done, get that on YouTube, and then I can continue the sewing. I’ve learned to balance two videos at a time
Tell us about how a new project comes about. Where do you find the inspiration? How do you make a decision of what is it that you are going to work on next?
It comes from a lot of different things. It can come from walking outside and seeing something that gives me an idea. A lot of times it’s inspiration that I get from my audience who watch the videos. They will ask for things, how do I do a half square triangle or how do I do a flying geese? The comments and questions give me an idea about what to do next. Then I try to fit those ideas into my schedule. It might not be right away, but I keep ideas on a list of things that I want to do in the future. And of course, fabric and notions are probably my biggest inspiration. There’s so many beautiful fabrics out there. And I’m always online looking for the very newest things. When I get that pretty fabric in my face, I’m like, I need to work with that fabric. Those are some of the ways that I get inspired.
Which part of the design process and is your favorite and which part is your least favorite?
I love the designing. I hate the math involved. When I’m designing a new project, I develop a cheat sheet that gives the maker some basic information about the project. I call it my cheat sheet. It tells me how much I need to cut of square A and so forth. I want to make sure the cheat sheet is correct. I can always make adjustments as I’m sewing because I always buy more fabric than what I need. But I really want it perfect before I give it to the viewer. It’s so important to me. I can make mistakes, but I do try to make sure that they are corrected for my viewers.
Other than that, I love the designing, I love the sewing, I even love editing the videos, reading the comments and trying to answer them, I love it all. t’s just that math and making sure that the paperwork is right are my biggest stressful parts.
You’ve had quite a journey doing this for so many years. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received over the years?
When I first started, my girlfriend said, get a steno pad and make notes. Whenever you’re talking to anybody on the phone, you need something to make notes. Now, I have a pretty good memory, I thought, well I will remember. She was right. You need to take notes, and then know where those notes are.
I would just have to say, the exciting part was learning all of this along the way. I was not brought up in an internet world. When I decided to do videos, I had to learn how to use a camera. I had to know how to program that camera. I had to buy software to edit the videos. Then I had to figure out how to get online and put those videos on YouTube and figure that all out. My children are very helpful, but they weren’t living at home. I didn’t have them to nudge when I needed the help. I did a lot of research. I had to do a lot of training myself to get this to go forward. And that was really great. It proves to us, you can teach an old dog new tricks!
When’s the first time that you realized that you are a creative person?
Probably when I was about five years old. I’m one of six children, I’m the second oldest. My mother sewed out of necessity and, if that machine was going, I had to be there. Whatever scraps were left over, I used to create things. I started sewing sitting on my mother’s knee. I never stopped. I have always had to create. Before I went to school, through school, after school. I have to make. I am a maker. There’s no doubt about it.
How have other people supported and inspired you on this journey?
My family is a big inspiration. My oldest son was the one who encouraged me to do a YouTube channel. My middle son was the one who made me actually push the button to do it. And my daughter is very inspirational. She’s very artistic. Sometimes we’ll bounce ideas off of each other, and that is really good. When my husband retired, he took over the cooking in the household. It is wonderful. He does the majority of the cooking and that gives me time to focus on what I’m doing. He retired. I went to work.
What do you expect people to be able to discover when they come to your YouTube channel, Sew Very Easy?
The first thing is I really want them to have fun. Fun is the best thing. You’re a new quilter, you’re not going to have the experience of someone who has been sewing for 50 years, but if you have fun, you will get there.
You have to not be hard on yourself. Just have fun, accept those imperfections, because it’s art. There are no mistakes. Just have fun. I have a saying and “It’s all good”. If I can give some guidance along the way, show how to put in that zipper properly, how to do a quarter inch seam, it’s all good. I want to be your girlfriend beside you who says, “Hey, you know what, I found a new way of doing things or you know what, have you tried it this way?” I want to be your girlfriend so we can share things and help each other with tips and just have fun sewing. That’s what my whole channel is about.
Is there anything else that you’d like to share with us today?
I would have to say the biggest joy that I have doing these videos is the community that has been created. People have reached out to me. When I first started doing this, I was thrilled that my children and other family members subscribed. It was a crazy thing. Other people subscribed, and they started asking questions. They thanked me to clarify things that they didn’t know or they were struggling to accomplish. And that really feeds my soul. That’s why I do it.
I think if I didn’t have any comments or any people asking questions, then I don’t know that I could keep doing this. It’d be like talking to a blank wall. There’s so many people out there who inspire me and they write beautiful comments. They send me pictures. It is like a really big, happy family. A lot of times in the video comments, they will help each other out. If I haven’t had a chance to jump in and someone asks a question, there are other people who answer them. It’s turned out some of them have made friendships. The greatest joy in the 10 years that I’ve been doing this is the wonderful family and community that has emerged.
Do you have a routine to get everything done? Answering comments, social media and getting the videos out the door two days a week.
I get up in the morning and opposite to what most people think, I do not turn on my phone until 10 o’clock in the morning, unless I know something important is coming up. I do not go on that computer until 10 in the morning.
Not that I’m not starting my work because this is work for me. As soon as you turn devices on, they can be consuming, and that’s not getting the other important things done. Those couple hours in the morning, give me a chance to finish projects, design a new project, get my thoughts together, and do that kind of thing.
When I turn the computer on, I try to get to my emails, right away. I check and make sure that the videos are doing okay. I have over a thousand videos, so unfortunately I cannot go back and check every comment on every one of those videos as much as I would like to. I check the recent videos.
Then I try to turn that off, and turn the camera on, and get to sewing. I consider this work, so I don’t throw in a load of laundry or do housekeeping in between making. I’m lucky my husband is doing the cooking now. People always said to me oh it’s great you work from home. You can cook and do laundry while you’re working. I tried that it doesn’t really work well for me. When you’re bouncing back and forth, you’re not staying on track. I find staying on track, working from nine in the morning until five or six o’clock at night works for me. It keeps me focused. I get more done.
Do you take weekends off?
Oh no, no, I can’t take weekends off. I love what I do. I will if I need to, but I love getting up in the morning and coming in and creating and sewing and doing this. I’ve got the best job in the world. I really do. I can do this every day. I get to sew every day of my life, which I love. I’m very passionate about it, and it’s turned into a job for me. So I can’t wait to get in my sewing room. If I do take some time off, I’m itching to get back.
Interview posted February 2024
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