Happy New Year! So glad we made it to 2021… things can only go up from here – right? I usually set a bunch of goals at the start of the New Year, I try to have a creative goal, a fitness goal, financial goal and spirituality goal. This year was no different… I set a bunch of goals – one of them to be to journal more. So I cracked open the journal that’s been sitting on my night stand for at least a year and see that one of my last three entries was from Jan 1, 2019…. where I wrote down the same goals for 2019 that I set for 2021!! I decided right there that I needed to find a way to meet those goals…. or let them go.

One of my sewing goals is to use up enough of my stash to make it more manageable. I’ve got fabric in two rooms … I would really like to get that down to one! So, to do that my goal is to sew smaller stash busting projects such as bags, totes, napkins etc. I”ll also make a few quilts… but I want to first finish up some of my UFOs before starting any of those. I’m also going to refrain from buying anymore quilting fabric … I will work through what I have ….or work on getting rid of it. (I mean it this time). So with that said watch my Etsy store for some bags, and bowl covers that I’m currently working on!

Speaking of my Etsy store – I made a quilt a few years ago as part of a Mystery quilt sew along with the Minneapolis Modern Quilters. Even though I liked it… it was not really my style nor my favorite so I listed it in my Etsy shop. I’ve been seeing all the quilt coats on Instagram lately and that inspired me remove the listing and do what I NEVER thought I would do: cut up one of my quilts.

However, I’m SO glad I did… because I made a quilt coat that I absolutely love! The pattern is the Jill coat pattern from Seamwork. The coat isn’t lined which means that I had to deal with the raw edges. I chose to add binding to the seam – which I learned was called a “Hong Kong Seam”. I’m so glad I had a yard of fabric left in this line in my stash … I used pretty much all of it! (Yay for using up my stash).

I added big patchwork pockets because … well… I wanted big pockets. I could have planned the collar a bit better, there is a seam on the outside, but that’s because the pattern calls for a facing – which I ended up not using because it would have been way too bulky! By the time I realized it I decided it was too much effort to rip it all apart – and nobody would notice anyway.

I was going to make a cuff for the sleeves, but after attaching them I realized that they were long enough that I could just fold them up and call it good. Overall, I absolutely love this coat – it’s the perfect house coat for 2021!