I'm speaking at the Sewing Summit!

Have you heard about the Sewing Summit (affiliate link), hosted by Rebecca Page of Rebecca Page Patterns? About a month ago Rebecca asked for speakers for a five-day online sewing conference. I hesitated—what can I teach about sewing? I know a lot, yes, but it can be hard to consider yourself an expert. My husband and I actually had a conversation about the psychology of this concept just yesterday. When you first learn something you get really excited about it and confident in your skills. Then you learn more and your confidence plummets. Over time you gain confidence again, but even after you are quite skilled, you never have the same confidence as that initial burst! (I laughed when he told me this and said that that describes teenagers perfectly). Occasionally I have to remind myself that I really am good at this whole sewing thing!

I chose to do a pattern sew-a-long. At first I thought I would do a sew-a-long of one of my current patterns, the Round the World Purse. It’s a unique design and has been popular. Then I started thinking of my potential audience. Rebecca Page publishes mostly clothes designs and a lot of the people signing up probably come from a background of garment sewing. So I decided to switch focuses to a new pattern that had been floating around in my mind. (I’ve been working hard on a different pattern, by the way, so this was a complete shift in focus). So then I had to rush this pattern into development. Thankfully I have some testers free to help out with a fast turn-around, and I was able to make up several examples pretty quickly, since it’s a beginner-friendly pattern.

So the Sewing Summit starts next week on November 18th and goes through the 22nd! There are around 32 speakers speaking over the five days. Signing up is FREE! If you sign up, you will have access to each day’s classes for 24 hours. If you want to upgrade to an All-Access Pass, you can pay a fee and gain access to all the videos forever.

My new pattern for the Sewing Summit will be published next weekend and you’ll be able to download it for free here on my site, whether you attend the Sewing Summit or not! It’s called the Braided Boho Bag and I’ve designed it for either woven OR knit fabrics! It comes in two sizes, Small, and Large. Here are a few peeks. (These photos are unedited. I haven’t even described the trouble my computer has been giving me today!)