Happy Friday! Matt and I are really excited for the long weekend :). We’re heading back out to our new favorite camping spot for three nights! We’re bringing fishing gear and a kayak this time as well as enough rain gear and tarps to allow for a fun weekend despite the rainy forecast.
In the meantime, I’ve compiled a list of five sewing-related things that I’ve found inspiring and intriguing of late.
First off, a fairly new pattern company has come to my attention, called Teach Me Fashion. They are a mother and son team based out of Australia who are approaching the idea of an indie pattern company a little bit differently. Their patterns are for sale through their Etsy store but instead of receiving both a pattern and instructions, you receive the pattern and then sew the design while watching the corresponding Youtube video! The video’s can be viewed by anyone, even before purchasing the pattern, so I highly recommend you head on over to watch one or two of them – you’re going to be impressed! The filmography is incredibly clear, the pace, in my opinion, is absolutely perfect, and Heather’s voice is lovely and calming. One interesting aspect of instructing through video is that Heather has been able to provide very clear instructions for draping techniques – something that is not very easy to do through illustration and written instructions! And, as the cherry on top, they offer a free design, their two-tone singlet, so head on over to download it right away!
The second thing inspiring me, of late, is a website called Denimhunters. Denimhunters is an online men’s lifestyle magazine with, of course, a focus on jeans. They currently have a feature on making your own jeans which, I think, is certainly relevant to us sewists! I’ve really enjoyed reading several of their articles such as this one on zippers, their round-up of jeans for women (I’ve never been able to find comfortable jeans and would choose a dress over jeans any day), and this article on denim worthy sewing machines.
In relation to this last website, the third interesting site I’ve been visiting is one that I have mentioned in the past but is worth reminding you of: TaylorTailor. On this blog, Taylor, a male sewist, documents his sewing experiences in the most amazingly clear and detailed manner. I can only dream of slowing myself down enough to approach sewing in the careful and systematic way that he does (why can’t I????). Not only does he blog about his high quality hand-sewn jeans, canvas bags, and self drafted patterns, he also has a small online store in which he carries the essential notions and fabric needed to make jeans yourself!
To finish off my list of inspiration, I have number four and number five to present to you – two very inspiring sewing projects!
The first is a recent project and is in theme with the rest of my inspiration list: $1,000 Jeans blogged at The Confident Stitch. Don’t these look amazingly professional?!
The second is an older project (last January I believe) that I have been admiring of late: The Military Style Sewaholic Minoru Jacket blogged at Cut Cut Sew. Matt and I met Tasia, the owner of Sewaholic, recently during her Vancouver Island holiday. She was just as lovely, easy to talk to and brilliant as she appears on her blog. We had a SUPER long lunch talking and talking about the million things we had in common when it comes to running an indie pattern company and being small business owners. I am glad we live fairly close together because I really look forward to hanging out with her again! Now that I have met the inspirational woman behind my favorite pattern company, I am even more eager than I previously was to sew myself a Minoru Jacket for the Fall. This will be the next project I sew for myself and, before I start it, there is a pleasantly large rabbit hole of inspiration for the Minoru Jacket on the internet! This Military Style Minoru is perfect, in my opinion, and it really makes me look forward to spending time creating careful and straight top stitching :).
Have a great weekend!
With a few teaching possibilities coming up in the near future, I have been working on assembling a mobile Thread Theory ‘store’ to bring to these events. I love seeing all our products in one location like this – I think our brand looks really consistent!
We thought you might like to see the Finlayson samples in action! They’ve been getting loads of wear this summer – both on Matt and on me! We wore them camping and they were the perfect weight to keep our backs cozy as we sat around the fire and the evening air became chilled.
Our little yellow Volkswagen barely made it over some of the boulder-sized obstacles along the gravel logging roads but it was well worth the struggle to get away from the full and load common campsites. We plan to head back up to our secret site soon, this time equipped with our kayak and some scrap wood to reinforce the crumbling dock.
And lastly, meet Stella! We are dog-sitting this week (much to the disgust of our cat, Jazzy). Stella a real sweety and is so patient with Jazzy. They’ve even progressed to voluntarily hanging out in our bedroom together (both looking decidedly uncomfortable). Stella is a pretty good sewing dog – the sound of the sewing machine doesn’t bother her and she loves to sleep beside me as I sew!
