Writing Process Blog Tour

This is a slightly different type of post to normal. Molly from Toferet’s Empty Bobbin tagged me in the Writing Process Blog Tour that’s doing the rounds. I’ve really enjoyed reading other people’s answers to this one. You can see Molly’s post here. And check out the rest of her blog; she has a good line in thoughtful criticism of the sewing world.

What am I working on now?

Right now I’m working on a top from Vogue 8866 – a practical knit top with long sleeves and a high neck.

Vogue 8866 line art

And I’m also trying to organise my thoughts on colour-blocking into a blog post. The October 2014 issue of Burda has the same pattern made up twice in different colour blocked schemes. One looks great and the other very much does not. I’d like to understand what made the difference because I have a DKNY colour block pattern in my sewing queue.

How does my work differ from others in the genre?

I’m aiming for a modernist and slightly androgynous style. I am attracted to experimental patterns, such as my Burda wrap trousers and Drape Drape sack dress.

Drape Drape 2 No 7

I own this Ninja turtle coat pattern and dream of making it up!

Vogue 1332 envelope photo

Why do I write what I do?

At the moment, three reasons.

It started as a way of giving something back. When I started sewing garments I learnt how to do it from a combination of Wendy Mullin’s book Sew U and looking things up on the Internet. The first blog I found was A Dress A Day. From there I discovered Pattern Review and from that the wider sewing blog community. I get so much out of reading other people’s blogs that I wanted to return the favour. You don’t need to be a sewing expert to write a useful review of a pattern you’ve made up.

I then started to find that the blog acted as a useful record of my sewing projects. I often go back to my old posts to remind myself how I did something.

Finally, writing a blog post almost inevitably means taking photos (or rather, getting my very patient husband to take photos). There’s nothing like seeing photos of an outfit to show what does and doesn’t work. So in a roundabout way blogging helps me get dressed swiftly in the mornings.

How does my writing process work?

I find it’s easier to compose a post by putting the pictures in first and then writing text around them than by starting with the words, so I generally don’t start writing until I’ve finished a garment and got photographs of it being worn. I normally only take process photos when I’m using a technique that’s new to me or doing something different to what the pattern recommends, hence the general lack of process posts.

I aim to post once a week, but that’s achieved by not posting more than once a week even if I could, rather than by having a fixed schedule for writing posts.

So that’s it from me. I’d like to nominate SewingElle from He Cooks…She Sews! next. She has a great sharp and modern style.

5 thoughts on “Writing Process Blog Tour”

  1. The turtle coat is fabulous! Separately, color-blocking, I think, is a kind of dilemma. I haven’t tried it due to my own bad memories from the 1980s and because its hard to find two fabrics that work together well (at least for me). My theory is that there are two basic ways to do it with some success, 1) strong contrast and 2) gradations of the same shade. IMO the difficulties lie in the middle area. Harder to pull off, but not impossible. I think the Burda dress doesn’t work (if it’s the one I think it is) because there’s not enough of the right kind of contrast. The blue and green are a bit too close in hue, and the semi-matchy prints mute the contrast even further––but not enough to create a pleasing gradation effect in this case. Just my opinion. Thanks for sharing!

  2. My reasons for writing and writing process are very similar to yours:) I enjoy your modern take on clothes, and the clothes you choose to make suit you well. I have one color-blocked dress in my queue. I like the idea of color-blocking, but I find it hard to implement.

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