An ex-bookkeeper spent $375 to launch a sewing business: 'I hadn't felt so sure about something like that in a long time'

Eric Lugo didn't know that when he launched his sewing workshop business, Stitch Lab ATX, as a side project in May 2025, it'd become his full-time focus within weeks.

Lugo also couldn't have predicted it'd become so successful within two years that offerings would grow fivefold, classes would regularly sell out and he'd start getting requests to host private events.

The idea came to him a few years ago: Lugo learned to sew from his grandma when he was 5 and got serious about it as a teen, eventually launching his fashion brand, Casa Amiré, and becoming his friends' go-to guy for tailoring and alterations help. Dresses needed hemming, jeans needed shortening. Lugo was happy to lend his talents, though the requests piled up.

So one day, in April 2024, he thought: What if he taught his friends how to fix their clothes themselves?

"It really made me think: Wow, this is — I think — a pretty important skill that a lot of people don't know how to do," Lugo, 29, of Austin, Texas, tells CNBC Make It. He could fill that gap. "I think I have enough knowledge after you know 14 [or] 15 years to be able to teach other people, and so I went from there."

For months, while in between jobs and selling wares from his fashion brand, Lugo couldn't stop thinking about launching a sewing workshop. Around August 2024, he got a bookkeeping job for a local PR firm and shelved the idea. But by the beginning of 2025, it was back on his mind. He mapped out the classes he'd offer and how he'd get the word out.

By April, Lugo put money into it. He spent $375 to buy eight sewing machines, sourced second-hand from Facebook Marketplace, and set up shop in a friend's warehouse space that wasn't in use outside of business hours. Lugo gathered friends and family members to test-run his curriculum.

Stitch Lab ATX held its first classes in early May, Lugo says, with a few sign-ups for one-on-one private lessons and a handful of students taking his "crash course" workshop covering beginner-friendly basics, like learning how to thread a machine and sewing a straight line.

Then Lugo's circumstances changed fast: Toward the end of May, he was let go from his day job. It wasn't a question that he'd go all-in on his studio.

"Not even 10 minutes after I had just gotten laid off and gotten off of that Zoom meeting, I called my boy that has the warehouse, and I said, 'Dude, I just got laid off. Are you cool with me just going full-send with Stitch Lab?'" Lugo says. His friend was 100% in.

"I honestly hadn't felt so sure about something like that in a long time, if ever," Lugo says.

It took some time for things to get moving.

By his count, Lugo held around four to six classes in those early months. Sometimes just two or three people would show up, even though he could host up to 10. Lugo says demand picked up around September 2025 once he started partnering with local businesses to host pop-up sewing events (like a sip-and-stitch at a brewery) and spreading the word on TikTok.

Eric Lugo started Stitch Lab ATX after spending $375 on eight second-hand sewing machines sourced from Facebook Marketplace.

Courtesy of Eric Lugo

Today the lab offers around two dozen classes per month and can fill up quickly when spots open up a month in advance, Lugo says.

Sessions typically cost $65 to $85 and last about two-and-a-half hours. Classes range from beginner-friendly lessons, like learning how to use a machine, to teaching intermediate skills, like hemming pants or installing a zipper. Students can sign up for special workshops to make a specific project, like a flower tote, or book open sewing time at the warehouse space. Lugo also takes requests to teach at special events, like for a bachelorette party or corporate offsite, averaging about one a month.

Lugo says he draws a salary from the business, which is his primary source of income.

Stitch Lab's success coincides with a trend of many Americans paying up to invest in their hobbies, even as the costs of goods and materials rise, leading to a trend of what Bank of America refers to as "funflation." Spending on hobbies, ranging from arts and crafts and hobby shops to retailers selling skiing, hiking, camping or scuba diving gear, grew 7.9% in August 2026 from the year prior, according to the bank's analysis of its card data.

Stitch Lab ATX offers about two dozen classes per month and hosts private workshops for groups like bachelorette parties and corporate retreats.

To help some students offset these costs, Lugo in August began a monthly giveaway initiative called Sew It Forward, where entrants can comment on a Stitch Lab social media post about why they want to learn to sew, for the chance to win a free new sewing machine, supplies and a free class with the studio.

"I'm thankful for the support that I've received," Lugo says, "and so I want to put all that back into the community now that I'm in a position to do so."

Stitch Lab also stands out during a time when people, especially young adults, are craving community-oriented, offline social events. There's even a resurgence of so-called "grandma hobbies," like knitting and scrapbooking, as people seek relaxing pastimes that keep them off their phones.

In the warehouse dotted with sewing machines and early 2000s or reggaeton music streaming from the sound system, Lugo says he aims to build Stitch Lab up as a fun, creative "judgment-free zone" that can "feel like a home for people."

As an Afro-Latino founder, he says, "this is a safe space for Latinos, for people of color."

"I think community is needed, especially today with so much that's happening in the world," he adds. "No matter who you are, where you come from, you have a safe space to be around other people, learn the same thing ... and just have fun."

Eric Lugo learned to sew from his grandma when he was 5. He got serious about it as a teenager and launched his own fashion brand, Casa Amiré.

Courtesy of Eric Lugo

Stitch Lab ATX's future plans are already taking shape. Lugo says he just hired two part-time instructors to his team, which will allow them to expand to upward of 30 workshops per month. He still aims to keep classes relatively intimate to support one-on-one help and small-group socializing.

Lugo even sees his business expanding beyond Austin, with his sights set on New York City, hotspots across California and even Mexico City.

"I just want to continue to do what I'm doing all around the world," he says.