Women’s Patterns

Tempo Runs!

Our bodies are remarkably smart, and tend to adapt quickly to routine. When I first started running I had one pace- and I trained at that pace during every. single. run. While I developed great physical endurance from all the time on my feet, my race times didn’t budge, because I wasn’t challenging my body…

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A Sewing Hedgehog…

You know that game people play at weddings, where they shout out a certain number of years of marriage, increasing it gradually, until there is only one couple that is still left standing? No matter how long you’ve been married (we are going on 16 years!) there is always someone who has been hitched longer…

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Playing with length: The Cape Cod Capelet

We made it through the beginning of school,  the overabundance of September birthdays, and the mad-candy-dash of Halloween, which means its time to settle down a bit into November, and enjoy the calm before the storm. The very fact that I survived all these events and lived to blog about them is more than enough…

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More Fall Athletics…

As some of you may know, we are trying to figure out, as a family, how we can make travel a more regular part of our lives. While the naysayers suggested that this year’s epic Summer Trip (see parts One, Two, Three and Four on the blog), in which we spent two months traveling the…

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A Right of Passage…

After taking most of the summer off, I’ve been getting back into the swing of sewing and testing this fall,  and the Knoxville top is my latest project. I almost passed this one up, because I already own a couple other knot/twist patterns, but I’m so glad I didn’t, because that over sized cowl is…

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New Fall Cardigans…

When I was a kid, I used to divide my closet between “summer” and “winter” clothes. Despite living in California, where the seasons were typically pretty mild, I enjoyed having a stark division in my closet, and had strict rules about not wearing “winter” clothes in the summer, and visa versa. Looking back on it,…

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Nara Pants for Fall (and a Giveaway!)

This past summer, when I was in Denver, I stopped into Fancy Tiger Crafts, “just for a minute”. My minute turned out to be longer (and more expensive) than I expected, because I got a chance to chat with a real sewing celebrity (read the full story here!), and managed to find quite a bit…

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Taking it all in Stride….

What’s your favorite time of day to exercise? I’ve never been a morning person, but in the last six months I’ve experimented with waking up early to get my workout in before I have to jump into my #momduties, and I’m loving it. For those that know me personally, this is a pretty big surprise,…

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Work-In-Progress-Dance Mom and her “Acro Bat!”

I have to admit, I don’t always make the best dance mom. I  seldom (or ever) remember to bring a post dance snack, often forget the pink water bottle and grab the ugly green one by mistake, and have even been known (gasp!) to let my daughter walk outside in her ballet shoes (she’s just…

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Reach for the Stars! (with your fabric, that is)

Ya wanna know my biggest fabric pet peeve ever? When a fabric company refuses to list important details, like weight, stretch and content on something, and simply labels it as “activewear”. There are as many types of activewear fabrics as there are stars in the sky, and knowing these important features helps me determine whether…

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