OK, now I’m back from epic shopping in NYC, I can finally catch the tail end of the Blog Hopping train. Thanks for the nomination, Chris of Make & Wear! 🙂 Let’s see if I can keep this short.

1. Why do I write?

For the same reasons that other sewing bloggers write I think:

• It’s a creative outlet. (Thank you WWW!)
• And a way to find other people out there like me. (ET phone home!)
• And to return the favor as I live vicariously through your sewing blogs! (There’s only so many hours in a day. Plus not everything I like looks good on me. Or suit my lifestyle. Or are achievable with my sewing skills / resources. So I’ll just pretend to be you for the glory moments, bypassing all the sewing PITAs on the way!)

2. How does my blog differ from others in its genre?

Hmm, seems more like a question for marketer bloggers who are trying to make a living out of blogging. I don’t think it’s really relevant to be different. Especially for the purpose of finding Life As I Know It out there! So maybe the question is more like “what’s your tribe”, or “what’s the password”, or “sum up your sewing blog in 5 bullet points”. You know, so your fellow ETs can easily identify you and let you into their Speakeasy. So here are my bullet points. Sort of.

• Style-wise: I guess I’m more contemporary designer RTW with a dash of street and deconstruction. Well, late 80s onward anyway & always a good few seasons behind the curve. I also like vintage, historical costume, and some couture as well. But they don’t fit my lifestyle that well. And I can’t do serious sporty to save my life.
• Pattern-wise: I’m veering towards draft-my-own. Because most of my inspirations come from RTW. And my current basic blocks aren’t based on commercial fitting patterns. So draft-my-own seems the quickest way to gratification design & fitting-wise. But I do want to eventually make up some of the commercial patterns I own. Haven’t done any Indie patterns yet. Again, fitting alteration being the stumbling block. And the fact that most styles seems fairly basic, so not warrant the trouble of figuring out fitting alterations needed.
• Sewing approach: You know the RTW vs ‘Couture’ fight. I’m agnostic. I will try different approaches to see which will give me a good balance between effort & reward. Sometimes machine is better because my hand sewing sucks. Sometimes hand sewing is easier because my machine skill sucks. I don’t need anything that’ll last forever after having suffered through figure changes (and just plain old poor design choices and deficient fitting skills). But I do want to do enough to avoid wardrobe malfunctioning!
• Writing style: Yeah, sorry about all the in jokes and mongrel lingo & cultural checks, and questionable command of grammar & spelling. I did say this is my creative outlet. So you’ll just have to put up with it if you drop by. Work anal retentiveness also spill over. I put information in buckets for a living. So headings & bullet list galore it is then. And I love my mug shots & ‘improvements’ on the Pattern Review format! I wish more people would do the same! 🙂
• Plan for World Domination: None. So no tutorials. No sew-alongs. No pattern releases. None of the wonderfully social things that popular sewing bloggers do! I am an introvert after all.

3. How does my writing  process work?

Painfully! I have tried to write spontaneously sometimes. But most of those languish in the draft queue then dissipate into thin air. What you end up with are mostly project summaries. Which are tedious because I want to be useful. I tend not to write work in progress posts because they seem harder to use as a reference. Too many red herrings and wild goose chases.

4. What am I working on?

Next up on my sewing To-Dos must be a new tote bag to replace the one I made almost two years ago. I’ve been using it almost nonstop. Must be my most successful project ever! And I would continue to use it if it weren’t for the garment grade dark brown vinyl I used for the accents. That has worn away in many stress points, like the bag bottom corners. This time I think I will try home furnishing grade fake leather. And maybe use that for the handle as well since the fake suede I used in v1.0 fray like crazy. I’m staying away from real leather. Because leather bags always seem to weigh a ton.

But first I need to catch my breath and rest my feet after days of pounding that NYC pavement. And earn some more £££ to feed my sewing habit, what with the damage to my bank account that this NYC trip must have done.

5. Nominations

This is getting tougher as more and more bloggers have already done the hop. And others I follow seem too professional / business-like to participate in this sort of thing. So here are my victims, who I think all share my contemporary (quality) RTW aesthetic…

• Clio & Phineas Cool Chick and now Yummy Mommy in the Making.
• Puu’s Door Of Time Adventurous. Like a sewing version of Dr Who.
• Mercury Handmade Fashion who churns out fabulous makes after fabulous makes from TNT patterns for her very lucky daughters.