By ERIC WILSON

Sweat Shop, a tiny new cafe near a trendy stretch of Paris, had barely opened its doors when it faced its first fashion emergency. A young woman brought in a teddy bear that had been worn to pieces.

“We were doing the surgery esthetique on that teddy,” said Sissi Holleis, a designer who had her own label for a decade before opening the cafe this month with Martena Duss, a makeup artist. Their idea was to create a fashion version of a cybercafe: Instead of computers, there are sewing machines that can be rented by the hour. Teddy was quickly patched up and left wearing a matching fur cape.

Ms. Holleis, who arrived in Paris 20 years ago from Austria, and Ms. Duss, who is Swiss, sensed a growing interest in handicrafts among their friends, and also a need to make clothes last longer during a recession. So they brought their idea to Singer, the American sewing machine company, which provided 10 machines including one that makes elaborate embroideries, partly to drum up interest in home sewing in France. They opened the cafe at 13, rue Lucien Sampaix, next door to Bob’s, a three-year-old organic restaurant and juice bar that is popular with the chic crowd.

After Ms. Duss had finished with her designer clients recently - helping with the makeup at the Celine, Yves Saint Laurent and Margiela shows - she put in several hours on the decor of the cafe, which looks deliberately old-fashioned. One wall was covered in six layers of paint and antique wallpaper, then stripped away in spots to look ancient. Several people stopped at the window to stare inside.

Even in Paris, Ms. Holleis said, everyone wants to be a designer.

“I think it’s time for people to start making things for themselves,” she said.

She and Ms. Duss are offering courses in sewing and will also invite other designers for demonstrations. They are also selling kits, which cost 30 to 100 euros (about $42 to $140) and include all the materials needed to create a design, like an easy printed top by the Antwerp label Pelican Avenue. Renting a machine for an hour is six euros, and a slice of cake with coffee is five.