Design by Wiksten // Image via Spoonflower
At the start of 2014, I wrote a List Of Things. 'Revamp blog' was about 3/4 of the way down and added with an extra sprinkling of 'that'd be nice, manana, manana'. But here we are, it is March and I cannot wait any longer to overhaul this space. If you've been with me since the beginnings of this blogging journey, you'll have noticed there's not a whole of sewing for 'bebe's happening these days. Just know my boys are clothed. Also know, I've been wrestling with this long and hard, feeling like changing my content from kid sewing to lady sewing was somehow a big bloggy no no. I've come to realise that creativity is fluid and if you give yourself over to it and don't get bogged down in the 'should sews', it makes sense that you'll be constantly evolving too. Blog design can be tweaked. But a good a lesson in choosing a blog name that can grow with you!
For the month of march I'm going to be entering that dark place where the technically-able reside, fumbling my way from one blogging platform to another, hoping to emerge with the blog equivalent of a butterfly, or at least a Spanish Moon Moth.
See you in on the other side! In the mean time what I'd really like to know is....
Why do you f#%$ing love sewing?
i like a lot of crafty things like knitting etc but with sewing the effect is fast and it means i can see how something is constructed from what started as just a sheet of fabric. love love love creating.
ReplyDeleteI started following you because of your boy sewing, but I keep following you because everything you make is so darn inspiring. Cant wait to see where you go next.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started my blog, I was a knitting fanatic. I'm less fanatic these days but I still knit. Along the way, I picked up sewing. I knit and sew for the pleasure I get out of them, both with the process and the end results. I can't remember when I started following your blog, my memory these days is bad, but I really enjoy seeing the things you sew. I guess our blog changes as our interests and the things we blog about change, but as long as you're having enjoying it, that's what matters. Looking forward to your blog changes :)
ReplyDeletei f#%$ing love sewing... because i love being about to say I f#%$ing made that! all the planning, all the stitching, all the unpicking, all the iron burns, even all the $$ spent... but at the end: i did it. i made it. such a satisfying feeling.
ReplyDeletegood luck in that dark place :)
It's a love I can't begin to explain! It has really cganged everything I want out of life these last few months in particular. Glad to hear you've decided to go with the flow of your creativity. Look forward to seeing what comes next for you.
ReplyDeleteI love sewing because wearing something I dreamed of then made then wore is strangely addictive! I've only found your blog recently but I like your what you do and your name! I don't have the prior associations with the kid sewing theme- and it still works! Hope all the techy stuff goes well!
ReplyDeleteI love sewing because I love having something that I'm so passionate about! Sewing is always on my mind, more than anything I love looking at patterns and Burda and imagining all the possibilities. I can go anyway in the world and find a fabric store to shop in. I can spend hours on the internet reading sewing blogs and watching videos and finding inspiration. Also I have done many crafts but sewing to me is the most practical. 95% of my clothing is me made. I feel sad for people who don't have a hobby. My husband enjoys wood work, our crafts are very similar so that is great also that we can share our hobbies.
ReplyDeleteI love sewing because I can make what I want. I started my blog to chronicle that process -- blogs should change as people do or as you learn more or go in a new direction! I look at RTW now and don't even want to spend the money -- I would rather spend it on fabric and patterns!
ReplyDeletei think the progression from sewing kid clothes to your own clothes is a natural one. my kids were the recipients of my sewing for a long time before i realized i could probably make clothes passable for myself. my kids still get things sewn for them, but it wasn't that long ago that i wouldn't have dreamed of sewing my own wardrobe! i sew because i've always loved to make things. sewing is a practical hobby, and i just can't imagine life without!
ReplyDeleteI love 'making' in general, not just sewing. The reason why I love making is because I f#%$ing love to see how I can transform some materials into something unique and personal. Creating is what I've been doing all my lifeand I can't imagine living a day without 'making'!
ReplyDeleteI also found your blog in the days of more you sewing. The change of direction works for me, your work is always inspiring. Honestly, there's a lot about sewing I hate and places my projects always stall (for some reason pants with everything but waistband is a big one). For me sewing love is more product than process. I like that with sewing even complicated projects can be fairly quick 'cus I'm in it for the end result--clothes that fit and are to my specs. I always have little collections of fabrics I'm planning to pair and it takes some doing to switch to production mode but when I eventually complete my plan I realize how much percolating has been going on and I do feel great pride in the time, thought and work the finished object represents. I also sew for my kids and learned most my skills that way, I'll always love seeing them in things I've made and they are still accepting as they get older (10 and 12) but somehow I've never read many kids sewing blogs. I guess it's that even when sewing for kids yourself, everyone is at a different stage, e.g. I don't have a toddler or baby to sew for so I don't want to keep up on hot patterns in those sizes. Somehow I've never been looking for kid ideas but adult sewing, completely different. I find it so important to see many examples of a pattern and exactly how items can be worn and combined. I love your blog for that. Best wishes in the overhaul don't let it eat into the sewing time and don't worry about the name, continuity is good, too.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see the 'new' blog!!!
ReplyDeleteoh pleasy please pleeeeeease more cirque du mama clothing.... i love seeing your bebes but i don't feel it's strange at all to see YOUR lovely self up here in your stunning creations. in fact i always thought the name leant itself to a circus of errrrrthang.
ReplyDeletebut most of all, it's your blog, you should do what floats your boat at all times. :)
Honeypie, I've been in hell all month. Wordpress can be tricky. Really tricky. You can either get continue to use blogger and host on your own URL or go the WP or Square space route (I think the prettiest blogging template on SS is Montauk - not all of them have sidebar potential). My advice to you is find a template that has good bones. Something that doesn't not require a lot of tweaking. I picked a beautiful template that needed A LOT of customization and ended up having to pay a web guy a lot of money to customize. In for a penny, in for a pound.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what you come up with! Feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Oh man, you're reminding me that my plan was to redo my blog in JANUARY. Whoops!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, lady, I'm excited to see anything and everything that you make! I know any direction you move in will be amazing!
Sewing, for me, is so awesome because it's both creative and pragmatic. I get my creative kicks plus I get a sweet, unique wardrobe, which is awesome.
Very exciting! I love to work with linen and do embroidery (mine is very, what you would call "rustic") and them sew the linen into simple things like aprons, pillows, and clutch bags. I'm not even very good at it, but I really do enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited for you!!!! seriously. can't wait. and love that you're open about changing directions. :)
ReplyDeleteI love sewing. I wanted to be a fashion designer as a kid and now I feel like my own personal designer. I also started sewing baby/toddler/girl clothes, but the lessons I learned there have been transferred to sewing for me. This is a year of progression for me. On my 'list' a coat, button down, pants and swimsuit. I now also have a son and will be sewing him pants and button downs this spring. I know it's easier to buy these things for him, but I know that sewing them for him will help me learn some of the skills to sew them for me too. I've never been so excited to sew for a boy... and I'm 'designing' for him in my mind too. Gosh I could talk about sewing for hours... so I'll just say that I too love it!
ReplyDeleteDudette I love your lady sewing a bazillion times more than any kid sewing. That aint my bag. Please continue to sew more ace adult clothes.
ReplyDeleteI love sewing because I'm an insane person who likes a challenge and pressure and am a smidge of a perfectionist and sewing lets me indulge all of this. Plus I have been astounded by all the wonderful and talented ladies I've met through sewing.
I love sewing because I love being totally immersed in something. It forces me to switch off from work, but also allows space for a bit of thinking. Of course I love the buzz of creating too, knowing "I made that!".
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the heck out of your blog when you were sewing for your kids, and I still enjoy the heck out of your blog as you graduate to more YOU-sewing (something I imagine is going to happen to many of us kid-sewers as our kids start to grow out of being sewn for).
ReplyDeleteI love sewing because it's fun. I like fabric, and colors, and I like making things with my hands. It's challenging, and I like a challenge. I have a job that is all about the brain - ideas and abstractions and arguments - and it's nice to have a hobby that is all about my hands and making tangible goods. While some are drawn to fine art, I am drawn to useful, utilitarian art. I am creative, but also, deeply pragmatic. Hence "Inderlovesfolkart," a name that has seen me through and I hopefully won't grow out of ...
I don't even have boys. I started reading your blog because I liked what you do for yourself. You do what you want, ya hear!
ReplyDeleteI started following you because you love sewing. I continue to follow you as you are a Brisbane girl who loves sewing as much as me. I don't care what you are sewing, I just like that you do
ReplyDeleteI feel like I change what I blog about all the time! You should write about what you care about right now. Hang in there while you wrestle with the tech side and I look forward to hearing and reading more in April :))
ReplyDeleteI started sewing because I couldn't find clothes that I liked in shops (I either had to buy mens pants, or buy and middle-aged womens shops). A little under a year ago I decided to go fully self-made and haven't bought a single RTW since - I love being able to tell people that I make all my own clothes (because I'm a show off like that), and the whole creative process is really good when my work has nothing creative about it.
ReplyDeleteOoo all that techy blog stuff is beyond me...I had to have the guys where my blog is hosted install Wordpress for me because I messed it up (and it supposedly is easy). Good luck, can't wait to see your pretty new blog! I love sewing because it is my art, and I feel so satisfied that I get to wear my art around in the world. And nobody has to like it but me. And that now for the first time my clothes are becoming an expression of me- because I made them! I think about sewing constantly, it is my passion. Cheesy, but true.
ReplyDeleteHells yeah- see you on the other side, rockstar!
ReplyDeleteAnd why do I sew? Because I love taking fabric and making into something awesome (often with a cocktail readily available!)
Dude do what makes you happy, your clothes freaken rock, as do your pictures and you in general sexy lady :)
ReplyDeleteI love sewing because I can sew styles and colours that I want:)
Good luck with the blog redesign mate, Catch you on the other side!
blog platform changes sound too scary for me :) i decided just to give my blog a face lift, and stay with blogger, instead of taking a .com route, cause i chickened out that it would be a bit too mouch for my diy web skills.. anyways, can't wait to see the new blog look, and can't wait to see (and read about) your future makes (and i'm sure i'll love whatever it is that you make in future, be it gorgeous clothes for sophie, kids or dunno.. a dog's coat)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the changes - I look forward to the new you!
ReplyDeleteAs for why I sew - so many reasons; to get what I want, to get the fit right, the pleasure of making flat fabric into something usually pretty wonderful...so many reasons
How excitement! Good luck with changing it up.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I f&$@ing love sewing? (Apart from keeping me sane?) I'm lucky that I do have a creative day job, but even so, nothing beats making something real with your own two hands.
Ha, this is a very easy question: I can make whatever I want to wear!!! I don't have to sucumbe myself to something the big brands designers think I should be wearing this season and also a big bonus: I can make myself clothing that fits like a glove rather than being a compromise... And oh, of course I love that I can whip up a pair of leggings in 30 min for the kiddo and that she is not looking like every second child in her kindergarten group :-) (Around here alot of parents shop at H&M or Ernstings Family so more often than not you will find at least one kid wearing the same shirt/pants/jacket as your own kid if you're not sewing the clothes yourself) Oh and also I absolutely love my grandmas comments when I or the kid wear something handmade - something along the lines of "you did not make this yourself, did you. This just looks so perfect" (picture a very suprised look on the wrinkly face of my 77 yo grandma)
ReplyDeleteAlso good luck on the design/platform changes :-)
Hi Sophie, I do love your blog and makes - great job! Hope your revamp works well.
ReplyDeleteAnd in answer: I love sewing for the fun of learning reverse engineering. Like inspecting a jacket in a shop and working out whether I could do that too. And appreciating how much frigging time it does take to make a garment, and handing over some money in the 10 seconds it takes to 'shop' is no fun at all! And what must they pay those poor people responsible for 'made in China'....?
I have a redesign in works as well. Such a bunch of work! I love sewing because I love creating a useable thing that is an expression of yourself and your creativity! I love the challenge and I love learning new skills!
ReplyDeleteI $%£@ing love sewing because even though I make things for other people it's all for me - the highs & lows, satisfactory results, time spent with the radio, a new idea, proving something, trying something, testing my skills, improving my skills, learning new skills, sharing with the community, fabric!! I love the process.
ReplyDeleteI hope your blog re-design is going well! I love changing my virtual space to reflect changing directions. I know it's a lot of work but it kinda feels like a house redesign! (And you don't have to move out.)
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ReplyDeleteI'm also updating my blog and I find it sooo tedious! Good luck on yours and I hope you will be back soon!!
ReplyDeleteI hope your coming back!
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