Around the World Blog Hop

Sally from Daisy Chain Creations and Sew Cool for the Tween Scene asked me to participate in this blog hop, so here goes!

What am I working on:

I always have something on my sewing table, and I tend to cut and sew in one sitting.  Unless it is something complicated, like a fitted coat or involved costume.

Last weekend I sewed three gymnastics leotards for the girl.  Sewing several similar things at a time makes them go faster.  You don’t have to try to remember the best way of putting them together that way.

I have this coat cut out…mostly.  That is my current UFO.

How does my work differ from others:

Well, I sew for older kids, so what I make tends to be a bit different than what a lot of mom sewists are making for their kids.  I am not sewing dresses or skirts, since my girl won’t wear them anymore.  For my son, he is more interested in comfy clothes or shirts that have a specific interest on them.  I have gotten fairly good at embellishing with Artist Transfer Paper, iron-on vinyl and iron-on rhinestones to make my kids’ clothes more personalized.

I also like to design fabric, so I make clothes that have my fabric designs that I print at Spoonflower.  This does not save me money.

Tree fabric is my design, and there is an appliqué I drew on my son’s shirt, too.

As for the sewing I do for myself, I tend to draft a lot of patterns.  I don’t think you see much of that in the sewing bloggers.  I hope that more women try to do that for themselves, because once you get some basic pattern blocks that fit your specific body, you can do so much with them.  Its a little math, but not that hard.

Most of my clothes I make are ones that I wear to work.  I do make some casual clothes, but by and large it is clothes that I wear in my office job.

I love that skirt…I wear it all the time to work.

Why do I create what I do:

I need a creative outlet.  My profession is accounting, which tends to get a bit boring after awhile.  I need to have some thing creative in my free time to feed my soul.  Sewing, drawing, photography, loom knitting, writing…it all helps me feel like I am fulfilling myself.  There is never enough time in the day, though!

How does my creating process work:

I will usually start with an idea, or inspiration picture from Pinterest.  I will make a quick drawing, and then figure out how to make it in my head.  Then, I will either re-draft an existing pattern block or on a rare occasion, use a pattern without modifications.  If I intend to embellish with a stencil, vinyl or transfer paper, I will usually get the designs printed/cut first.

Not everything turns out like I see it in my head.  Sometimes they end up not fitting right, so I have to modify my plan.  Sometimes the fabric does not cooperate, so I have to modify my plan.  Sometimes they just end up looking like crap, so I have to scrap it and start over with a different plan.  That can get frustrating if it happens too many times in a row, but for the most part…I sew/design pretty fast.  I can usually redo things pretty quickly.

This ended up looking a little different than how I originally intended, but I still love it.

Now I have to tag someone, so here is Michelle from Falafel and the Bee!  Go and check out her blog, which has a lot more than just sewing.  This week I learned that our girls our interested in the same books.  Go Warriors (cats!)! 🙂