From her 500-square-foot studio built in her Redmond backyard, Tova Opatrny makes instructional videos for her more than half a million subscribers.

Opatrny has made more than 500 such films, posting them both to her website and her YouTube page under the moniker ”Professor Pincushion.” In each one she teaches techniques that help DIYers overcome the hurdles that invariable pop up and stifle creative projects.

It takes about a week to produce each video, each well-lit with plenty of transitions and post-production work. But the advertising on her website and video channels is enough to pay the mortgage and allow Tova to be a full-time content creator.

“I’m not rich by any means, but (YouTube) has helped me make a living doing what I love,” she said.

Now, Opatrny is branching out. She recently wrote a book ”Professor Pincushion’s Guide to Sewing: Garment Making for Nervous Newbies.” During the process, Opatrny was quickly reminded that writing and sewing have a lot in common. Both require consummate planning, a need for creative thought and — invariably — the creator finds themselves in a tight spot where the whole darn thing just seems impossible.

“Writing is basically like sewing,” she laughed. “You’re crying all the time.”

Opatrny grew up in the Bay Area of California. Her mother was a hobby sewer and taught Opatrny the basics, but it wasn’t until a high school class that she found her passion for fabric arts. As a high-achieving student with loads of Advanced Placement classes, sewing freed up her mind to think creatively. She loved troubleshooting problems and making something meaningful out of mounds of scraps.

She then attended college at San Francisco State University, with the goal of working as a screenwriter. Her student job was at Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts, which introduced her to the millions of questions that crafters needed answers to, and the part-time work kept her connected to sewing.

After graduation, she moved to Los Angeles to try out a career behind the camera for TV and movies, but found working in Hollywood “an insanely stressful occupation.” She kept herself sane by sewing, and eventually started to record videos with her husband from their cramped apartment. Each video was geared toward helping crafters solve “some creative, technical thing you’re trying to accomplish.” She had a plan from the beginning — completing a library of 70 videos before sending them out into the public.

“I guess I wanted us to be an encyclopedia,” said Opatrny. “I wanted people when they found me to find just a tranche of videos.”

Opatrny said she didn’t necessarily have a career in mind at the time, but did notice that people were finding her videos and leaving positive comments and making recommendations for other videos they’d like to see.

About nine years ago, she and her husband came to the conclusion that Los Angeles wasn’t for them. They chose Redmond as the setting for a lifestyle and career change.

Soon after they arrived, Opatrny said the quality and quantity of their videos went up, as did the audience. They briefly joined a collective of other craft content makers, which introduced them to an even larger audience. Now, the videos are easy to find in most feeds and bring in reliable viewership. Videos like “How to repair a hole in a t-shirt” has been viewed more than 7 million times.

Those videos now range in theme, from tackling a project from start to finish, like “How to sew a quilt.” Others are short and tackle specific bugaboos, like “How to add a button placket to a garment” or “How to sew a French knot stitch.” Some are geared toward helping crafters choose which sewing machines and fabrics they should buy, others answer questions submitted from the audience.

The pandemic was very beneficial to viewership, she said. Many people took up new, indoor and solitary hobbies. Sewing was one of them.

Opatrny stars in many of the videos, sporting different hair colors and freshly manicured nails, which stand out in the tight shots of needle and thread. When she took up a pen and paper, Opatrny tried to take that same attitude and style to her book.

“I wanted to write it in the cheeky, playful tone I have,” she said.

You can find signed copies of the book at both Herringbone Books in Redmond and the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters. It can also be purchased online at Amazon, Target, Barnes and Noble and other outlets.

– Tim Trainor is editor of the Redmond Spokeman.