Welcome to 2015!

Wow, I can’t believe that it is already January the 4th. The kids go back to school tomorrow after a great 2 weeks home, and what a busy 2 weeks those were. I sewed up a lot of things to be ready for Christmas, the joke is they were all for the princess. She was the Christmas princess this year. I am so excited for a new year in sewing, a year where I am going to challenge myself to step outside my comfort zone and try things that I don’t think I can do. I am learning that I can do them if I take my time and apply myself. Of course my mother and every teacher I have ever had are all sighing in unison at this point. My mother keeps reminding me that she told me so 🙂 She’s right, she did. But up until this point I have never found anything that makes me as happy as sewing does. Even when I try something new and screw it up miserably, I can never imagine giving up on sewing. Which is saying something because as a young single person that’s all I ever did, I quit.

Being a mommy has made me buck up and push through hard things, and I am a better person for it. My kids are so excited about my new year in sewing, of course they are, they will both be getting some really fun new clothes from it. The princess got a Janome Orange Blaze machine for Christmas and although I am leery about letting a 5 year old have a sewing machine, I have heard nothing but good things about it. She and I will be learning together, the safety things she needs to know and how fast I should be giving in to her independent nature. I found a great teaching series on Welcome to the Mouse House. Hayley has lots of great ideas and printouts, as well as tutorials for us both to follow together. You can find that post here http://www.welcometothemousehouse.com/2013/12/little-stitchers-weekly-sewing-series.html it’s really helpful.

On top of that I am going to learn how to use my serger for more than the 4 thread overlock, which is what I know at this point. I am also going to use it more often. But the big excitement in the sewing room is the lovely NEW, yes NEW Janome Juno computerized machine that I got for Christmas. It is lovely, a thing of beauty, a thing that scares me to death, but I will figure it out and we will be the very best of friends, eventually.  I have a ton of classes on Craftsy just waiting for me to have the time to sit down and listen to them. So for that I have dedicated an hour a day. I have Beginner Serging, Create a Size Pattern grading for sewers, and sewing Knits that fit are the first ones I am going to tackle.

I have signed on for a few tests already, 2 on Ellie Inspired, Laura is doing more lovely’s in women’s sizes, yeah clothes for me! As well as with Kylie at Fresh Stitch Patterns, for the Princess. I love Kylie’s patterns they are really straight forward and easy to follow. Particularly awesome if you are new to sewing or new to PDF patterns. I have signed up with the girls over at The Scientific Seamstress for Just for Me January, a month of sewing just for me, 4 weeks 4 themes and prizes!! We all need to pamper ourselves sometimes right? Well I went a step further and joined the Facebook group Sew your (pattern) Stash 2015, where we will be spending the entire year trying to sew up as many of our old unused patterns as we can. Each month has a theme and it looks like it is going to be really fun as well. You can find more information on that here: http://sew-not-perfect.blogspot.ca/2015/01/january-link-up-party-sew-your-pattern.html

I am not usually one to write long blogs, but this one is just so exciting for me it goes on and on.

I think before I get to far into 2015 I should tie up the loose ends in 2014. I am going to sign this post off here, and go do some photo editing. I will be back with a photo montage (and links) of all the things that I sewed and tested in 2014 🙂

Thanks for visiting.

Kelly.

The Scientific Seamstress: https://www.facebook.com/scientificseamstress

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/scientificseamstress

Ellie Inspired: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ellie-Inspired/156440471045583

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/EllieInspiredClothes

Fresh Stitch Patterns: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Freshstitchpatterns?ref=ss_profile