Sources of sewing inspiration

At our monthly London Dressmakers Club meetings we often mention sewing blogs or other sources of sewing inspiration that we like. We all like different ones and haven't all come across the same ones, so it would be lovely to spread the joy and list one source each that other members (and non-members) may enjoy too.

I hope we will do more posts like this one. Let us know in the comments if you read any of the listed blogs - or even better: tell us if you want to write up your favourite in a future sewing blog post (yes please!). We would like lots of people to contribute to this members blog. It is all about the more the merrier!  Please share - one paragraph and the link is all that's needed.

Here goes:

I am being greedy and giving more than my fair share of reccomendations, and I could do many more, but here are 3 of them - Barbara.

i) MOOD SEWCIETY
 It is the blog for the legendary Mood Fabric store in the USA.  They have the most amazing free patterns to download (for women mainly, but also for men and children)  but I am not really sure how to subscribe to this from their site.  I used to have to keep checking for new blogs every so often but I have accidentally managed to subscribe to it today via Bloglovin.
The link should be here.

ii) STITCH SISTERS
This is a vlog rather than a blog.  The lovely Nikki and Rachel run a sewing school in Sodbury, near Bristol, and even though you might not get to their school you can still get loads of advice, reviews, fabric hauls and inspiration from their vlog. They are just as friendly and chatty in the flesh as on the screen- they do come to London sometimes and I have been able to admire the creations they have been wearing IRL.  They sew the sort of garments I would make for myself - if I had a bit more flair and colour sense.
The link should be here

iii) STITCHER'S BREW
And this one is a podcast.  An hour or more each Friday of bubbly chat from Gabby (Gabberdashery) and Megan (Pigeon Wishes) and their guests of the week who are people whose blogs you may well read or whose independent businesses you buy from or otherwise involved in the sewing world.  It is like eavesdropping on a stitcher's tea party and just the thing to listen to while seated at your sewing machine- preferably with a mug of tea and a bit of cake to hand- and hear the behind the scenes stories.
The link should be here


Here is my contribution - Giselle:

I always enjoy reading the Allison C Sewing Gallery blog
She uses quite a few Burda patterns and her garments are often very interesting but entirely wearable. There is one from the July edition of Burda Style that she refers to as #113 Knot Dress. It has a very intriguing round "cut-out" that gets gathered up with a bow.  I am fascinated by pattern details like that!
She makes all kinds of garments: dresses, blouses, coats, trousers, you name it.  I am very jealous about the fit she achieves!

Catherine's Patterns
I also enjoy reading about all kinds of patterns and garments that Catherine sees at exhibitions, and the many fantastic photos she posts. She writes about some of the many vintage patterns she owns. What I love the most is the amount of details of some patterns: sometimes it is the cut of a garment but it can also be a design element like a collar or vent or a neckline, or some intriguing gathering... there is such a lot of interest there. I am very glad that Catherine writes her blog! She is also one of our members.

I guess you can see a bit of theme here!  There are quite a few more that I love reading, I'll save them for the next post like this!


We want to post more like this one. Part II is to follow soon!

Sewing motivation in little steps

You know what sewing is like: you're really into it, making great progress, you're so looking forward to the finished garment... and then something happens that slows you down, interrupts your flow, gums up the works - you put your sewing aside, and despite your good intentions, you don't get round to pick it up again another day. 

Unfortunately it often happens that a short break from sewing results in a much longer period of not sewing at all.  Sewing is not like knitting that's easily put-downable and pick-upable, to coin a phrase.  You have to pull the sewing machine back out, free up the space for all the stuff you need, get all the bits back together, - and you generally need to plan things a lot more than just carrying on on impulse.

I have found it incredibly easy to lose my motivation to sew.  While the thought of my massive fabric stash, and all those lovely patterns, and all these exciting ideas what I could make (if only), and what design features I could incorporate... they seem to percolate away but not lead anywhere.

Tash has written a great post about sewing motivation, I very much enjoyed it.  My post is about  one technique that I use to overcome the not-sewing-but-I-really-want-to slump: do something, anything that comes to mind, even if it's just a little something.

Small steps, the itty-bitty tiny ones, are very useful to regain your motivation to sew again.

The sorts of things I like to do, just one at a time, - in no particular order:

• Read through some of the sewing instructions to check how it deals with a particular part of the sewing process
  
• Wind my bobbin - ready to sew whenever that might be ('bobbin mates' are great for keeping a bobbin spool and sewing thread together)
  
• Look at my fabric and stroke it a bit (yes really. Though that works slightly better with wool when comtemplating a knitting project)
  
• Clearing my cutting table. You never know it might make me spread the fabric out and maybe even cut out some of the pieces... or all of them once I get started and it's not as horrendously labourious as I expected...
  
• If I am further along: pin something, measure something, baste or tack pieces together, do a little pressing with the iron, ...
  
• Set up the ironing board, including iron, tailor ham, clapper or whatever else I like to use
  
• Heck, even dust off my sewing machine.  It likes a bit of tender loving care occasionally
  
• Write a bullet point list of steps needed from now to the end of the project, or just a couple of points of my next steps
  
• Lay my dressmaking pattern envelope on my sewing table, or put it with my machine.  Adding the fabric to keep it company is good too
  
• Cut out the pattern tissue pieces.  Even if I only start with the big ones, or the little ones, I can usually go on to do all of the ones I need (I have big freezer bags, with a ziplock top, that I put the tissue pieces, pattern envelope and other materials into ready to use)
  
• Look at the pattern envelope to familiarise myself with the line drawing, what kinds of pieces there are, what shape they're in, where the seams are. That sort of thing
  
• Take out the sewing instructions and circle all the numbers of the pattern pieces for my chosen view or option
  
• Go out and buy or look for the other bits I'll need: check the zip colour and length against my fabric, pull out interfacing, set out pins, chose buttons (or pin different options to the fabric to see which I like), grab tape or ribbons, double-check that my sewing thread hasn't gone dry and brittle if I had it a while (been there, done that), double-check the pattern for anything I forgot
  
• Check out the fabric in the mirror to see what it'll look like on me
  
• Sew 'just' the one seam... which usually leads to a bit more... and this little bit here, and that one bit there...
  

Any of these things might be all I do at the time.  It gives me a feeling of satisfaction that I managed to successfully put a stop to my slump.  And strangely enough one small thing is often enough to do a second little something: either straight away, or a bit later in the day.

The best thing about the little step approach is that everything more is a bonus and you're not expecting that you'll complete your project in a few hours from the time you get up to do anything.  If you're literally only reminding yourself of the sewing instructions then that's enough to get you thinking about things in a practical manner again.

And that seems to losen the paralysis of "I really want to sew, so why don't I?"

What other small steps can you think of?  What do you do to get yourself over a long pause in sewing?  What gets your creative energy flowing?

Please let us know in the comments!