I’ve been sewing up a storm again, but I haven’t been sharing about it. I think that’s because for a while, I had no interest in sewing and it became a habit to share knitting projects instead. My sewjo was gone. I’d say beginning in 2024, the burnout began. Like college, after four years of intensely learning, you just need a break. 2025 gave me that space to fully retreat, but as we began 2026 the craving to sew again came back. How did it return to me?

Buy the Overalls

Fed up with my attempts to make complex garments like pants and overalls, I pivoted to buying the pieces instead. In the fall of 2025, I browsed the sales and picked up some new pants that properly fit me including a loose straight fit pair of “Dad” jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch, some stretch corduroy pants from Lee, and some random overalls from Amazon. Yes, fast fashion and yes, I suck. But, it helped me to see that what I had been sewing was not working for me, and although there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, continuing to sew and consume resources that were failing or not being worn was wasteful too. I understand what materials and style of trousers that I want to wear, and would wear if I figured out how to make them.

For my birthday, Kyle bought me a pair of denim dungarees and a pair of wide leg corduroy pants from Lucy & Yak. This is where the pieces began to fall into place. I took a pattern off of the corduroy pants, which I mentioned in “How I Duplicated My Favorite Pair of Pants.” I felt this incredible freedom. I took this momentum and ran with it.

Aver Paula

Randomly, a favorite knitting channel (that I hope YouTube restores after it was hacked over the weekend) gave me sewing inspiration, mainly I love her taste in trousers. The creator has a great collection of thrifted baggy jeans and over-sized lightweight trousers, that once I cloned my favorite pants, I knew I wanted to make my own version of these kind of pants. I wanted to make some utility pants, some cargo pants, and one day some jeans. It was a cool side quest, from a channel I watch for knitting that happened to be a great source of sewing inspiration.

It’s Carly B

My algorithm served me a gem a channel that has invigorated my sewing trajectory, and that is the sparkly human, Carly. I found her originally from her sewing undergarments video, but have stayed to watch her learn stretch fabric sewing, trousers, bag sewing, etc. I am learning a ton from her content, which has led me to an epiphany, I don’t enjoy watching historical sewing YouTube anymore. I actually want to focus on what is happening in the current sewing trends, and learn about indie sewing pattern companies.

Carly’s sewing chronicles are helping me to slow down.

She has a fantastic eye for detail and for teaching. Watching her sew has challenged me to keep going, until its right. Not from a rigid perfectionism, which I easily fall into, but for the love of knowledge and sewing. Her channel injected life into the burnout sewing heart.

Upcycling

My mom and Scott save their jeans and other garments to share with me specifically for upcycling, and I love it. You know how much secondhand denim I have to play with now? And corduroy? It’s epic. I highly recommend asking the people in your life to do this with their garments. Instead of sending these garments to the thrift store or the ripped ones to the trash, I’m getting to play around with the broken stuff and salvage what I can.

Blackbird Fabrics

I have yet to purchase from Blackbird Fabrics, I’m trying to wait out the tariffs because they’re stupid, but I have been so close to ordering some of their beautiful fabric. I am so inspired by their prints, denim, twill, stretch knits. They look like perfection. Their fabrics have reminded me what is great about sewing – you can dream up anything. And they have their own sewing pattern collection too.

Syd Graham

I found Syd Graham through YouTube, and later realized she is the same person who made the Lane Pants and Avenue Shorts patterns. Her channel called to me for her aesthetic, living in Oregon, somewhere that calls to me. I love how local she can shop for fabric and buttons, but what has made me stay has been her approach to making pants. She doesn’t sew hard pants, but she does make fashionable soft pants – stretch waist or tie waist. Which has finally helped me give up my leggings and become a pants person again, but only if they are comfortable.

The Return of Making Cassie and Juliana

A comfort sewing and knitting channel I used to watch before my sewing burnout was Making Cassie, based in Montreal, she was the first creator to put Blackbird Fabrics on my radar. I love the pants, shorts, and knitwear she makes and the approach has towards making. Her channel coming back after a hiatus, pulled me back into making and reminded me of why I want to keep growing in my sewing skills. I think she was the first channel that made me believe I could sew my own overalls, she is kinda fearless.

Finally, the Sewjo was complete when another sewist I look up to, Juliana of the Curated Curvy came back to the internet after her own bout with burnout. I used to love sewing while watching her. She is so creative and reminds me to keep my style no matter where life leads me.

Currently Sewing…

So look forward to some new makes coming to the blog, cause I have been making a ton this year. I just forgot to take to write about it. ❤