So what was your first sewing project? Was it easy or hard?
My first sewing project was a black Bolero jacket when I was in year 9 at school. In my defence they were all the rage back then It was really quite easy, but I had my teacher to help me through the tricky parts.

Do you backstitch to "close off" the thread?
Yes, always.
Do you use patterns or do you freestyle your projects?
Depends on what I'm making. I'm not a terribly brilliant sewer, so for clothes I stick to patterns, for other stuff I freestyle LOL. Check out my blog entries for Jan/Feb and you will see what I made up myself.

How do you decide what fabric to use?
Again it depends on what I am making. The drink bottle covers I made were oilcloth and the bags and apron were just regular cotton. The patterns will tell you what type of fabric you need if you are unsure.