The graphic at the top of the page is actually my sewing planner, which is currently for sale in my Etsy store. You can go check it out with this link, if you’d like a tool to help you plan your sewing goals for 2025.

But today I want to look back at 2024, to see what I did and didn’t accomplish, and why. I’d also like to see if any of you also struggled to achieve all of your sewing goals in 2024…? Please leave comments!

Did I get the clutter of my sewing room under control in 2024?

Um… Nope.

I did re-design the lace panties for my 18 inch dolls, but I can’t find the pattern on any of my flash drives. So I put an X through that one because… well…

If any of you find where I put the lace panties patterns for 18 inch dolls on this website, please let me know. Because I have no idea where they are. They may be floating around on ChellyWood.com somewhere without any links to get you from point A to point B.

And moving right along…

Did I design a shift dress for Emily’s 18 inch doll? No, I did not.

But I managed to use commercial patterns to make Emily’s doll quite a lovely ensemble of shorts, pants, and shirts.

Emily is my niece, my youngest sister’s daughter. As of this Christmas, she’ll have quite a nice collection of doll clothes for her Kaya doll, combing together the doll clothes I’m giving her for Christmas with the ones I made for her birthday last May.

So I’m very pleased with that accomplishment.

The biggest hurdle for me is balancing my life as a school librarian with my passion for sewing. This past fall, when school got underway, I had prepped 2 months worth of blog posts, here on ChellyWood.com, prior to the start of school. (I can type these posts in advance and set them to be published at a later date.)

So that was a BIG accomplishment.

But right now, I’m kind of wingin’ it “by my tail feathers,” barely getting my blog posts written before they publish. That’s why my Friday blog posts have sort of taken a dive lately.

I did publish the nightgown pattern you see above in Doll Castle News (a magazine for doll collectors and doll enthusiasts) in 2024. So that was another win, for my goals this year.

However I’m still hoping to convert all Ken doll clothes patterns to PDFs before the end of the year. That’s a big goal for someone who gets home from work and feels all squishy at the end of a work day. (Remember the brain on menopause… Uh-huh. Like that.)

I actually re-mastered more than six of my older tutorials, and this Thursday I’ll be publishing the re-mastered version of my Barbie pencil skirt tutorial. So again, that goal has been achieved without too much duress.

The biggest achievement so far this year, though, was accomplished in two parts. Over the summer I wrote a memoir which focuses (at least in part) on how sewing and designing doll clothes has shaped my life.

Then, during National Novel Writing Month (November), I revised the memoir and wrapped it up with a lovely ending.

That was a HUGE accomplishment over the past year, and although my sewing goals may have been somewhat delayed due to my focus on this larger project, I still think writing a memoir has been a very healing exercise for me. I have no regrets whatsoever about it, and I really hope my agent can find a publisher that will take an interest in it.

And then finally…

I connected with a businessman I really believed in, to see if he’d like to sponsor me on YouTube. I’m almost at 15,000 followers on YouTube, so it stands to reason that someone might be interested in doing a sponsorship with me.

But I wanted to choose a YouTube sponsor I could believe in.

So after researching his Etsy store listings, buying his products, using them, and loving them, I reached out to a guy from Florida, to see if he’d like to sponsor my YouTube channel for a very reasonable fee.

Did you catch that? I said he was from Florida.

Florida.

Yeah.

And then after he and I talked on the phone and he was really excited about sponsoring my YouTube channel, this happened:

He and his family (he has a wife and child) have been in my prayers ever since. GOD BLESS THEM.

I haven’t heard from them.

Say a prayer for Phil, okay? Just say a little prayer for him and his wife and his little one, right now while you’re reading this.

God bless you, Phil.

And that’s how my sewing and doll-related goals fared over the past twelve months.

How about all of you? Did you accomplish some of your goals? What sewing and doll-related goals did you set for 2024, and how do you feel about your accomplishments or your… um… shall we say “unfinished business”?

If you enjoyed this blog post, and you’d like to see my videos, you might want to navigate over to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1 to look through my playlists.

If you would like to make a donation to this free doll clothes pattern website, please click here. There’s also a “Donate” button in the main menu.

For anyone who would like to expand their dolls’ wardrobes, you should really check out my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course and my “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch” classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s my bio page on their website, where you can learn more.

For any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.

It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

As always, feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:

*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.

Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with any of the doll or toy companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly enjoys designing her doll clothes to fit a variety of dolls. To learn more about the doll companies mentioned in today’s post, please visit the doll or toy company’s website.