We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unseeded territories of the Coast Salish and Quakwakwakwak peoples, including Slaiwitou, Squamish, Musquiam, and Comox First Nations.

Hello and welcome to Love to Soe. I'm Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns.

And I'm Helen, the designer behind Helen's closetoset Patterns and Cedar Quilco.

We're two sewing buds who love to sew, and it's all we ever talk about.

In this episode, we're interviewing Pauline Bruce, aka So You Think You Can!

Pattern hacking genius, sew the look specialist, and beloved member of the sewing community.

She chats with us about her sewing journey, tells us how to get sewing friendships off the internet and into real life,

and reveals her secrets for finding patterns to dupe ready to wear looks.

If you love to sew, This is your show. Hello, Pauline. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Hello, ladies.

Helen and Caroline, thank you for having me.

We're so excited to chat with you today.

Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Of course.

My name is Pauline Bruce. I'm a lifelong maker with a love for turning sewing patterns into something uniquely my own. I was born in

Lome, Togo, in West Africa. I spent my teenage years and young adult years in Paris, France,

and met my husband there, and we moved to the U. US, had three kids, and I went from being a stay-at-home mom

to a homeschool mom. And I'm happy to say we graduated all three of our kids. They're now in college

and we're a brand new empty nesters. So we've been traveling a lot. And right now,

I'm in Lomé visiting my elderly mom. She's 91 years old and doing fantastic. She was a

professional seamstress and taught me how to sew. And it's been fantastic to spend quality time with her.

Oh my gosh. That's so exciting. I'm so glad that you have lots of time to travel. And I want to know

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