Vote!

Gotcha! Y'all thought I was talking about the political circus that's happening in the US right now didntcha?!  Nope not going there...not yet anyway! *LOL*

Nope, I'm referring to the fact that I want you to vote in Madalynne's Best of Sewing Blogs for 2016!  Here's the link to here blog post and Madalynne has made it easier to vote this year.  All you have to do is go to this online site!

I did it...you should too! So, go vote!

...as always more later!

Blog Rolls

I know a lot of readers follow their favorite blogs on Bloglovin and Feedly reading them on their smartphones. But me, I'm old school.  Even though I have a Bloglovin account and even an app on my iPad, I still love blog rolls.

What?  What you say? See it's simple...I click over to one of my favorite bloggers from my own blog roll and I can end up down a rabbit hole...reading blogs that I've forgotten about (sorry bloggers) or didn't realize existed (yeah new sewists) or just haven't visited in awhile.

But I do this from my iPad or my computer where it's easy to follow the links. I have a smartphone (why can't they just be cellphones again like they use to?!) and I use it to look up things with my apps but I just can't get into reading blogs on it. I know this makes me old and fuddy duddy but I don't care! *LOL*

I love blogs and I love blog rolls.  So here are my top three blog rolls in no particular order and yes, these pics were taken on my iPad cause I'm rolling like that today!

Shams - Communing with Fabric

From Shams blog roll I get a lot of the arty sewists...people who invest time in their garments and create art.  Seriously, A-R-T! I love their creative point of view and what they have to say when they sew. When I'm needing some creative stimulation, I'm headed to Shams' blog!

Debbie - Stitches and Seams

We all know Debbie as the Coverstitch Queen. Some of the best tutorials out there...but have you taken a look at her blog roll?  It's international and deep (why is there a rap song now playing over and over in my head)! There are sewists blogs on there from everywhere! Don't know what to sew? Need some inspiration? Head on over to Debbie's blog and check out her blog roll!

Nakisha - Sew Crafty Chemist

For a woman who only started sewing a couple of years ago, my girl jumped in with both feet and immersed herself in the sewing blogosphere.  Her blog roll is deep and has some blogs that neither Debbie nor Shams has.  However, with Kisha's blog roll, I really end up blog hopping - one blog takes me here - another blog takes me there until hours later I've been baptized in sewing makes and my creative mind is on fire!

Now I know that reading blogs on your smartphones also makes it harder to comment but this is my one woman sewing crusade - seriously you know you need to stop and take a moment and say something to someone!  Not just be a thief in the night, sneaking in and out of blog windows with no trace that you were there but a blog stat.  Sewing conversation is what this blogging community was built on and I'd like for it to come back - not be a by-product of the "like it" and move on society...chile this ain't facebook. 

I'm thrilled, seriously this is how shallow I actually am, thrilled when someone I know reads my blog on their phone, stops and leaves a comment! I try and do the same for my fellow bloggers. I know the comments are down on everyone's blogs basically due to the smartphone phenomena but can we try to buck this trend...remember that sometimes our fellow sewists need a word of encouragement...a pat on the back...a thoughtful suggestion. Those comments make us all better!

Okay back to blog rolls...seriously if you have some time follow one of the sewists named above or your own favorite sewists blog roll...you'll be surprised at how wonderful it is and how inspired you'll be when you're done!

...as always more later!

Best Sewing Blogs of 2015

Earlier this year, Madalynne published a list of The Best Bloggers of 2014. There was much discussion about that list.  Hey I even weighed in and it's my most viewed post evah.  So Madalynne is back at it, this time looking for the Best Sewing Blogs of 2015.  

Picture courtesy of: www.madalynne.com

Here are the categories:

• Most Inspirational
• Sew Jo Boosting
• Best Tutorials
• Best Knitting
• Up and Coming
• Vintage Inspired
• Best Basics
• Funniest
• Fastest
• Best Mom Blog
• Best Guy Blog
• Blogger You'd Most Like to Meet
• Best Indie Pattern Company
• Best International Blog
• Best New Blogger
• Best Curvy or Plus Size Blogger
• Best Pattern Making Blog
• Best Couture Blog
• Best Textile Arts
• Best Bra Maker
• Best over 30 Blogger 
• Makes You Want to be a Better Sewer
• Sewing As An Art

A really wide range is represented here. Madalynne has opened the voting up to anyone who wants to participate. The information on how to cast your vote(s) and when the vote(s) are due are here. 

I think Madalynne has really made an effort to reach out and encompass the entire sewing community ~ so vote! If we all vote, then the list will be reflective of how the sewing community feels about our sewing brothers and sisters.

This sewist is heading over to vote!

...as always more later!

Honored...

The "Tribute"  theme for August has come to a close on the Sewcialists blog. If you've visited many blogs lately, there has been a mention of the Tribute series. For July it was to make a garment inspired by my good friend, Oonaballoona and there were some amazing garments made and prizes awarded. 

For August the theme was for sewists to make a garment like someone who inspires you. To my great surprise and even greater honor, two bloggers chose my TNT dresses as their inspiration...

First Marrie from Purls and Pleats...

Okay if this doesn't look like one of my dresses, I don't know what does. She even wore it with a cardigan!  Marrie, I love this and hope that you get a lot of wear out of it. Also, that McCalls pattern you're using is very versatile and I'm sure will make you so many more wonderful dresses in the future.

And then Cari from Cari Homemaker...

Cari made a dress using Vogue 8972 and a ponte fabric.  Cari hit two recent trends, black 'n white and lace.  Isn't her version fantastic!  And the shoes, people, the shoes are to die for! What a wonderful outfit!

Stop the presses ~
I've just been notified in the comments that there is another tribute.  This one from Blue Sunday!

What's so awesome about this tribute is that Nisha is admiring my love of fabric In particular, she used a piece based upon my adoration of border prints.  Didn't Nisha do a great job of using the border print in an inventive way?  To be honest, I've never read Nisha's blog, but I'm rectifying that now by adding her to my blogroll & bloglovin'. 

As the saying goes, "Imitation is the Greatest Form of Flattery", and you ladies have more than flattered me.  You've honored me that you want to emulate my style aesthetic and my love of fabric!  Thanks so much all of your garments are absolutely awesome!!!

...as always more later!

The Honorable Mention Sewing Blog Listing

This list is extensive and by executive decision I'm only adding the sewing and sewing related blogs.  Maybe at a future time I will blog some of the additional fashion/vintage/other blogs that were listed.  I've separated this listing out into two parts. The first part features blogs that received more than a mention by one person. Each of these blogs received anywhere from 2-4 votes, placing them just short of the Top Ten.  

These the Honorable Mention blogs:

CarmencitaB

Cation Designs

Clothing Engineer

Fashion Incubator

Faye's Sewing Adventure

Girls In The Garden

Kadiddlehopper

Kbenco

Mainely Dad 

MimiGStyle

New Vintage Lady

Off the Cuff

Petit Main Sauvage

Rhonda's Creative Life

Sew and Style

Sew Brunswick

Sewingadicta

Sewmanju

Sheila CTK

Slapdash Sewist

Sew Crafty Chemist

Ten Thousand Sewing Hours

The Dreamstress

The Sewing Lawyer

Two On and Two Off

We Sew Retro

Additional Sewing Blogs ~
All of the sewing blogs that received a mention in the comments have been listed below in alphabetical order:

Allison C. Sewing Gallery

Beaute J'adore

Blooms Endless Summer

Bobbin and Baste

Boo Dog & Me

Camp Runamuck

Corecouture

Cut Cut Sew

Dress A Day

Fit for a Queen

Handmade by Heather B

Idle Fancy

Ikat Bag

Interrupted Sutures

Jilly be Joyful

Jkaori Sews

Kalali

Kathy Sews

K-Line

La Sartora

Maiden Jane

Meggipeg

My Happy Sewing Place

Notes from a Mad Housewife

Oooboop

Petite & Sewing

Pretty Grievances

Raindrops & Belly Flops

Rusty Bobbin

Sew Intriguing

Sew Me Love

Sew much to do, Sew little time

Sew Tawdry

Sew2Pro

Sewing Artistry

SEWN

Tanitisis Sews

The Lost Art of Fine Tailoring

The Sew Convert

Under the Wisteria

Velosewer - How Good is That

Wearable Muslin

Yes, I like that

Conclusions ~
I know this is an extremely long post but I wanted to add just a few thoughts I garnered from this exercise.

• I understand better now how Madalynne ended up with her list...because to come up with these lists I expended a lot of precious sewing time and searched a lot of blogs on the internet.  
• These lists expand greatly on her start and are much more inclusive and extensive and I think show a greater reflection of the sewing community as a whole. 
• There is also a global feel to this list that I like. Blogs from Australia, England and Europe are all included in these lists.  It pretty much means that wherever you are, there is a sewing sista near you blogging.
• I think it's important to note that these lists will change with time. Sewists come and go in the blogosphere.  This definitely affects "the go to" blogs at any given time. So these are hot now but may not be in the future or they may gain even more prominence. 
• Also, even though I think I have a pretty wide ranging audience and gave a decent amount of time for people to respond, I think the actual amount of comments were small for the number of views of this blog post.  
• There were over 4200 views to that post.  There were over 44 likes on bloglovin' - the most likes I've seen since I claimed my blog on bloglovin'. However, I'm not sure every blog was evenly voted for...by this I mean MimiG just posted that she has over 100,000 followers on her sewing Facebook page but her blog only made the Honorable Mention list.  To me that means quite a few of her followers don't follow my blog.  So these lists are definitely subjective.

So thus ends this experiment...all of these posts, including a link to Madalynne's lists will be placed in a page on the top of the blog.  However, I'm going to need a minute...hope you understand!

...as always more later!!!

Your Top Ten Sewing Blogs

I was going to list the Top Ten blogs and then all of the Honorable Mentions in one post - ummmm not so fast.  I wrote up a list that encompassed FIVE pages of blogs!

So the lists will appear in two posts ~ this first one listing the top ten and the second will be all of the blogs mentioned with links.  That's why I'm doing them in two parts because what's the point of making a list of blogs, if you can't click on the links and visit them.  That will take a minute so look for it this weekend when I have a little more time! 

Finally thank you so much to everyone who left a comment. I would like to explain a little of how this list came to be. If you left the name of a blog that was already included on Madalynne's or my list, I didn't include it on this list, because it was already recognized. The blogs listed below received the most nominations from the comments left on my two blog posts. 

So without further ado, here are your Top Ten Sewing Blogs!

1.  Handmade by Carolyn (13 votes)

2.  Goodbye Valentino (13 votes)

3.  Erica B.'s - D.I.Y. Style! (11 votes)

4.  Stitches & Seams (9 votes)

5.  Amanda's Sewing Adventure (8 votes)

6.  LaSewista! (7 votes)

7.  Lower Your Presser Foot (7 votes)

8.  Real Life Live & Unscripted (7 votes)

9.  Sewing on the Edge (6 votes)

10. Miss Celie's Pants (5 votes)

I thought I would add the vote count so that you'd know it wasn't arbitrary.  I added links for these blogs, as well as, a picture of the author.  All pics are from their blogs and I hope the blog authors don't mind that I lifted them!  I read every one of these blogs and know that each one of them contains a wealth of sewing and fashion information!

As I said earlier, the remaining list will be posted this weekend.  There are quite a few "new to me" blogs and I think you too will find some new sewing inspiration from this list.  After this next post appears, I will merge the information from all of the lists to a new post that will appear at the top of my blog for future reference.

So, I hope your favorites made the top ten of either Madalynne's, my list or the sewist's choice listing.

...as always more later!

Please Don't Forget!

I hope you'll take a moment and list your top five sewing blogs on this post by tomorrow evening.  I really would like to compile a listing that encompasses your ideal blogs, as well as, mine.

Thanks for all of your very kind comments on the Painted Wool Herringbone Pieces.  It seems as if the vest was the hit piece and the vest/skirt combo the most liked.  I have to tell you that I haven't worn that outfit to work yet, probably because I haven't been in the mood to change clothes.  Most of this week has been spent in pants outfits.

I do have a wearability report on the Painted Wool Herringbone dress because that did get worn to work.  I honestly didn't understand why the pics of the dress seemed to have excess fabric from the waist down.  I mean I made the dress exactly like I always do.  But in wearing it all day, I really noticed that extra space in the thigh area.  So I will be taking it in about an inch on each size removing the excess fabric and pegging the hem a little.  I believe this will solve the problem...I'll post another pic after I've fixed the dress.

Finally I'm not really a Winter Olympics kinda girl.  I mean all of that snow, ice and cold not my cup of tea. However I did watch the women's and ice dancing figure skating but I really bring this up because the Olympics is over this weekend.  Regular programming comes back to television and Scandal will be back for eight episodes without repeats starting Thursday evening...I can't wait!

I have something to do tomorrow so I won't be in the sewing cave.  I'll be back Sunday to finish up the brown knit dress.  I'm halfway through the construction and have an idea to add a little sass to the dress, so I'm looking forward to spending some time in the cave to complete it.  I hope you will get to spend quality time with your sewing machine this weekend...

...as always more later!

My Top Ten Sewing Blogs

The other night I was reading through my bloglovin' list...which had gotten quite full...and I found these two posts by Madalynne, Best Sewing Blogs 2014 - Part One and Part Two.  It's an interesting list but what caught my attention was that she typed into Google the simplest key words for finding a sewing blog, "best sewing blogs."  From that exercise, Madalynne went on to email every blogger on her blog roll (over a hundred) to gather their lists of "the best of" categories she created.  If you click on the links above you can see the final list.

I went to bed that night but that list kept coming back to me because it's a wonderful list full of talented, young sewists.  It's the perfect list for the new sewist, the young and hip sewist, or the returning to sewing sewist but what if you are a more advanced sewist?  What if you've moved past learning to sew and are looking for more?  What if you've been at this a minute and you've seen the various cycles come and go in the sewing community? Seen pattern makers and patterns come and go?  Styles change? Even the way you sew change? Where do you go to advance to the next level?  Do you wait for the community you're presently following to take you there or do you step out on your own and look for more?

Sometimes when I'm traveling through the vast sewing blogland, it can seem segmented...like the newer/just learning/rediscovering sewing sewists are in one group and the sewist who has been sewing for years in another one. Lately I've felt there needs to be a bridge between those two segments bringing us all together because we're all really in love with the same thing - the art of taking a flat piece of fabric and turning it into a three dimensional garment.  Whether we refashion it, we make a vintage garment, we sew for children or our homes, we sew the latest fashions or we sew amazing art to wear garments, we are all passionate about the same thing - creating using needle, thread and fabric.

So to totally riff off Madalynne, I've listed ten sewing blogs that make me a better sewist.  Please realize that this is my list and I'm going to give you the opportunity to tell me yours at the end of this post.

MY Top Ten Sewing Blogs~
Here are my ten.  Ten women who inspire me.  Ten women who make me think about my sewing journey and how to improve and continue to grow.  Ten amazing sewing women:

1. SunnyGal Studio Sewing
First choice hands down.  I've learned so much from Beth lately that it has me rethinking how I sew. I highly encourage you to visit her blog to take your sewing to the next level!

2. Ann of Gorgeous Things
The Pressinatrix...need I say more! Okay I will ~ seriously pressing is so important to a great finished garment and Ann has you totally covered there.

3. Rolling in Cloth
Claudine sews out of the box, amazingly, awesome garments. She sews what I'd like to wear but can't because of my workplace. Her journeys are always fun and interesting.

4. Frabjous Couture
Marina IS a couture sewist. She drafts and sews "the couture" way. I learn so much from her and now she's talking about hand embroidery...be still my heart!

5. A Challenging Sew
I've just found Leisa's blog in the last six months and I'm fascinated with her Little French Jackets, the sew-along and now her Marfy adventures, it all makes me want to sew better!

6. SewPassionista by Diana
Diana has amazing tutorials and she sews for her retired/casual lifestyle which is the opposite of mine. However, she makes wonderful pieces that are thoughtful well sewn garments.

7. Sigrid - sewing projects
Sigrid sews the most awesome lingerie.  I have no desire to sew lingerie but I always have my nose pressed up against the glass - figuratively - when she posts a new lingerie make.  Also, she is a thoughtful sewist and I love to read about her journeys.

8. Couture et Tricot
I want to be Tany when I grow up.  Her sewing and tailoring skills are extraordinary.  She took a short break to have her son but she is back and turning out jaw-dropping garments.  Definitely check her out!

9. The Mahogany Stylist
Cennetta always says I inspire her but I learn so much from her. Her pattern alterations are awesome and easy to follow.  Now she's blogging for the Mood Sewing Network so expect some seriously fantastical garments come your way!

10. Sew Melodic
Melody is my new blog crush but the girl brings it. The detail and work she puts into her garments, the pattern alterations she makes and the fact that she's a little bit vintage and a little bit current...awesome!


The Art to Wear Stitchers ~
I have one other sewing blogger list to share.  It's a smaller list but their sewing is different and original.  It's out of the box and they sew from the patterns that aren't widely shared on the popular blogs...but people these women bring it!  I call these the Art to Wear Stitchers and they are:

1.  Communing with Fabric
Shams sews, dyes, uses unusual closures and loves Style Arc patterns.  Her garments make me look at the sewing process differently.  I love her style even though its so different from mine.

2.  A Fool for Fabric
Margy sews these amazing garments that have an artistic slant. Her latest garment a studded jacket was just a feast for the eyes and a wonderful learning experience.  I always look at patterns differently after she uses them.

3.  Myrna Giesbrecht
Myrna's blog is really about the journey and the process.  How do you get there?  What choices do you make? How do to this better? It's always an interesting read.

4.  Marcy Tilton
The Queen of Art to Wear sewists.  Her blog is an orgy of garments that use unusual fabrics, different sewing techniques and those Vogue patterns that she designs.


Fashion Bloggers ~
I follow three and only three true fashion bloggers.  I like them because they are concise, to the point and give me 3 or 4 good pictures of their outfits. I'm not hammered over the head with their looks.  These are the three I follow...

Atlantic Pacific

9 to 5 Chic

The Classy Cubicle

Your choices ~
Now if you've made it this far, here is your opportunity to tell me what blogs you like. What are your go to blogs - the ones you can't do without!?!  

Here's the criteria ~ 

• Please do not list a blog that's already been included in this post.  
• Also there's no need to list mine, I mean you're here reading so obviously you like mine.  
• List your top five with the designation if they are a sewing blog, a fashion blog, vintage, art to wear or other by using the letter designation below.  

                              S - sewing blog

                              F - fashion blog

                              V - vintage

                              A - Art to Wear

                              O - other

You have until Friday, February 21st to submit your choices.  I will close the comments that evening, compile the list and The Top Ten Viewer Choice blogs will be posted here on Sunday, February 23rd. All of the lists will be added to a page at the top of my blog for everyone to peruse again and again. 

I hope you'll participate.  It will really be interesting to see what a cross section of bloggers think are their go to sewing blogs.  Remember we are building bridges...joining our sewing community together...celebrating the uniqueness of each and every one of us! Okay with the rah rah said, get those typing fingers ready and comment! *LOL*


...as always more later!