Challenge Accepted?!?

Welcome to you September! You are one of the month’s I look forward to seeing the most as you are the start of my favourite season….Fall!

As you might already know or have heard, Sewing is National Sewing Month and this year I’ve decided I need to embrace this in the hopes that it will help give me some inspiration to get the heck back into my sewing room! I’ve created a “September Sewing Challenge”, I shared a post about it on our social media on

My sewing mojo has once again taken a hike and I ain’t got time for that!!! I have a few projects I’m supposed to be working on and I just can’t seem to bring myself to do any of them! This weekend I found my way into my sewing room and after just sitting there feeling nothing but “blah”, I decided to give her a little much needed refreshing deep clean. I love my space clean and orderly, that’s no secret, but I found lately that I just didn’t care about that so much, I wasn’t cleaning up in-between projects like I normally do, I was leaving projects left uncompleted…..I’m just a mess basically lol! So I hoped that having that renewed feeling would help my creativity be renewed too, and I think it worked!

My projects that I have scheduled are:

• a sew along for The Elemental Coat by Crinkle Dreams
• a diaper bag
• new harness pattern for my puggies
• and of course, still hanging around is my Sewing Machine Travel Bag 😒

Gosh, just looking at the list seems overwhelming, they all seem like huge, daunting tasks for me but if I break it down, it’s not so bad! The sew along will be quite challenging for me as I’ve never done anything like it before! The good thing is that even though we get weekly challenges and goals, it’s really a sew at your own pace kind of project that doesn’t wrap up until October so I feel confident that I can follow along with! I’ll definitely be sharing more about it in an upcoming Blog so don’t worry lol!

The diaper bag, well that is also a challenge! Yes I’ve made tons of bags but never a diaper bag! This is another request from my sister-in-law, Dawn, the one that lives in Ecuador. Her niece, who actually lives in the same town as me, is expecting her first child, a baby boy, so Dawn has tasked me to make a bag that has a subtle exterior and then some fun prints on the interior! As always, the fabrics will be the easy part, the challenge I’m having is deciding on a pattern of course lol! Baby is due in November but my goal is to have it down early October so pitter patter, I gotta get atter’ lol!!!

As for the new harness pattern, that’s not of super importance, it’s just something I’d like to do. It seems I’m just never 100% happy with collar and/or harnesses for my puggers so this is really just an ongoing issue that hopefully one day I’ll figure out! I have a design in mind that I feel will work but the problem is, after exhaustive searches, there doesn’t appear to be an already existing sewing pattern for it sooooo, this is were things get scary because I’m attempting to make my own, which is definitely not my forte! It might be such a simple thing for others but not this brain! Could I just buy a pre-made harness? Yes and no lol! Pugs have weird shapes and any of the ones I’ve tried on Minnie, don’t fit correctly and that means danger! She can easily slip out of them because they’re too big in the wrong places, but if I can get it to fit better, I think it will be a success! Wish me luck lol!

Is anyone else getting the idea that I’m procrastinating by writing a bunch of gibberish instead of actually sewing lol? You might be right lol! Ok ok, off I go! I really just wanted this Blog to be about the little sewing challenge I’m doing in September but somehow it turned into my kind of whining lol…oh well, I know you are always so supportive of me and if I needed to do a little venting, I know you will understand!

Ok, so the challenge….here’s what I have planned…..

I’m challenging you to keep a photographic record of all your sewing projects for the whole month of September and then share them with us in the first week of October! No matter how big or small the sewing project is, from sewing a king size quilt to mending a tiny hole, snap a quick picture! I think some of you will be surprised how much you actually accomplish, and no matter if it’s one project or 20, they all deserve to be celebrated! Also, they don’t have to be started and/or finished in September if you don’t want….just take a “along the way” picture! At the end of the month, I’ll make another post and ask you to share your pictures, preferably in a collage form, which I can totally help make if you don’t know how! I use the free app PicCollage and it’s super simple, and I’m sure there’s tons of apps you could use! Everyone who submits their pictures in October will be entered to win a Fun and Funky Monkey Favourites Prize Pack in a random draw!

Super simple, super fun….I hope lol! I certainly don’t want anyone to feel any anxiety or pressure, or feelings of “I only got 1 project done but look at Sally, she got 17″….this isn’t a number competition, it’s not a competition at all, just a fun way to celebrate something we’re all doing anyway, including me…hopefully lol!

Alright, it’s time for me to go and get started on some of these projects, well after I go outside and play ball with Norman who’s sitting under my desk, staring up at me with those big sad “quite ignoring me Mom” eyes but then, after that, back I come and something constructive WILL get done lol!

Wishing you all an amazing week!

Shawna