Planning Your Home-Sewn Collection

I was invited to talk at the new Dressmakers’ Social group tonight at their first ever meeting.  No pressure then!

The group is the brainchild of one of my students Emma (aka Crafty and Cake on her blog and Instagram).

I decided to talk about planning a home-sewn collection as I think it’s a subject often under-rated. If you make clothes, you want to wear them, right?!

If you didn’t make it to the talk, you can download the guide the I prepared which contains advice about choosing the right styles, fabrics and projects to suit your skill and time, including a project planning checklist:

Make-It-Yourself March…..In May For Those Who Missed it!!

Do you remember me posting about an Instagram project myself and student Emma (aka Crafty & Cake) were doing a few months ago called MIY March?

Well, in a nutshell it was brilliant! It got such a great response – loads of sewists and dressmakers from around the world joining in and sharing daily pictures of everything from their sewing machines to their best makes ever.  It really was lovely to “meet” so many new like-minded people and to swap ideas and inspire each other.

Now, I realise not all of you lovely loyal readers are on Instagram and for a while I’ve been meaning to do a little summary of the project for you so here we are…..in May! Oops, sorry about that, but better late than never hey?

This was the list of daily topics me and Emma came up with and the task was to post a picture each day using the daily topic as inspiration.  I have to say the best bit was then looking at what everyone else had posted, it’s fascinating how different people can interpret a topic in such different ways.

Here are some of my daily posts:

At the end of each day, Emma and I took it in turns to choose our favourite 4 images to share with everyone. That task was really difficult as there were always so many great images to choose from!!

Here are a few:

the Fabric Stash…..

…and Pattern Stash days were very revealing! And drew quite a few guilty “confessions”!

And I loved this surprising group from the “Style Icon” day. Who would have put Alexander McQueen, Claudia Winkleman, Jonny Depp as Jack Sparrow and Lauren Laverne together?!

By the end of 31 days there were soooo many fantastic images uploaded as part of MIY March.  To see them all, search #miymarch on Instagram.  Here are just a few:

The slightly bigger ones in the bottom right corner are some of my overall favourites by (clockwise from green dress:  @kirsten52fancies @winding_bobbin @theuncommonthread @winston_turtle_london).

I really missed MIY March when it had finished. There will definitely be a MIY March 2016.  Anyone for a MIY September in the meantime??!!

Dressmakers Social in Brighton

Do you crave the company of like-minded dressmakers and sewists to talk fabrics and seams and zips?

Do you find yourself boring your family and friends with talk of pattern matching and how many pins you need to set in a sleeve?

You need to come along to Brighton’s first Dressmakers Social:

It’s being held at the Marwood Cafe on Ship St in Brighton (the old Post Office building) from 6-8pm on Monday 18th May and yours truly will be there to talk about planning a homemade collection.

It’s all been organised by regular MIY Workshop attendee and all round creative type Emma Miles, also known as Crafty & Cake on Instagram and her blog.

Come along and give your friends and family a break!

Find out more on the Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram and Meet-up.

Make-It-Yourself March – list of daily topics!

So, are you going to be joining me and Crafty and Cake for a whole month of noseying at what other people are stitching?!

Make-It-Yourself March or MIYmarch will be starting on Sunday. The full monty description of what’s involved and how to play is here.

I’m looking forward to seeing your pics…….

Make-It-Yourself March – want to join in?

In celebration of sewing and dressmaking and the Sewing Bee on television and all things you made yourself, me and Emma aka Crafty & Cake are hosting a month long photo-a-day challenge over on Instagram.  We want to know what you’re making, what you want to make, your making inspiration, where you make, what you make with and your best and worst making moments!

Each day will have a theme that we’ll post at the start of the day and you just need to post a sewing and/or dressmaking-related photo or photos on Instagram, tag us (@thewendyward and @craftyandcake) and use the hashtag #miymarch

Hopefully you’ll be inspired by everyone else’s photos, meet some new online buddies and have a bit of fun appreciating the fruits of your labours! Every day Emma and I will choose our favourite 4 images to showcase at the end of the day.

What’s not to like?!

You can play on Twitter too – use the same names @thewendyward and @craftyandcake and the #miymarch hashtag and let’s celebrate your dressmaking achievements, inspirations, secrets and sewing goals.

Celebrate Making It YOURSELF!!