MIY March 16 – That’s It For Another Year

After 31 days, 31 topics, 5 prizedays and 5991 photos MIY March is over for another year *sobs*

Here are the highlights of this year’s final week:

Day 28 – TNT – tried ‘n’ tested or tried ‘n’ true

Here’s my TNT – got to be my MIY Collection Fulwood shift dress; one pattern, so many ways!

Day 29 – Gets Me Every Time – interpreted in so many brilliantly different ways from disappearing time to disappearing bobbin thread…..

Day 30 – Next Up – a peek at what’s next on everyone’s sewing lists

Day 31 – Skirty – the final bonus Prizeday was sponsored by publishers of my next book Cico Books and one of these lucky people won one of Cico’s gorgeous sewing books.

Here’s my Skirty post:

The title and sponsor of the final day were a not so subtle clue as to the topic of my next book; A Beginner’s Guide to Making Skirts! More on that in this post.

I’d like to thank everyone who took part in MIY March 16 including Emma for helping me organise it in the first place and all my generous sponsors: Ditto Fabrics, Textile Garden, Ernest Wright & Son, Love Sewing and Cico.

Here’s a collage of all our top 4’s from the month:

Have a look at the #miymarch16 hashtag on Instagram too, it’s inspiring! If you like what you see, why not follow me @thatwendyward and Emma @dressmakerssocial? There will be more shenanigans in the form of #MIYmakers (launching soon and open beyond just Instagram…..) and #dressmakers52.

Same time, same place next year for MIY March 17?!

MIY March 16 – argh Week 4 Already

I can’t believe MIY March is almost over. Easter’s been and gone, the clock’s have gone forward and everything. Well fear not I have some plans afoot to keep you busy and entertained (see my last post), but in the meantime, let’s rejoice in week 4’s highlights:

Day 21 – Sewing Buddies – saw everything from people, to pets and radios plus a medieval reminder that getting together to sew is nothing new!

Day 22 – It’s New to Me – lots of inspiring new ideas, new techniques, new equipment and new old stuff.

Day 23 – Fancy Dress / Cosplay – I don’t think I need say anything here!

Day 24 – Sewing With Knits – obviously one of my favourites, coinciding with news about a project I’ve been working on in the background and it turns out loads of you enjoy sewing knits….well who knew?!

Day 25 – Sewing Ambition – the 4th Prizeday Friday was sponsored by Love Sewing Magazine and one of these lucky people won a 3 month magazine subscription.

Day 26 – Monochrome – it’s not just black and white you know!

Day 27 – All In The Detail – I love a subtle but well executed detail and day 27 delivered.

If you’re still thinking of joining us for the last few days, follow me @thatwendyward and Emma @dressmakerssocial on Instagram and check out the #miymarch16 hashtag to see all the photos so far. We’re currently on over 5500!! Will we get to 6000 by Thursday??

There’s still also one Prizeday left to go this week on the very last day, this one is from the publishers of my new book – Cicco.

If you missed the highlights of the first 3 weeks, they’re here.

MIY March 16 – Week 3 Round Up!!

Argh what’s happening?! How can week 3 have gone by already?? Well, it has and as we say oop north; it was a good ‘un. Here are our daily top 4’s:

Day 14 – Sew Underrated – love of the humble needle, sewing machine, myriad uses for masking tape and the value of handmade items.

Day 15 – Nailed It – some well and truly perfected techniques did the rounds!

Day 16 – Pockets – it seems every stitcher and dressmaker loves a pocket. I totally get that, just look at these beauties.

Day 17 – Sewing Smalls – covered everything from sewing for small people, sewing pants (knickers for US readers!), a surprising amount of sewing for dolls and some beautiful miniature tools.

Day 18 – Couldn’t Do Without – our third Prizeday Friday was sponsored by the fabulous Ernest Wright & Son scissor makers and one of these lucky people won a pair of beautiful Ernest Wright thread snips.

Day 19 – Stripes – one of my favourites so I had a hard task on to pick just 4 pictures and tried not to go too obvious; the top left is a refashioned stripey men’s shirt, I love the different directions of the stripes in the bottom left – simple but effective, bottom right – stripes and a dog, well I just had to, didn’t I! And finally, those zips, who ever knew you could get striped zips?? Not me!

Day 20 – Hand Sewn – an appreciation of hand work and lots of confessions that people actually secretly enjoy it. Well, you’re preaching to the converted here MIY Marchers, I love a bit of calming hand sewing.

Inspiring aren’t they? We’re now over the 4500 mark on Instagram! Yes, if you look at the #miymarch16 hashtag, there are (as I write) 4873 pictures posted from sewers, dressmakers and crafters all over the world.

It’s not too late to join in, just follow me @thatwendyward and Emma @dressmakerssocial and this week’s Prizeday Friday (that’s tomorrow folks) is a 3 month subscription to Love Sewing magazine……so come on, get snapping.

Missed week 1 and 2 or only just joined us and no idea what I’m talking about?!  Find out all about MIY March here and catch up on week 1 here and week 2 here.

MIY March is Back!!

Did you take part in MIY March last year?

If so, I hope you’ll be joining myself and Emma again and if not, you need to join in this year! MIY March (aka make-it-yourself March) is bigger and better for 2016, I’ve got 5 amazing sponsors offering some great prizes for each week during March.

Most of the prizes will be available internationally, but some will only be open to the UK, I’ll make that clear when I post that day’s topic.

Here’s the list of daily topics to whet your appetite and start planning your pictures, get thinking!

Here’s how to join in:

• everyday in March post a sewing themed photo to Instagram inspired by the daily topic from the list above, I will post a topic reminder each morning
• use the hashtag #miymarch16 in the caption of your picture
• follow me @thatwendyward and Emma @dressmakerssocial so that you know each day’s theme and can check out our daily top 4 and Prizeday Friday winners
• everyday myself and Emma will choose our favourite 4 pictures to share and repost with you all
• on Prizeday Fridays you will also need to follow the sponsor to enter and the sponsor will choose their winner from our favourite 4
• Prizeday Friday winners will be announced on Monday morning of the following week
• if your account is set to “private” no-one will be able to see your pics so you won’t be able to join in!

So, what’s not to like? Exercise your little grey cells, meet like-minded people from around the world, win prizes and get inspired!

If you’re not already on Instagram there is lots of help for how to set up your account and how to use Instagram here.

Look forward to meeting you!!

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??!!

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!!