Among the many “heritage” skills taught by the North Alabama Agriplex, none may be more useful in the present day than the one that’s being taught now and all of next week — learning to sew.

Kids ages 5-11 this week have been going through the basic steps with needle and thread at the Agriplex’s daily classes, with a full week on tap beginning July 23 of more advanced sewing skills for ages 9-13.

Agriplex director Rachel Dawsey said the idea is to ensure basic, self-sufficient skills that once were commonplace aren’t lost on new generations of local children.

“We started this back around 2013, and the goal was to make it a heritage skill,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know how to sew — sewing on buttons, stitching and mending something back together — and it’s something our older generations grew up knowing how to do.

“Our basic sewing camp filled up really quickly. It’s actually become our most popular program.”

This week’s group of new learners stuck with needle and thread until Friday, when the Agriplex hosted an open house and broke out the sewing machines, giving kids a taste of what lies beyond the basics. When the next class picks up on Monday, the machines will be a part of each day’s lessons. There are still a few open slots for that program; contact the Agriplex at 256-297-1044 or cullmanag@gmail.com for more information.

Throughout the year, the Agriplex also makes sure that grown ups, too, can bone up on the sewing skills they might have missed out on earlier in life.

“This year, we did a machine sewing course with the grown ups, and it was popular,” said Dawsey. “We’ll be doing another one later this year, too. We have some wonderful volunteers who teach these courses — retired teachers and visitors through the Americorps Vista program — and the response always has been great.”

Visit the Agriplex’s website at agriplex.org to stay up to date on all the activities, programs, lectures and events the nonprofit organization puts on throughout the year.