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I can't believe I ever watched YouTube WITHOUT a little horse buddy in the bottom right corner.

I don't know who the accompanying horse is but I love her and I thank her for joining us. Also this video was great!

The ‘I’m grateful to past Carly for making this so I could have those skills’ is seriously inspiring me to take the jump with certain patterns I’ve been hesitating to make because it is true that you cannot get better until you start doing things

Honestly, as someone who looks up to you tremendously, you talking about how things don’t turn out or how you don’t always have the happiest feelings about stuff is very reassuring. I really love how you’ve figured out how to roll with those feelings and accept that the negative will be there but that it is just part of the journey. You’re amazing!

Loved this video. Ive found that taking breaks after I've made 2 mistakes in a row has drastically improved my garment construction, but also, DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT.

A big paradigm shift for me this last year was seeing myself as an artist. I've always staunchly identified as NOT an artist (which makes a difference as an art historian!) but a mentor recently learned I sew and crochet and challenged me on that. We (as a society) tend to devalue "crafts" as being less than art (due to misogyny), and while I've understood that, I never really internalized that. Seeing it as making art really has changed the way I produce things. I focus less on errors and more on the process and general vibe.

I have been sewing for a long, long time.  From an early age I learned to stop sewing and put it down for the day when the seam ripper came out more than 3 times on a garment.  Stop for the day, reset, and start again the next day as I learned from the mistakes I was making the previous day and didn't do it again.  The one item that stands out for me is the quilt that I made my daughter out of remnants of everything I ever made her, from the curtains for her nursery before she was born to her wedding dress when she married.  That was a lot of fabric saved, but so worth the time it took and the joy it brings me when she looks at it and can remember the outfit that went with the patch on the quilt.  I love your style and your joy for the craft.  🥰

This is me noticing that Kathleen Illustrated, Rachel Maksy and From Carly B all have basically the same haircut and I'm tempted to join them.

Love the sentiment of thinking of sewing as practice, even though there is a finished product. It does get to the point where you feel like you wasted your time and fabric - but its all practice!

Your ending comments are the motivation I need to start the sewing projects I’ve been putting off. I’ve been afraid to end up with an imperfect garment because I know my skills aren’t up to par, but they never will be if I don’t start practicing!

Hi Carly! Regular viewer here - I am an Australian living in Pakistan. I hand sew my own clothes (no machine) and LOVE the fact that fabric is so very very cheap here. There are huge markets where you can find absolute gems in literally every kind of fabric at just a few dollars for a whole shirt piece. This last 6 months I have been drafting my own patterns with inspiration from you, and although some don't work out great, most are very wearable. I am lucky because we wear pretty loose and flowy clothes, so the sizes are pretty forgiving LOL. What I have really learned is to start being brave and trying out new things like embroidering my shirts, playing with sizes and styles and finding what I love to wear. Thank you so much for your videos - they really have helped me in ways you will never realise.

Something I've learned, especially after having my baby, is that sewing is not a race! I have learned to take my time on each step, to have the best outcome, and not rushing to get a project done! I want to reject the consumerist mindset that everything needs to be fresh and new all the time, and instead work on a project for a while, and be excited not by the newness of it, but because I've made something quality and that I will wear hopefully for a long time! Hope that makes sense

reminder: all clothing is handmade! what makes these garments special is that they are homemade and self-made!

i just think this is important to remember because it reminds us that even in fast fashion, human hands are making clothing. there’s no automated factory where machines can align the fabric on their own. you always need human bodies to arrange the fabric, move it steadily through the sewing machine, and keep steady speed on the pedal.

The motto I live by is "if it's worth doing it's worth doing it badly".
I make bad and ugly things all the time and most of the time I learn from it. For the really important things I want to be perfect, I practice and test to make sure I have the skills to do it, but most of the time I wing it and whatever mistakes I make is just part of the charm.
This has also majorly helped with doing everyday tasks. I do mediocre cleaning that is better than what it was before, but it compounds over time so that things are less dirty to begin with.

I always feel like the real test of making garments is how much I end up wearing them. It motivates me to slow down and really try my best/fix mistakes instead of just powering through to get to the end. Because the end is actually the beginning!! My feelings and thoughts on a garment change soooo much as I actually wear it and experience it in my daily life. I loved this video to hear your reflections on the things you made in the moment and also to realize how hard it is to make things you love and get them to fit just right. Sometimes things are just weird!! Anyway, thank you Carly. My biggest sewing revelation is to go as slow and meticulously as possible, it’s always worth it! I used to rush through when I first started sewing to get to the finished thing but now I’m much more into slowing down, doing an extra press, and taking my time. I’ve been sewing 2.5 years. Still so much to learn!!

for what it's worth i don't see multiple videos of the same pattern to be a negative thing at all! it's super cool to get to follow a learning process and hear notes from previous experience, and seeing how you might approach things differently an additional time around :>

my favorite maker quote that helps me get out of funk, i heard from Adam Savage, "Its not problem to solve, its a process to manage." Which helps me re-frame my self-lead projects that I'm pulling my hair out about as like... a learning experience i am going threw that i just need to weather. instead of feeling like im narratively doomed to sit here and try and figure out how to set a zipper until it is correct™.

ive literally been torturing myself with a difficult something-not-working for hours, and that phrase pops into my head and im like. "oh yeah! i dont need to Solve The Armscye here and now, actually." and then i can suddenly get up and make food or something, and come back to decide if something different needs to be done.

Great news: as you improve your knitting, you actually get to REUSE the yarn when you learn new skills and can make things better. I frequently find fibercraft projects that I made when I was newer that I don’t wear/use anymore — they go back into my stash. Some of my stash is stored in hanks, some in cakes, some in WIPs, and some in completely finished garments 😅 I often see new fibercrafters lamenting that they make projects as beginners that just aren’t good quality or useful and they get discouraged because it’s a “waste of yarn/time” — it’s not! The time was spent learning a skill, and the yarn is still there to unravel and use again and again until it either becomes something you love or it degrades to the point that you can’t use it again (at which point it becomes batting/stuffing or wrapping paper, or yes, eventually, refuse). But the TIME wasn’t a waste, it was practicing a skill. And the materials are a necessary part of practicing that skill. Just like making projects for class in school — it’s not a “waste of paper and time” to make a diorama or poster or model, it’s an important part of the learning process!

I love watching a video like this. Reflecting on your journey is a learning experience for you and us. Thank you