2025 Year in Review
So much has changed since I started this blog back in 2012. That was the early days of indie pattern designers such as Colette (now Seamwork), Closet Case (now Closet Core), and Grainline Studio. It was the heyday of blogs—sewing blogs for me—and discovering them felt so special. I’m so thankful for the sewing community I got to become a part of; the real friendships that formed out of it and all of the opportunities to attend sewing retreats with Camp Workroom Social or at Maker’s Hideaway. But online, it’s a different landscape now. If you aren’t monetizing somehow, it all seems like a lot of work (and expense) to be a content creator these days. Not to mention that the big social platforms are mostly owned by horrible people and the comments sections often show the worst of the internet. There’s also the obvious factors from the past five years: the pandemic, politics, war, genocide, natural disasters, and now ICE raids. It often feels weird, unimportant and possibly inappropriate to share my makes and act like it’s business as usual when it’s not for so many.
I am clearly not the only one who feels this way and the online sewing communities that I am a part of have found alternative solutions to be able to chat and organize social events by moving to Slack or Discord (and web apps like Threadloop have popped up, which I am also exploring), but I have been missing sharing my finished projects in the way that I used to. This blog was almost dead. I hadn’t posted in over a year, because of everything going on in the world and my personal life. I was too busy and stressed. It wasn’t fun anymore, felt like a chore, and didn’t make sense to do, but I can never seem to let it fully die. Whether anyone ever looks at it or not, I frequently come here to check how I made a recipe or a garment, so this blog has always been a great record in that way. And I am less busy now. My plate has been cleared of volunteer events, family drama has ceased, and I have been still been sewing. I’ve made some really great things that I want to share, so I have decided to give it another go starting with this year in review.
That was a long intro, but we had some catching up to do! If I had written down my goals for 2025, they would have been to be less distracted, more in the moment, and to spend more time with friends and loved ones and I think I succeeded. Despite everything going on in the world, Matt and I had a good year in a lot of ways. I’ll try to just give highlights for the rest, but it was a pretty big year.
TRAVEL
Since this is primarily a sewing blog, I will focus on what I wore on vacation (and many of these can be seen on my “Makes” page), so here are some pics from a few of the trips we took in 2025!
As part of Matt’s 50th birthday, went to Denver.
We also won tickets to go see Nick Cake in San Francisco!
Some friends of our’s got married in Oaxaca and we were lucky enough to join them on this epic trip.
SEWING
I started of the year by doing a couple of private lessons with my good friend and her teenage daughter where we made a pattern weight pouch in one class and pajama bottoms in another. It was so fun to see their quick improvement and successful finished projects. Whenever I get a chance to teach, it reminds me how much I love doing it.
Sadly, Camp Workroom Social wasn’t in the cards for me again this year, but I was lucky enough to do three local retreats at Maker’s Hideaway and one last-minute getaway before the end of the year (with sewing machines) to a friend’s house in Cle Elum!
Makes
It’s hard to remember exactly what I made this year since I haven’t been good about documenting that. I got pictures of a few things, so I may still go back and blog about them, but here is what I can think of that I made in 2025.
- A pair of Navy corduroy Closet Core Ginger Jeans
- Two True Bias Roscoe Blouses
- A green sherpa Jalie Alex Pullover
- Two Helen’s Closet Slocan Tanks- one with a shelf bra
- A Pattern Scout Cozi Jacket made with a fun leopard print sherpa fleece from Stone Mountain & Daughter
- A pair of Closet Core Poppy Shorts
- The Klum House Fremont Tote- I brought it to Mexico and it was great!
- A pair of high-rise Closet Core Ginger Jeans
- Two more Sew Liberated Joanie tops
- A Hey June Handmade Evergreen Jacket out of a gorgeous black technical fleece from Stone Mountain & Daughter
- Grainline Studio’s pickle ornament for our annual ornament exchange
- A pajama set (just in time for the holidays) made up of a Grainline Studio Linden Sweatshirt and True Bias Hudson Pants in a See You at Six fabric with cameras on it!
- A gold and black striped Closet Core Sallie/Seamwork Moneta mashup to wear on New Year’s Eve!
Here a few pictures I could find on my phone:
GARDENING
We had a pretty good gardening year in 2025 as well. I think I’ve finally figured out how to make our long PNW gardening season felt good, enjoyable, and not overwhelming. Here are some of the highlights:
SKATING
Another positive thing Matt and I did for ourselves in 2025 is get some new skates so we could started learning how to jam skate. Matt and I have always had hobbies we do separately, like roller derby and hurling and golf and sewing, but this is the first thing like this we have done together.
With my background in roller derby and Matt’s in hockey, we weren’t starting from scratch, but it has been many years since I have skated regularly and any type of dance skating is very different from roller derby. For one thing the skates are different. You need a boot with a heel vs. the low speed skates we had for derby. We also didn’t practice skating backwards much in derby, so that has been a huge area of focus for me.
In the spring we took an eight week “roller disco” class where we focused on some of the footwork and learned some choreo. That’s me in the back. I’m keeping up okay!
Thursday nights we try to attend the adult skate at Southgate Roller Rink. There are some amazing skaters there that are great to watch and learn from. It’s such a lovely scene there; so friendly and inviting. Saturday mornings we’ve been skating there with the artistic skaters of Go Figure and learning a lot from them as well.
For most of 2024, I had some super serious body pain and mobility issues (due to hormonal stuff it turned out) that prevented me from being as active as I am normally, so I’m immensely grateful that I can even do this now. It’s all been super fun and is good for me mentally and physically. We plan to double down on the skating this year!
When I first started this blog I was in my mid-thirties and will be turning fifty this year. It feels so true that time starts to move faster as you get older. This past year flew by and seems like a blur, so reviewing my year in this way is such a good exercise, especially during Seattle’s “big dark” when it’s easy to feel down. Looking back in this way fills me with so much gratitude. I realize how privileged I am and I feel so fortunate to lead the life and do the work that I do.
My status as a DINK makes it possible for me to have a job that is not part of the corporate machine. PCNW’s first exhibition in the new year is Susan Meiselas: Crossings, that includes photographs of Central America during the 1970s and 1980s (from Nicaragua and El Salvador) along with panoramic images from the US/Mexico border taken in 1989, so is timely and worth checking out.
I realize that 2025 was a terrible year for many, including close friends who suffered losses of jobs, family members/pets. After many years (arguably almost a lifetime) of my own personal struggles and grief, it was the kind of year I needed to be reminded that the world is not all ugly and that there are still kind and loving people and beautiful places in the world. And, if the world is ending (as it sometimes feels like it is), if we are able to, we might as well experience some joy while we are it, right?
