Happy Blogiversary to Me!

I'm astonished to find that I've been blogging for a year today - that's a sign of getting older isn't it, that the years just race by!

It's a funny old business, this blogging lark.  It's been much harder than I thought ... I started off talking to myself and trying to motivate my crafty progress.  I was a bit wobbly this time last year, I'd had a period of sickness and my self-confidence had taken a knock.  Learning to sew really helped.

It was a bit odd when I realised there were people out there actually reading what I'd written.  I know this is ridiculous, I get that it is actually 'the point', but I then started to worry about whether I actually had anything to say.  Please tell me I'm not alone?  I don't really talk about my blog - only immediate family even know about it, it's not linked to my Facebook or anything.  This is just about me, crafting and all the brilliant bloggers out there I guess, who I feel connected to in some way.

I mean there are Sewing Wonder Women out there - making incredible things, producing tutorials and patterns like whirlwinds.  I got a bit intimidated.  But then I realised, it's me (and people like me) that they're talking to - that's my place and I love being in the audience, joining in the class, taking part. 

So now I just write what I think, it's honest, I guess that's not terribly exciting but it's real.  Veronica Darling wrote a really interesting post on this very topic the other day - and she's a Sewing Goddess!

And I sat with a pen and notebook, just like Veronica, and I have nearly a dozen unblogged garments or topics I need to get to - now I just need to find the time to do it!

Anyway, what I really want to say is ...

Thank you very much x

 

for your encouragement, for taking the time to comment, for being just all round marvellous actually.  I wrote about the generosity of sewing bloggers and I really mean it.

Thanks to sewing bloggers out there I have

• made my first steps into refashioning
• become open to the wonderful possibilities of charity shops as sources for sewing materials
• am a total whizz with bias binding (sewing with it and making it myself - go me!)
• I am the master of the French seam
• I can draft my own facings and ignore pattern instructions and 'wing it'
• I am working through my stash like a whirlwind - encouraged by a great group of people
• I'm just more open to the possibilities of what I can do and will be able to make if I commit myself to it
• I have a box of 150 hessian bags that were going to go in the rubbish bin because the logo on them is out of date.  Actually, I don't know how grateful I am about that, Paul's face was a picture when I came home with that lot.  I kind of blamed Zoe and I've never even met her!  My argument was pretty much along the lines of 'What would Zoe say about that lot going to landfill?  I'll think of something marvellous to make from them.'  If you're got any suggestions I'd be glad to hear them!

I don't have a grand giveaway for you, I planned one thought about it some weeks ago and then today kind of snuck up on me - how does that happen?  I will get to it I promise, I'll add it to my To Do List because I have some fab patterns I'm going to release into the world - let's face it, I cannot possibly make all the patterns I own!

I decided that as I know you're all generous already I'm going to tell you what I'm planning to do instead, to give back some of the kindness that I've felt come my way this year.

This is my first effort for Dress A Girl Around The World - I know this charity has opportunities to join in wherever you are in the world.  Here in the UK it is co-ordinated by Louise at Sew Scrumptious.  I used this pattern that I found at Nancy's Notions (there are lots of others out there).

I'm ridiculously busy a little bit pushed at the moment but these are not complicated patterns, so I'm committing to make 12 by the end of this year. 

This cost me nothing but my time - the fabric is from a dress I tried to make last year, total fail not a complete success; I had great fun decorating it with some of the fab stitches I have on my new machine; the bias binding was left over from another project.



I have someone close to me that I don't get to see very often (that is a whole other story!).  She is going to sew along with me, a joint project.  I can't even tell you how much that means to me :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend
x