In a day and age when Home Economics has been cut from budgets or replaced by technology education, Jerilyn's Sewing School in Cranston has not forgotten about teaching boys and girls basic life skills that will last a lifetime.

Jerilyn Perry, owner and operator of Jerilyn's Sewing School, believes that teaching kids to sew fulfills a lifelong dream of hers, which stretches back to her own days in her junior high school Home Economics class.

"I was working on an apron in my Home Economics class and I worked so hard on it, I put lots of effort into it," Perry said. "I got a C on it. You know when you just have to prove to someone that you can do better? Well, I had to do that. I went out and got a pattern for a pair of pants. I made yellow pants with a zipper and everything. They came out great. I wore those yellow pants all the time."

Her love of sewing and garment making grew from those yellow pants into projects much bigger and more memorable.

"In college I got engaged, and my girlfriend and I made my wedding dress," Perry said.

The birth of two sons soon followed, but she didn't find very many opportunities to sew for the boys.

"I didn't get to sew too much for them," she said, although she notes that as her sons grew, their Halloween costumes were often handmade, sometimes by the boys themselves as they got older, and her involvement in costume design and creation for the Cranston High School West theater department lasted throughout the boys' high school years.

As a college grad with a degree from Bryant in accounting, Perry began a part-time accounting job, and it was there that a friend suggested she sew clothing for the popular American Girl 18" dolls.

"I've now been at my job for 18 years, and I've been selling the doll clothes for 15," she said.

Eight years ago, however, Perry saw an ad that would really change her life.

"I was looking through a sewing magazine, and in it there was an ad that said that if you like sewing and you like kids and think you can teach them, there was an opportunity to purchase a franchise which would allow you to teach kids' sewing classes," Perry said. "I thought it sounded great and I talked to my husband about it. I figured I'd take a couple of kids a couple of days a week. He said 'Go ahead, go for it.'"

And with that, Jerilyn's Sewing School was born.

Perry sent in her money and received her Kids Can Sew business materials in the mail: Four machines and a manual to guide her in how to teach sewing lessons to children.

"I didn't really need any help figuring out the business side because I had a business degree," she said.

To jumpstart her business, Perry spread the word among all of her friends and family that she was starting a kids' sewing school.

"I held a meeting at my house of anyone who was interested in taking lessons. At that meeting I had six students sign up. Now, eight years later, I'm up to 30 students, and I'm constantly enrolling new ones all the time. At the end of the first year, I wanted to have a fashion show, and that has become an every-year event. It's just grown, and grown and grown," she said.

Last year, Perry's fashion show was co-hosted by local celebrity newscaster Mario Hilario from NBC Channel 10. Hilario's two nieces have been taking sewing lessons at Jerilyn's Sewing School themselves and they escorted Hilario on to the stage at the show.

Perry's sewing school is set up in the lower level of her home, with individual sewing stations for each student in the class, and lots of individual attention to each of her students during classes. As all good teachers do, Perry uses lots of positive reinforcement, patience in her teaching and encouragement with her students as they learn their sewing skills; reaching even the shyest of students and allowing them to be successful in their craft. She provides special incentives for finishing a project, and has her students keep track of what they've created in personal journals she gives them. She runs contests among her classes, such as asking them to give fun names to the sewing machines and she posts photos of her students modeling the things they've made, all along the walls of her classrooms. Perry also likes to allow students to work on a project of their choosing and to work at their own pace, rather than everyone creating the same garment at the same time and moving at the same pace. At any given time, she's overseeing the creation of pillows, shirts, skirts, bags, pillowcases and many other exciting handmade items.

As Perry's school has grown, she's been able to give back to her community as well.

"Each year at the fashion show we collect non-perishable food items for the RI Community Food Bank, and one year we participated in 'Conquer Cancer,' a program where the students made pillowcases for the children at Hasbro Children's Hospital. And, each Christmas I always have the kids make something for someone else, whether it's something like bookmarks, or one year we did fleece hats as gifts. It's a way for them to share their talents with others," she said.

Jerilyn's Sewing School has students from all over the state, from cities and towns as far away as Attleboro and Jamestown, as well as Cranston, Warwick and Johnston, due to the fact that it's the only sewing school of its kind in the state of Rhode Island, teaching students on machines to sew garments rather than being single-project-based lessons. Once the students have mastered the basic skills by sewing pillow cases and drawstring bags, they move on to choosing an item from their Kids Can Sew pattern books, creating pants, skirts, shirts, character pillows and in the case of Alison Chace, one of Perry's original students eight years ago now in high school, a prom dress.

"Alison was with me from day one. She was a student referral at that very first meeting, and this year she made her prom dress and wore it in the fashion show, too. She is my assistant in my classes and helps me with my social media work, posting our photos on Facebook," Perry said.

A new thrill for Perry is the fact that she's now starting to get the younger siblings of her original students as current students.

"It's like getting a return customer," she said.

When asked whether or not she expected her business to take off the way it has, Perry said that she was pretty confident that it would be successful right from the start.

"You have to have a vision in order to be successful, and I'd always wanted to own my own business," she said. "I do see myself getting out of here and having a store front one day, though."

Perry has already begun exploring possibilities for a new location for her sewing school but says she's not quite ready to make that move just yet.

Until then, she will continue her lessons in her current location: 44 Sycamore Drive in Cranston. With an open enrollment policy, Perry accepts students into her classes all year long, starting them with the two beginner projects when they start. She's expanded her classes and summer camps quite a bit through the years and now offers classes at the teen and adult levels as well as to the elementary school-aged students, and she's always accepted boys and girls into her classes, tailoring her projects for boys by using the pattern book designed specifically for boys.

"I've always run summer sessions and I make them flexible so that people can go on vacation. I created the teen classes, which allow for the busy nature of a teenager's schedule, and I have two levels of classes for adults; beginner and experienced," she said.

Perry is also featured at many local craft fairs and bazaars. She will be a vendor at the upcoming St. David's Holiday Bazaar on Nov. 16 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will appear at other events through the holiday season as well.

For more information about Jerilyn's Sewing School, or to enroll in a class or camp, visit her website at jerilynssewingschool.com, or contact Perry by email at sewyoucan@gmail.com.