Coles Sewing Centre was founded in June 1996 by myself, Rose and husband Neil, under the original trading name of Husqvarna Studio Nottingham. In 1998 we won the prestigious International Dealer of The Year Award, and we were runners-up in the Award’s last year in 2001. The business has expanded quickly since then, and we are now the UK’s largest dealer of Husqvarna Viking sewing products.
Planning a class!
So much has changed in the last 27 years, when we opened our doors in May 1996, phones were just for making a call, there was no such thing as internet banking and shopping online was in its infancy, with Amazon only selling books! Fast forward to 2023 and you can now pay with your phone (and your watch) and order goods from around the world and sadly Amazon now sell everything and because of this many independent high street shops have disappeared!
We opened our doors with one employee, now we have ten members of staff. All our staff are committed stitchers, always using the latest products – that means there’s always someone here to help, regardless of how niche your issue may be! We also have staff working hard behind the scenes on our website, admin and very importantly cleaning, we all know how hard it is to keep your sewing room clean, there’s always another pin lurking on the floor!
Learning with Coles Sewing Centre
Our sewing classrooms are among the largest in the UK and are fully equipped with the latest Husqvarna Viking sewing machines, overlockers, and large cutting tables. We run a huge variety of classes covering all aspects of sewing, including dressmaking, quilting, patchwork, embroidery, overlocking, and computer embroidery software all taught by experienced and friendly tutors.
We’ve recently added zoom classes to our programme. These classes are live zoom sessions, designed for you to watch, take notes, and ask the tutor questions – a great opportunity to attend a class from the comfort of your own home, wherever you are in the world, and we won’t know if you’ve got your slippers on!
There are many ways to learn with us, as well as our face-to-face classes we now have an online learning portal – Coles Learning Centre. As well as classes for Husqvarna Viking machine owners, there are project classes for both sewing and embroidery, overlocker owners and some free classes for you to try before you buy! Our classes are recorded so that you can watch them over and over again, pause, stop and rewind! Visit www.coleslearningcentre.com to see what we have to offer and try a FREE class!
Service and repair
We repair and service all makes of sewing machine and overlockers, any make, any age! We have a fully equipped workshop on site and fully trained and experienced technicians. We offer free collection and delivery of machines in the Nottinghamshire area or if you prefer to drop off and collect your machine yourself then we have step-free access at our Lennox Street entrance and we are always happy to help you to your car with your machine. You can also arrange for us to come to your quilt group for a group service (minimum of ten machines).
Our senior engineer, Lee, and his apprentice, George, are experienced with all brands of sewing machine and overlocker!
Now let’s take a tour of the shop, where do we begin? Our customers say ‘it is like stepping into a sweet shop for stitchers’ we have over 10,000 products on our shelves. You can shop instore Monday to Saturday 9.15 to 5pm or of course online 24/7 at http://www.colessewingcentre.co.uk. Whatever the project the most important things you’ll need are threads, needles, fabric and of course your sewing machine, so let’s start with threads.
Threads
We stock the full range of Gutermann threads, polyesters, cotton, rayon (for embroidery & decorative stitching) and a new thread called Maraflex designed to stitch stretch fabrics. As well as Madeira Aerolock, Catona and Aeroflock threads for overlocking. Plus, the popular Mettler Silk Finish Cotton 60 weight which is a fine cotton thread perfect for piecing and suitable for use in embroidery machines, this is also available in cones for those of you who are long arm quilters.
Gutermann Maraflex is great for sewing stretch fabrics on a sewing machine
Machine needles
Why is it important to change your machine’s needle regularly? it is the easiest way to improve stitch quality because a worn or damaged needle can result in shredded or broken threads, skipped or uneven stitches, puckering and damaged fabrics. On our shelves you will find Schmetz needles, which are known as the finest machine needle in the world… Is it time to treat your machine to a new needle?!
Fabric
I’m sure you all know you can never have enough fabric, there’s always just another piece you can add to your stash! We stock a wide range of quilting fabrics from plains to beautiful collections from Liberty, Tilda, Dashwood, Kaufmann and Clothworks to name a just a few. All of our fabrics can be purchased online and instore by the metre in 25cm increments, or as fat quarters. For those of you that are dressmakers too, we also have a wide range of fabrics suitable for garment making from wools in the winter to linens in the summer and a wide range of stretch fabrics. Most of our dress fabrics are 150cm wide and can be purchased in 10cm increments online or instore.
Sewing machines
Technology has moved on since we opened in 1996, we have seen machines with memory cards, floppy disks, and USB sticks and now the latest technology allows machines to be connected to WIFI and even have cloud storage! We stock the complete range of Husqvarna Viking sewing and embroidery machines, overlockers, and accessories and would encourage anyone looking to buy a new machine to pop in for a demonstration and test drive. Being the stockist of only one brand allows our staff to have the expertise and knowledge to help customers get the best out of their new Husqvarna Viking sewing machine. If you are thinking of upgrading your machine, we have trade-in offers available as well as a scrappage option.
| We work with Nottingham Police charity to send sewing machines to countries such as Zambia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone where they can be used to develop skills such as tailoring, so if you have a machine lurking in the back of the cupboard (it doesn’t have to work) we’ll take it off your hands and makes sure it goes to a good cause! |
So much more!
Amongst our 10,000 products we have a huge selection of sewing notions and accessories everything you will need from a pin to a cutting mat, we stock all the well-known brands such as Prym, June Tailor, Sew Simple Waddings, Olfa, Vlieseline, Fiskars, Taylor Seville, and Bosal. And if you are a dressmaker, we also stock Simplicity, Sewgirl and Tilly and the Buttons dress patterns.
I hope this has given you an insight to who we are and to what we do, we do hope you’ll pop in to see us! You can find us at 90 Lower Parliament Street, Nottingham, NG1 1EH
Tel. 0115 9881550
Sew What's Happening at Coles? 