What a lovely surprise to get a wee award that tells me I’ve made some online friends in the sewing world! At least, that’s how it feels, which is blinkin’ marvellous, since it’s one of the main reasons I started writing the blog in the first place. The internet is such an expansive and interesting place, which can be mined for facts and knowledge, provide a meeting place for like minds and, sadly, can these days also be used to misguide and misinform swathes of people simply by merit of their online social media choices. Nevertheless, without the internet, I’d never have encountered such lovely people and certainly wouldn’t have been able to indulge and invest in my new hobby to the extent I have. I’ve truly found something I enjoy deeply and sincerely, which is in no small part due to the many talented and kind-hearted bloggers I’ve found within the sewing community. Hopefully I can point you in the direction of some of my favourite reads below.

There are a few questions to answer:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.

Thanks so much to swarm of chickadees for this lovely award, which gives me a chance to mention a few other blogs I enjoy reading, as well as to reflect the sentiment back to her. I love reading her blog for its attention to detail, sewing dilemma discussion and fitting quandaries, not to mention the wonderful prose and reassuring conversations we have when there’s a little time in the day! Thank you Kamila!

2. Write a post to show your award.

Et voila! This is a post to show my award.

3. Give a brief story of how your blog started.

Brevity: not my strong point, but I will try. I had my son, Joe, almost 2 years ago and picked up crocheting while pregnant. I was in Germany and my husband had already moved over to Seattle for his new job, so I had a little time to kill, even more so since partying like a mad thing was out of the equation. I made a number of blankets and really enjoyed it (although naturally his favourite is the $8.99 Target blanket his Dada bought him, not the one I spent 3 weeks cursing over). I’ve always been crafty and when I moved to the States, I discovered that fabric, patterns and sewing equipment in general are a TON cheaper than in Europe, which made me think about picking up apparel sewing as a hobby.

My full-time job was/is as a managing editor in the videogame industry and I wanted to at least keep up a little writing, to ensure that particular creative muscle didn’t wither away (it doesn’t take long). I’m not the biggest diarist, so the combination of a new blog + learning to sew seemed appealing. Little was I to know that there was a huge, well-established sewing community out there, that would foster my interest, inspire my learning and allow my husband to learn much more about sewing than he ever cared to know in 100 lifetimes (sorry, pet).

I don’t blog as often as I’d like, but I try to keep it up as much as possible and it has been very rewarding. Long may it continue!

4. Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.

Advice huh? Well, I’m not sure this will be anything revolutionary but:

a) Be yourself. So much of social media is about presenting a front or a best version of yourself. Personally, I find it rather boring to read and can smell a potential “brand” a mile off. I much prefer reading honest reflections and seeing “genuine” photos of people. Some of the best blogs present natural photos that may be shot nicely, but aren’t Lightroomed to death, overexposed and don’t feature the same unnatural pose in every shot. Given the gazillions of followers some of these branded lifestyle sites have, it may indeed be just me, but that’s how I feel and that’s what I personally want from a blog. There’s always IG and Facebook for the perfect shots! 🙂

b) Don’t be shy! By which I don’t mean strip down to your undies for your photos or tell us your relationship history in eye-poppingly honest detail. We all have our “comfort zone”. I just mean don’t worry too much about what other people think. I was absolutely cacking myself when I started publishing posts and taking pictures. I still don’t like having photos taken very much, but I find that when I look back on them even a week later, I get a tangible feeling of satisfaction seeing what I’ve accomplished and the feedback I’ve received. You can make real friends online, but it tends more towards the anonymous space than not. You could be friends with someone for 5 years, never meet them, and then you both disconnect and disappear. It happens. So I say enjoy the moment and throw yourself in wholeheartedly – in whichever capacity feels the most comfortable for you.

5. Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.

I suspect I won’t be the first to nominate these people (I’ve left out some others I’ve seen have been nominated), but I do enjoy them all very much (amongst many, many other blogs), so check these 10 or so out if you don’t already know them! I’m already discovering new blogs from this initiative.

Sie macht: a sewing blog

mensew

Self Assembly Required

Brambleton Threads

Bee Made

wasted weekends

zoubi zoubisou

See Carmen Sew

Bombazine

Sewchet

Helen’s Closet