Have you heard of the Make Nine challenge? It’s sponsored by Rochelle of the Home Row Fiber Company and this is my first time participating. My sew-jo was sorely lacking in 2017 so I’m using this as an excuse to get organized. My theory is that if I have a plan of what to make I’ll be able to set specific blocks of time aside to work on things. Rochelle posted some questions to help people chose their Make Nine projects and I went through the exercise before finalizing my items and a few of the questions really stuck out to me. What do you want or need? Be forgiving about pattern choice but get specific about what you want/need to make this year. NH has been so cold that I haven’t even wanted to wear any of my beloved dresses and this has really made me realize how lacking in the separates department I am. My favorite jeans from J.Crew are also starting to fall apart so I don’t even find myself reaching for …

I’m not really one for resolutions, but some yearly goals, sure! I’ve come up with 5 Slowing Down My sewing time is limited so I’ve gotten into the habit of rushing through things to have something finished. Within a few uses I notice things that had I taken a tiny bit more time could have been better. So with that in mind, 2018 will be the year that I slow down! In my life I have made 13 quilts (I’m including a patchwork duvet in that number) and 7 of those were made in 2017! The more I quilt the more I love it, but I’ve seen a sharp decrease in the numbers of garments made since I started quilting. I’m planning to make the sampler quilt from the 2018 Quilters Planner and Frances Firefly for my nieces first birthday (she is currently only 3 months old) so I’m also going to try and savor these projects and not rush them. Sometimes the week before my monthly guild meeting I go into a mad rush …

On March 22, 2014 I posted a photo to Instagram asking people to tell me which pattern to make next: The Mortmain or The Flora.  I went with the Mortmain (seen here) and made a muslin of Flora within a few weeks. Wellll, it took 3 years, 2 month and about a week for me to get back to her. I needed to do a full bust adjustment and had no idea how to at the time so I just said to hell with it and used the skirt a bunch of times. When I saw the Outback Wife line of Bark Cloth by Gertrude Made I thought it would work perfectly as Flora and set to work drafting my FBA! With 3 years of alterations under my belt it was easy peasy! One of the first Indie patterns I ever made used Bark Cloth from Grey’s Fabric and I always look for it now so I was very excited when this collection was released. I first learned about it on the Village Haberdashery Instagram, …

I’ve been following Noodlehead since I started quilting and it honestly never dawned on me to make one of her bags. It never dawned on me to make a bag period! The hardware and lots of pieces intimidated me a bit. I toyed around with the idea of making some simple tote bags, but I have so many tote bags. Free bag with this purchase, free bag with that purchase, etc, etc. If I was going to make something it was going to be awesome and not even in the same realm as a free tote! When I saw the Noodlehead Explorer tote I knew it was time to take the plunge. The pattern is very cute and although I made this version exactly as the pattern says it also has a lot of potential for hacking. I’m thinking magnetic snaps instead of a zipper, no front flap, extra pockets on the inside, the smaller version with the cross body strap; so many possibilities! I had purchased some waxed canvas 2 years ago from Gather Here …

I, Carolanne, of Sweet Carolanne, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’16. I endeavor to wear at least one hand-sewn item each day for the duration of May 2016. If you’ve been following my blog for a while you may notice this is the same pledge I made last year. Towards of the end of May last year I was getting kind of lazy and just throwing on a plantain tee and calling it a day so I want to add to my pledge that I will actually make an effort to look presentable every day! I’m also going to make a real effort to wear the me mades that I make, wear once and forget about. If they don’t get worn they are going to my sisters or to be donated! For the sake of taking stock, I am also not going to buy any fabric in May! My stash is starting to overflow into areas it never lived before so while I’m attempting to wear more of what I make, I figured …