 you are staying healthy and staying safe. A little video for you today that I thought would be pretty timely. I know a lot of us are choosing to stay at home, which is the smart thing to do. This is like day 12 of my self-imposed quarantine. The governor of North Carolina just put in the shelter in place order like yesterday, so I'm going to be home until at least April 9th or something like that. So I am trying to think of ways that I can use this time really thoughtfully and really wisely. I have had a lot of sojo, which has been really great. I've been able to work on a lot of projects, projects that I had planned that you saw in my March plans video, but also a lot of stuff that I was just like spontaneously like, let's work on this, which is the result of the DIY makeup remover pads. That just kind of came to me just in a moment and I was inspired to do it, very spontaneous. So today I'm going to give you three ways that right now you can kind of use this downtime to level up your sewing, not just the practice of sewing, but actually learning something new about sewing and tackling tasks that you want to be better at. So you guys know I've talked about my struggle with pants for a long, long time and I've actually had two really great pants projects come out recently. One are the burnside bibs that I'm wearing right now and the other one were the closet case pattern overalls. So both kind of similar in the fact that the waist was going to be a little bit forgiving, but I did tackle the crotch curve and depth and, you know, all of that that goes on in that area of your body to get it to fit really well and not just rely on the straps to hold it up. So that's kind of what got me thinking about this like, what are some things I've really wanted to dive into that I haven't because I've had a lot of projects going on or a lot of things going on outside the home that have kept me out of my sewing room, yada, yada, yada. So the first one is kind of in that vein of learning new skills. Blueprint, formerly known as Craftsy, they have all of those classes online. They have made their entire library of classes completely 100% free for the next two weeks. So through April 9th, coincidentally, through the entire shelter at home order from the North Carolina governor, all of the blueprint classes are 100% free. You do have to sign up with them, but you do not have to give them a credit card or they don't keep any of that information, payment information on file. You literally just go there and watch as many classes as you want. In terms of sewing, there are so many great classes. Actually, a lot of the classes that were at Sew Expo are also on this blueprint. Everything from finishing details like how to use interfacing to improving certain skills like collars or button placets. There are fitting classes. There are styling classes. There are just everything you can possibly think of. And if you're not into the video watching thing, because some of them are pretty long, you know, they're broken up into like 30 minute sessions. There are also little written stories or blogs, however you want to look at it as well. And those are short three to five minute reads on all of, you know, similar topics about how you can, you know, take what you know about sewing and level up a little bit. So I have a link in the description box for you guys to use. It'll take you over to blueprint so you can start watching some of those classes. The second thing I wanted to mention was the idea of diving into a topic like deep, diving really, really deep. And when I was at Sew Expo, I took a class from Lorraine Henry and really drank the Lorraine Henry juice. I am completely hydrated on it. I went so far as to order the textbook, the textbook, like this is what is taught in schools that she uses to teach her fitting. And this textbook goes into so many details specifically about fitting with pattern alterations, which is what, like, I'm not that interested in learning how to draft my own. I mean, I guess a little bit, but more importantly, I want to take pattern pieces and alter them to fit my body. And that's what that textbook does. There are a lot of other textbooks out there that cover many different areas of sewing, but this one in particular will have you take all of your measurements, compare your measurements to the pattern pieces, and then depending on where those numbers do not match up, it'll give you the alteration that you should do and then three ways to do that alteration. I know it's crazy. Things that I never would have even considered having an alteration, like forward head alteration, literally, forward head is what it says. So there's a lot of different things, larger neck, thinner neck, flared lower ribs. And you're like, how do I know if I have flared lower ribs? Well, it'll tell you the body measurement positions that you need and then the pattern measurement comparison. So if your pattern full bust front is correct, but your pattern at mid-drift front is too narrow, then you need a flared lowered ribs alteration. So this is what I'm saying. You can go in deep, deep, deep on your body. You can pick one pattern and really nail it in terms of the fit. And that to me is just a great way to spend all of this extra time that we have. So I'll have a link in the description box where you can get that exact textbook. Otherwise, head to Amazon, do a search for whatever you're interested in, and I'm sure lots of textbooks will show up. I can really only vouch for this one though, because this is the only one that I have currently. But as you can see, it is a wealth of knowledge. The last thing I wanted to mention is, and I have more information on this tomorrow, but it is Cricket is doing a whole bunch of blogs on their website for stay at home tutorials. So tutorials on how to do things using materials that you already have at home and cricket tools and supplies. So the understanding here is that you would have a cricket machine and you would have some basic cricket supplies. I am doing a tutorial tomorrow on a couple of things I made with my cricket maker using scrap fabric that I already had at home, but they're gonna be doing a lot of blogs with other ideas. You know, cricket isn't just for sewing, it is for home decor and wearables, things that you haven't sewn, you know, and different stuff like that. So I'll have a link to the cricket blog below to where you can kind of like use your cricket machine in ways that maybe you haven't tried before. Like this past holiday season, I was doing all of that crafting on my cricket and I was, you know, finding myself, you know, doing the balsa wood and doing the really thick corrugated, it's not card, it's not corrugated, it's just, what do they call it, craft board? So I was using all these materials that I had never really even had before and playing around with it really. And now is the time to try something and maybe have a fail, maybe have not a fail but have learned something along the way. I think that that kind of helps boost our spirits a little bit whenever we're using those parts of our brains that we don't usually tap into. And when it comes to sewing, if we're sewing the same things all the time in the same ways, it can be kind of mundane. So this is a great way to kind of challenge yourself to do things differently and better. So yeah, just a fun quick little idea for all of you guys. Like I said, I'll have links in the description box where you can access these three things. And let me know what else you guys are doing to not only pass the time but do it with intention and wiser. Will you come out of this a better sewist than you started? Will you? That's gonna do it for me today. Check back tomorrow for my Cricut tutorial. I will see you all very soon. Bye.