Last week I attended the Sew Sweetness Retreat in Chicago. This was my first Sew Sweetness retreat, but not my first sewing retreat. I really enjoyed this retreat. It was small and intimate with only around 23 attendees. By the end of the first day, we were all fast friends.

We had a welcome reception on Thursday evening. There was a full day workshop on Friday and Saturday, and then for those who stayed at the hotel could continue sewing on Sunday until noon.

I commuted daily to and from the retreat , as I was local to the venue. It would have been nice to have stayed at the hotel, but I chose to drive in so that I could treat myself to cork fabric, glitter vinyl fabric and supplies at the Sew Sweetness pop up shop. I show all of my goodies on my youtube video above.

The guest instructor, Celine Alleart, had the Friday workshop. We made her Boronia Bowler Bag pattern. Click on the photo above to see the completed bags. There were different techniques used in this bag pattern that were unfamiliar, but after completing them, it was nice to learn a new way to box a bag with lining all in one step.

Saturday, Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness instructed the workshop on her pattern, the Satellite Bag. This is a crossbody, small messenger type bag - soooo cute and functional. This is a fun bag to make.

I met several new friends, and many of us went to dinner both nights together. I met a doctor, lawyer, Air Force veteran, mothers, grandmothers, dog and cat mothers :), and another youtuber! You can check out her youtube channel Birdcage Threads .

The second part of my vlog is the unboxing of my very first Fab Fit Fun Fall 2018 box! I have been following youtube vlogs of people unboxing their fab fit fun boxes, and have reviewed the website for a good year before I finally decided to go ahead and give it a try. So far, so good. I am very pleased with this fall box. I like that I can choose certain items to customize my box.

I also like that this subscription box is only 4 times a year. I feel like this is more affordable as well as useful. Everything is full size product, and they survey you to find out what you like and what you don’t like. Check out my video to see what was in my fall box!

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Don’t forget to also listen to my podcast, Make and Decorate. I publish episodes on a bi-weekly basis.