Nest
At Nest you’ll find a beautiful, fully equipped sewing workshop, expert teachers and a haven of creativity. Whatever your age or ability, we have a class for you.
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An experienced seamstress and teacher, Genevieve West has always wanted to pass on her love of sewing and crafting; her opportunity to do so came along when she took over as the owner of Nest in January 2015.
Having seen the demand for classes explode, she decided to change the use of the space from a yarn shop to purely a sewing school in 2019.
Genevieve West
Gen has been sewing and knitting since the age of eight. Her career has been varied – from organising international concert tours to teaching babies music to adults' dressmaking – but has always involved being creative.
As well as her desire to share the joy of crafting with children and adults, Gen is also committed to using her talents for community and charity events.
Layla Totah
Layla has been teaching for 20 years - first as a secondary school English teacher. Her interest in sewing was sparked by buying a vintage Ebay pattern after watching Mad Men over 15 years ago and convincing her mum to help her make it. She now makes all her own clothes.
Layla moved to Beirut and set up her own sewing school, before returning to London where she teaches sewing full time at Nest. She loves the enthusiasm and fearlessness of the children as they learn to use a machine, as well as the patience the students learning to sew develops.
When she’s not sewing, she can be found making soap for her side hustle.
Lara Evans
Lara began sewing at junior school and continued on and off over the years with her own projects teaching herself new techniques.
During lockdown, the Nest online lessons kept her sane, allowed her to develop her skills further, and she adopted the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mantra of her environmental background by repurposing and having homemade outfits that actually fit!
When Lara was asked teach at Nest she jumped at the chance to join such a lovely team and hopes to ignite the same excitement for the students that she gets every time she starts (and finishes) a project