Blog hop

The blog hop baton has been passed to me from the lovely Lara of Thornberry. Lara is a prolific stitcher who makes fabulous clothes for herself and her gorgeous daughters. One (of the many) things I appreciate about Lara's blog is that she experiments with shape, colour and fabric and shares all the results - even if they aren't always quite what she was hoping for. 

1. Why do you write?

I started sewing again about a year ago after nearly 30 years of not sewing. I didn't even realise that there were sewing blogs and I don't remember how I found them but boy I'm glad I did. I am continually inspired by sewing bloggers. I love to see how patterns have been interpreted and how fabric choice completely alters the finished garment. I also really appreciate being able to see finished garments on a wide variety of people; different ages, shapes, sizes and styles.

This last point is especially important to me. And quite difficult to explain well.

I live in Thailand and so don't usually see women who resemble me in any way. (Yes, there are lots of foreign tourists in Chiang Mai but they are on holiday and I also don't live in Chiang Mai.) The few other foreign women I know, or just see around, are generally significantly younger than I am. I am surrounded by women who are just so much smaller than I am in every respect.

Also clothes that fit me are very thin on the ground so I can't try on RTW to see how a particular style looks. And most of my existing RTW was bought when I was working in the Middle East and so was both professional and conservative. My life now is neither of those things.

Sewing blogs allow me to see how garments look on someone who looks more like me. So a big thank you to all the nearly 50, not quite shaped as they used to be, bloggers out there.

And I still haven't mentioned why I write. Basically, it just seems that since I gain so much from the blogs of others that I too should contribute in some small way. I really appreciate the opportunity to discuss the best way to construct a collar or the joy of french seams or to just celebrate the completion of a garment. I don't know others who sew because home sewers are basically non-existent here. Tailors are plentiful and affordable and so many people have professional or formal wear tailored for them. (And I can't tell you how tempting that is when you're grappling to fit pants for example.)

And of course without sewing blogs I would not have had the pleasure of meeting and fabric shopping with both Lara and Seamstress Erin and made two new IRL friends as well.

By the way, this is an open invitation to anyone visiting Chiang Mai to get in touch. I'd love to go fabric shopping with you.

2. What are you working on?

That my friends is a shirt for H. Well it will be... eventually. Just about everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. The mess you see above is actually a completely unpicked collar and stand. The collar actually looked fine as long as you only looked at one side at a time. It was completely asymetrical. And that was both the collar and stand. I'm not sure exactly how that happened but I do know the main culprit was me. I'll fill you in on the trials and tribulations when it is actually finished.

3. How does you blog differ from others of the same genre?

As many people have already said - I'm not sure that it does. Although I am still relatively new to it and still finding 'my voice'. I am finding it hard to make the switch from my professional, managerial and/or academic writing style into something more personal. But I am working on it.

I could give you a long list of what my blog doesn't have or do compared to others but then you already know that, don't you? And yet you still read it... you are kind.

4. What is your writing process?

Ha! What is this process of which you speak?

For someone who is generally very organised, I am surprisingly haphazard about blogging. I blame the necessity of taking photographs. I do not like having my photo taken and never have. Because of this, makes often don't get posted immediately. I am constantly writing blog posts in my mind; while I'm sewing, cycling, ironing, but by the time I get around to actually writing, the thoughtful/interesting/important/useful/amusing points often do not make it into the written version.


I also seem to either sew or blog and not the two together. So I often sew several garments and then when I eventually have photos I will write several posts. I also (strangely) get hung up on blogging makes in the order in which they are made, or in some other order according to my own mental list. Seriously, sometimes I think "I'll write a post about y" but then I think "No, I haven't posted about x yet. I have to do that first." And I have no idea why and now that I actually contemplate this properly - it is just plain stupid. So I will be working on that too.

But enough fairly random rambling from me. I would like to pass the baton onto bobbinsbikesandblades and onedabbles, both of whom take the time to comment on what can be some fairly mundane posts. Thank you both for that.