After having children, I decided to leave my career in IT to be a stay at home mom but I quickly realized I needed some type of work to keep myself occupied!

I started out sewing children’s clothing, but I switched to bags after finding a free tutorial online. I loved the challenge and the variety that bag making offered. It was very different to sewing clothing. At first, I started making bags to sell on Etsy but after a while I realized I wasn’t interested in production style sewing. One day (after sewing many, many bags) I decided to design and sell my own pattern. To my surprise, the pattern started selling and I was getting a lot of positive feedback. I haven’t looked back since.

Since 2013, I have been a full-time pattern designer working out of my home studio in Toronto, Ontario. I’ve had the opportunity to be one of the featured pattern designers for the “Bag of the Month Club” in 2017 and 2018. I’ve also taught workshops in the U.S. and Canada and hosted my own sewing retreats in Toronto.  I enjoy getting out to work with people face to face. There’s such a great community of bag makers out there and it’s a treat to get to meet some of them in person. Most recently, I have partnered with Alicia Miller of Swoon Patterns to create a six-month pattern subscription called “The Carried Away Pattern Collective” https://carriedawaypatterns.com.

Throughout it all I have always been a huge Janome fan. I worked with a Janome Sewist 625e for 5-6 years and now I’m excited to start working with the Janome HD9 to see what it can do!

You can find all of my sewing patterns on my website at http://bluecallapatterns.com. You can also follow me on Instagram @bluecallapatterns. If you’re sewing any of my patterns I have a great pattern support group on Facebook.   https://www.facebook.com/groups/bluecallapatterns

We greatly look forward to what Celine is going to share with us on janomelife……bag making on the Janome HD9 and Janome 625E!  Stay tuned………Ed