In 2016, one of my resolutions was to bring sewing back into my life. My husband and I became nomadic in November of 2014 and when I put my sewing machine in storage I figured I wouldn’t be sewing for a while. In 2015, I sewed one skirt at the amazing Montréal community space Le Milieu and that only made me miss it more.

It hasn’t been easy to get access to supplies and finish projects before we pick up and move again but I’m so happy to have this important part of my life back. Plus, reaching out to strangers to borrow machines and taking sewing classes in different places has led to wonderful friendships and has helped me grow as a sewist and person.

Marseille — A wonderful friend I met through Thread&Needles lent me her Toyota Super Jeans. Wearing me-made pants and sweater.

Building the Cora app has also helped me feel connected to sewing even when I don’t have access to a machine. Developing it has led me to think a lot more about fabric than I ever had and this year, I want to focus on fabric resolutions. I have the strangest distributed stash at the moment and now that Cora shows me exactly what comes in and out of it, I want to think more intentionally about my approach to fabrics.

I’d love it if you’d join me in developing and sharing some fabric resolutions! To add to the fun, I’ve picked out a few prizes that will help with keeping fabric resolutions. I’ll be giving them out throughout the month of January.

#fabricresolutions giveaways

To participate in the giveaways, share your fabric resolutions on Instagram and/or Twitter with the hashtag #fabricresolutions and make sure to tag @meetcora. On the last day listed for each week below at 9pm EST / 2am GMT, I will gather up all the entries and randomly pick the winner. If you post on both Instagram and Twitter, you’ll be entered twice. You can enter every week if you want and entries from around the world are welcome.

I’ve suggested some themes for each week but if you have fabric resolutions that don’t fit these, that’s great too!

Week 1 (Jan 1 – Jan 7)
Theme: Sewing up stash favorites
Win: A $20 USD gift card for IndieSew. With patterns from many wonderful independent pattern designers and community reviews, IndieSew can help you make a plan for those beloved fabrics in your stash. Just steer clear of their fabric section!

Week 2 (Jan 8 – Jan 14)
Theme: When acquiring new fabrics, I will…
Win: Gertie’s New Fashion Sketchbook. Use this body-positive fashion sketchbook to plan your creations.

Week 3 (Jan 15 – Jan 21)
Theme: When acquiring new fabrics, I won’t…
Win: A Craftsy class worth up to $20 USD. I recommend Sandra Betzina’s Fabric Know-How: Choosing & Using Your Favorite Fabrics which is a great one-stop resource on different kinds of fabrics and how to use them.

Week 4 (Jan 22 – Jan 31)
Theme: Sewing up forgotten fabrics (that maybe you don’t even like that much)
Win: The Sewtionary. Tasia has such great attention to detail and great teaching abilities. If you need more reason to love this book, look no further than this hilarious review from Karen at Did you make that?. Why not use some of those less-loved fabrics to try new techniques?

I’m excited to see what kinds of resolutions you all come up with so I can get some new ideas on being a more thoughtful “fabric collector.” 😊

While you’re thinking about 2017 sewing resolutions, here are some other ongoing challenges that I think are pretty awesome:

Happy New Year and may 2017 be filled with great sewing!