And we're in the home stretch of Top 5s! Just this and 2014 goals to go!
Inspirations is a toughie! When I first bought a cheap sewing machine, my plan was to do machine embroidery and maybe make a few bits and pieces for N. I had no plans to start sewing garments for myself. However stumbling on the world of sewing blogs changed that! I realised that you didn't have to have been sewing since you were a child to be able to make beautiful, great fitting clothes.
I've picked a few areas where I feel really inspired, by bloggers and others.
1) Pattern designers
By that I don't mean established pattern companies like Colette or Sewaholic. But some of my favourite bloggers have released their own patterns this year, both free and paid for. I can't get my head around the process of doing this and how complicated it must be, but how cool to see people making, wearing and loving something you have designed!
Rachel's Brasilia dress
The lovely Katie from
What Katie Sews also mentioned recently she was working on releasing a pattern she had designed - can't wait to see!
2) Refashioning
When I arrived at the epic blogger meet up back in April, I almost squealed to see a dress I recognised and loved that I had just been reading about -
Sally's fabulous Mad Men shirt dress! And no post about refashioning would be complete without a mention for this talented lady. She totally inspires me to have a go at refashioning. I just need to find some time for scouring charity shops - I'm sure I don't have her vision of what the most unpromising items could become!
3) Sewcial media
Some bloggers have such a skill for bringing people together. From the top 5 posts you are reading now, started by Gillian from
Crafting a Rainbow, to the blogger meet ups and swaps organised by
Rachel,
Claire,
Marie &
Kat and many many more, and the
Spoolettes spearheaded by
Clare, sewing people love to get together and chat together! Especially if there is fabric shopping involved. Or drinking. Or both!
Whether it is online or in real life, a lot of people spend a lot of time and effort coming up with great ideas to spread the sewing love and that is pretty inspiring. A few mentions (I couldn't possibly cover everyone so please don't be offended if I have missed you off!):
4) Beautiful photography
I've seen some recent blog posts talking about sewing blogs turning into fashion blogs and being all about photography and less about sewing. These are not the blogs I read. I want to read about sewing but I don't see why you can't have clear pics and great interesting photography. OK, so all we really need is daylight and non blurry photos but it's hopefully more interesting when I manage to get pics somewhere other than my back garden being photobombed by a 5 year old and a grumpy cat!
I know I appreciate it when bloggers work hard with pics (as long as i can see the clothes obviously!).
Some honourable mentions:
I still have work to do on my blog pics - the winter is hard when you can't incorporate an outdoor photo shoot into a family weekend! I'll never be able to take hundreds of pics to choose from (the 5 year old wouldn't stand for it!) but the ladies above and others inspire me to get better!
5) Dyeing fabric
I used to do a lot of fabric dying, tie dye etc as a student and thought those days were past! But I've become inspired to pick it up again for a few reasons.
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| Source: Jigidi.com |
On holiday in the summer we visited a beautiful shop where the owner created lovely batik scarves and sarongs. I wanted to buy fabric but at upwards of £40 a metre it wasn't going to happen. I really want to try making my own. Imagine the great border prints you could make? I'd also like to try shibori and other natural dyes like
Sally and screen printing like
Carolyn. Sadly these are summer projects unless i want dripping fabric everywhere so I'll need to wait a bit.
So that's it - my inspirations!
Only goals to go - just need to work out what they are!
