My gorgeous friend Jen from The Stitcher and Gatherer nominated me for the next round of the blog hop. I met Jen, along with a whole lot of old and new-to-me sewcialists earlier this year. We all clicked immediately and try to spend as much time with each other as we can, usually drinking, swearing a lot, going to movies, fabric shopping and occasionally sewing. How often can you say that for a group of women of differing ages, sizes and fashion interests? Sewing - it definitely brings you together.
Jen is a very clever sewist, and manages to make the most stunning creations out of fabrics from op shops and garage sales. I go to a garage sale and sometimes all I can see is mess and dust and rat poop, but Jen goes and sees whole new creations she can sew, and she looks absolutely fabulous in them.. I really admire that about her. She looks fabulous in yellow - one of my favourite colours that I can't wear successfully. Also she has a cute arse - she modelled the women's Strasse jeans for Corr Blimey at the winter Hustle and Scout. I love her to bits and pieces and I was honoured she asked me to join in the blog hop.
But enough about Jen - this post is about me! MEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why do you write?
I love writing. In a past life I trained to be an English and Geography secondary school teacher, and I used to write short stories as a teenager and OMG Really Bad Poetry that occasionally fooled eisteddfod judges into awarding me prizes. I even got a poem published in Dolly once. I know. What happened? Now I'm just a person who vomitblogs like a person after a really bad kebab and too much Midori.
All jokes aside, I started blogging over 10 years ago to no readers. I just wanted to blog what I made. There wasn't much else to it. I never wanted to be a personal blogger, but always a craft blogger. I don't take it seriously, I don't ever want to monetise my blog, and I abhor emails asking me to write free blog content for profitable organisations. I just want to create, write about it, and hopefully share some of my passion for sewing with other people who are as nuts as I am. If I can someone to learn about quilting? Great. If my simple skirt makes someone else think the can make a skirt too? Even better.
What are you working on?
(I am not working on this - it's a photo from the archives!)
A lot! In my head! We are travelling overseas soon on a holiday and I need to write a list of clothes I need to make - probably a few long sleeved t-shirts, a pair of leggings and another skirt with pockets will be on the list. More than likely I will run out of time, and but I'd prefer if I didn't. It will be late autumn and cool where we are going, and after wearing the same winter clothes since April, I'm really sick of them and want to make new ones.
In my more immediate future I need to make some blouses and skirts for work. It's warming up steadily here in Canberra (today will be 27 degrees! Howzat!!). I'm not a wearer of suits but I also don't do casual at work - no casual Fridays for me (I blame Tim Gunn and his abhorrence of casual Friday). So some nice neat skirts, a couple of comfortable blouses and a frock or two and I should be right for the rest of the year. On my list I have planned:
- An Amilie tucked skirt in black floral jacquard
- Another Simplicity 9193 in one of the hundreds of cotton sateens in my stash
- Mimosa Blouse from SBCC in a variety of lawns I have in the stash
- A Seamster Patterns Honeydew Skirt in some spotty Alannah Hill fabric I got from Clearit
- A Maria Denmark Kirsten Kimono Tee just for kicks.
- Anthea dress
- Moneta muslin in a black jersey, and then if that works, some Jaywalker striped fabric (I have like 10 metres of this fabric. I see a lot of tees and leggings and skirts and ...)
Speaking of lists, I have this book and I've just started using it. It's amazing how putting a list in a spiral binding inspires you to think outside your usual square.
How does it differ from others of it’s genre?
I also quilt, so you'll see a lot of quilts on here. At the moment I'm having a break from quilting - with the exhibitions I entered this year it all got a little bit too much, and to be perfectly honest I'm very much over it at the moment. Also clothes are quicker to make than quilts, and I can wear clothes to work (I can't wear quilts to work) and I am really enjoying being part of the clothes sewing community online and in real life at the moment (It's so much less competitive than quilting! And no one is getting all judgy on my arse for starting a new project while not finishing an old one!)
How does your writing process work?
I don't write unless I have something to say. I am a no-obligation blogger. I don't keep to a schedule. If I don't make something, I don't blog it. Sometimes I make something and forget to blog it. But usually there is a story behind the thing I make and I like to tell that story. My creations are usually the result of a need - physical, emotional or spiritual - to create something for someone, or for my own heart, and in the case of clothes sewing, for my own body. I'm proud of the fact I can make things - love to make things - and I sometimes can't help myself and need to write about it to share.
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So who am I tagging? Well I was a little bit excited by who said yes! Mel is a Sydney Spoolette who is apparently a new sewer although you'd never know it. She is super confident with knits but a little scared of wovens. I'm confident with wovens but super scared of knits. We are complete opposites when it comes to sewing but get on really well and have a shared love of food. I know this because yesterday Mel and I met for the first time, shopped, shared guacamole and had some bevvies with some of the Canberra Spoolettes and she was exactly as I imagined her. Also she's really funny, super cute and just a nice person. I like nice people.
