The big wide business world

Right, now I don’t want anyone to be worrying about my lack of sewing around here. It may not look like I’m up to much, but some how this year has kicked off to a great start in my Etsy shop, which has kept me busy with orders.

I’m so excited that I can share my latest commission with you. I really enjoy designing and making things for others. It means I get to sew and create new pieces, but I don’t need to buy a bigger house to fit in all my clothes.

The design stages

Lining / Mulsin

The fabric

This dress was a custom design and make and I have to say I loved it so much it was hard to send it across the world. Luckily she loves it too so at least I know it’s gone to a good home!

Happy Birthday to me!

Can you believe it’s been a year today since i started blogging? On the one hand it feels like I’ve been doing it my whole life and on the other it feels like just yesterday that I started.

Somehow this is also my 99th post – whoa how did that happen? Although if truth be told the ‘controllingness’ in me wishes I’d noticed soon enough to make it my 100th- wouldn’t that have been so much neater?!

Anyway, I loved reading all of people’s round up posts over the last couple if weeks, but I held off doing mine until now so that it felt like a round up of my whole blogging experience to date.

I am so pleased I started this blog (thanks Hannah) and I never ever thought it would take off like this – giving me so much satisfaction and becoming a hobby in itself.

There are so many positive things to come out of it, so here are a few:

1. A developed interest in photography. I don’t talk about it much here, but when we bought a new camera, it was mostly to take pictures for the blog. And now I have a new lens for it too yay.

2. Meeting up with so many other sewers at the Birmingham meet up, when Roisin came to visit and generally online (including being part of Hannah’s Spring Clean your Sewing Space series). I genuinely think sewers are the nicest people ever (bleurgh gush much?) and I never would have got to know any of them if it wasn’t for this blog.

3. Starting the blog gave me more of an idea about internet presence in general so I set up my Etsy shop and have since sold a few items and created a couple if custom orders. I also did a craft fair, which was great fun.

4. Some of my followers this year (who are also friends) approached me about teaching some sewing classes and it was a bit of a revelation how much I enjoyed it! I’m not sure whether this one was thanks to the blog, but maybe without me ramming posts about sewing down their throats, they might not have thought of learning for themselves.

Top post hits according to stats:
1. Sleeveless bodice lining tutorial
2. Ikat at Iolani
3. Mad Men Challenge
4. I carried a watermelon
5. A zipper with no visible seams

And my favourite makes:
1. Quick fix – cherry circle skirt
2. Ikat at iolani
3. Reversible colour block dress
4. A tartan focus on enjoyment
5. Burda vintage modern finalist.

I find it so interesting to see what other people like reading and am pleased to see that a few of them cross over with my faves.

I have plenty of ambitions for next year, but I want to keep them simple really.
1. Sew more for men. I only sewed one shirt last year and it didn’t quite fit so I want to have a go at at least one more.

2. Sew less and more slowly and make better fitting, better quality, more wearable items. I’ve taken a slight complete leaf out of Rochelle’s book and chosen some patterns I want to focus on.

15 patterns
9 dresses
4 skirts
2 tops
and a tick list which also acts as a divider in my pattern box!

3. Teach more sewing. I loved it so much that I want to look in to other ways of doing it.

4. Blog more tutorials and quality content.

5. Have lots of fun sewing and blogging and don’t get stressed!

Apologies for the very wordy post, but I wanted to write it all down as a testament to the journey so far and to what’s yet to come. Here’s to year 2!!

Coming soon to a sewing machine near me

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls – prepare yourself, wait eagerly in anticipation, nibble on your finger nails until you are left with tortured stumps of anxiety… I have already received my first order of 2014 and I don’t think I could be more excited.

What’s that I hear? You aren’t as excited as me? Such a shame.

I’ll tell you about it anyway.

So as I said I’ve already received a custom order based loosely on this dress. I’m not going to give too much away, but you can have a sneak peak of the fabric and my sketch.

Starting today I will be working on the pattern and the lining (which will serve as a sort of muslin in case anything goes completely wrong) – I’m so pleased that I found an adjustable tailors mannequin on eBay a last year as now I can fit to that.

Here’s to starting the new year in a fun way and with sewing something not for me.

New year, new skirt, new top, new stock, new post…

etc etc etc, why not start the new year with lots of new things?

So I hope you all had a great night last night seeing in the new year. I surprised myself by staying up way past my bedtime – and not feeling at all bad today. Wahoo.

It’s been pouring down with rain today, which I love. It means that no-one expects you to get out of your pyjamas and go outside, so I can stay on the sofa, watch Heartland and update my blog and Etsy shop. And eat all the left over junk food from last night. 🙂

Yesterday on the other hand was lovely and sunny so I took the opportunity to take some photos of a new skirt and top and to use our new camera lens (a very welcome christmas present).

I made the skirt and top over the weekend. The skirt is a really simple pleated skirt – literally just a collection of rectangles. The skirt pieces pleated to the rectangular waistband pieces. The only thing I did differently was to sew the waistband centre front seams after attaching the waistband to the skirt. This way it made sure that it was the exact correct size.

Another Christmas gift was some fabric pastels, so I played around with these on this skirt. It was so fun and so easy – I just drew some parallel lines above the hem to give it a bit of a design feature, ironed it and now it’s permanent. Pretty huh?

I also made this hemlock pashmina top following Miss P’s inspiration and a bit of a hemlock pattern hack. I apologise for the sheerness – it didn’t look that bad in the mirror. I’m not to sure about the top. I think I hacked it too much so the neckline doesn’t sit properly now and the armholes are too tight. I might remake it into more of a vest top and finish the edges with bias tape. I’ll add it to the to do pile (first one of the year!)

I really like the skirt and top combo, but I actually made the skirt for my Etsy shop.

In the spirit of the new year I have been having a sort out of all my handmade items. Here’s to a clean, fresh start and all that jazz. Most of these dresses have only been worn for blog photos or one off events. I think the problem I have with making my own clothes is that I make something new for any event. Lots of these clothes don’t fit or I have nowhere to wear them so I’ve listed them in my shop. Head on over there if you want to check out the new stock. And because it’s the new year and I love all you guys so much, you can get 10% off everything with the discount code BLOGFOLLOW10 throughout all of January.

Happy New Year to you all and thanks for being such great followers!