Hey there! I hope you all had a very lovely Thanksgiving. We headed up to Vancouver and it didn’t occur to me for a while that of course it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving up there (silly European that I am) but we had a great time pottering around and enjoying the city. As far as sewing goes, I’m right in the middle of lots of pre-Christmas projects that I rather annoyingly can’t blog, but it would spoil any surprises that I do actually manage to finish in time.

 

I foolishly believed that since the dark nights have settled in I’d have more time to sew, but I’ve actually somehow had less. I forgot how the lack of light limits my hours for certain tasks that are best in daylight and how taking photos is a near impossibility during the week. Oh well, I’ll get into the swing of it I guess, but for now a couple of random pieces of news:

One thing I should have blogged about already, but which didn’t occur to me to do so, is the fact that I’m taking part in #stitchingsanta this year, which is a sewing or knitting/crochet-based Secret Santa swap. It’s organized by Sewchet and what a great idea it is! I always enjoyed Secret Santa swaps at work or in the family and it’s great to do it with someone else who enjoys your hobby. The idea, just incase you’re not familiar with it, is to receive the name and address of a fellow sewer, stalk their blog for a little while (!) and then send them some surprise gifts for Christmas. The actual monetary spend is very low ($15) but you can top that up with homemade makes or stash gifts, as you prefer.

I received my own Stitching Santa gifts the other day and was very excited! I’m almost done with mine and it did take me a little head scratching initially, but I don’t want the person in question to guess it’s them, so I won’t say too much.

One thing I’m still working on for a few people are the Petal Pouches from Noodlehead. I’m a fan of Anna Graham’s patterns anyway, and this new pattern seemed like the perfect little present. When I saw Carolyn‘s versions, that sold me on the idea, so I’m making up quite a few!

The other piece of news, which is also a handy hashtag, is that I’m taking part in the 2017 #SewMyStyle project. This is set up by Alex from BlueBird Fabrics, although I saw it on Emily from Self Assembly Required’s blog (she is also involved), and is a year-long programme of sewing one garment a month. They have set this up in conjunction with Named Clothing (yay!), Megan Nielsen, By Hand London (all of whom I’m familiar with) as well as Sew House 7 and Cali Faye who I don’t know as well. The aim is multifold, but includes the promotion of slow fashion, as well as giving people a chance to work together on building a capsule wardrobe.

You don’t pay anything for it, so there’s no obligation to sew all the patterns, but the thing that drew me to the project was the fact that I really like the patterns they’ve chosen. They’re a good variety, a few were on my list anyway and I like this sort of challenge to keep my nose to the grindstone. Oh, and you get a decent discount off the patterns: so far 25%, which can’t be sniffed at. That being said, I was very surprised to see on Instagram that over 800 people have signed up in just a couple of days!! I guess I’m not the only one who likes the pattern schedule. It sounds great and I think it will be a lot of fun. If it sounds like something you might enjoy, you can sign up here.

Here’s a look at the sewing schedule as well, which I lifted from the Bluebird Fabrics website.

January- Sew House 7 Toaster Sweater 2

February – Named Clothing Saunio Cardigan

March- Megan Nielsen Virginia Leggings

April- Sew House 7 Bridgetown Dress

May- Cali faye Collection Pocket Skirt

June- Megan Nielsen Briar Tee and Sweater

July- Cali Faye Collection Valley Blouse

August- Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges Dress

September- Named Clothing Yona Wrap Coat

October- Cali Faye Hampshire Trouser

November- By Hand London Anna Dress

December- Named Clothing AW17 New Collection (TBC)

Anyway, that’s it for now. Enjoy the Christmas run-up everyone!