Miss Celie

She Had Me At Bicycle

(Yikes. This post has been in ‘draft’ for ages)

Last month, I was contacted by a new-to-me reader. Bhoomika of Wearable Toile. She was travelling to DC  from the West Coast and would be spending a few nights in Baltimore and asked if I’d like to meet up. Now, despite my bravado, I can be — shy introverted?  Mostly because I’m fairly certain people won’t find me all that interesting in person. You know, I like to be in bed by 10. I’m a morning person. I’m not as tall or thin in real life as I appear on the internet. I’m incredibly sarcastic and hyper critical. All winning personality traits.

I traveled to her blog and was immediately intrigued. She had me at bicycle. Turns out she and her Baltimore-based friend are AWESOME. Like, seriously cool, smart, good people.  So cool, that I am going to use my Pilates groupon with her friend. We met up at A Fabric Place, better known in the interwebs as Michael’s Fabrics.  I forgot my camera so all my photos are from her blog.

We talked her into the $10 faux fur remnant she’s holding. It’s really really nice. I actually night go back for some myself. It must be made into a capelet, right? I suggested the No. 118 from the September 2007 Burda, but think it may have too many seams for faux fur.

After shopping (in which I bought NOTHING) we headed for a quick coffee before I had to go to ballet. In the car, I asked, ‘So, are you actually into sewing or just think it’s a fun thing to do. Because, I think about sewing alot.” I knew it was meant to be when she said with all sincerity, “I am obsessed with sewing. I think about it  all. the. time.” Right then I made her promise to  call every time she was in the area.

Which leads me to something. I think there are a lot of good blogs out there I may be missing because I’ve gotten used to my little roster on Google Reader. Is there a new to me blog out there that you love? Maybe you even write it yourself? I fear there are fun, quirky, interesting and youthful (ETA: by ‘youthful’ I guess I mean sewing clothes for everyday living so to speak.  So, I should have said youthful in spirit, lol) blogs like Bhoomhika’s that I may be missing. If so, please leave a comment below!

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33 comments

  1. My blog isn’t very exciting, since I’m waiting for the “right moment” to post message #100 (and building up to it), and have only recently gotten back to sewing after a five-month hiatus for moving house. I also need to post pictures of my new-to-me sewing room. If you ever come to Florida, you are invited to stay over and get dragged to the beach.

  2. Hey there! I’m a fellow Baltimore sewer – and I have the same feeling – that I won’t be as interesting in person (not that I think my blog is all that exciting either), 🙂 You sew so much more clothing than I do, so I’m a bit jealous of that – I get torn in so many directions. I think about sewing all the time too, though you’d never guess by how little I actually get to sew.

  4. Since you asked…I started my blog a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it qualifies as quirky or youthful, but I am hoping people find it fun and interesting. It’s a little light on sewing content right now, but I’m working on that. 🙂

    http://thingsfromscratch.wordpress.com

  5. I thought being pregnant would inspire me to sew lots of clothes. I still think about it just as much, but the whole “changing body shape” thing has kind of turned me away from trying to figure out fit, and I’m still not confident with knits. I have a couple of nursing friendly Ottobre patterns to try but I’m not sure if I”ll get to them with a newborn. Hopefully I haven’t abandoned fashion sewing forever, though!

  6. How lovely for you! Some people are very like their blog personalities and others not. I love to meet sewing obsessed people, I mean after all who else wants to hear about our latest fabric finds?

  8. Aw, thanks Cidell! Its so awesome having this blog world in which to geek out about sewing, and to gain inspiration! I don’t know about you other new folks, but I decided having a blog myself just made sense after realizing how much I got out of seeing everyone else’s, both from beginners and advanced sewists.
    Plus, you guys are so nice:)

    As for the capelet- thanks for checking on it, for me. I think the pattern I have from Diana Rupp’s Sew Everything Workshop book might work, because it has less seams, or I could use this fur for one of those detachable collars everyone’s talking about these days. What do you y’all think?

  9. I don’t know if it makes for interesting reading, but I just started my blog after becoming obsessed with sewing myself this September. And I am UBER sarcastic. Anyway, you are one sassy seamstress!

    (Sorry if this is a double-post. The internets are acting strangely tonight.)

  10. Is a blog required to be considered an interesting sewist? :o(

    I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a (normal) sewing blog (if only to provide incentive to photograph my stuff a lot more than I do for personal record), but there are already so many great ones out there, I feel like I’d just be a lot of extra noise. Also, time blogging would be time taken away from actual sewing, of which only so much can be spared from grad school (in dress history!)

    But I do think about sewing more than I should (considering grad school an’ all). I sew in my head a lot to help calm me to get to sleep at night. I view the world from a “would I like to make that?” point of view. I recently ordered 12 yds of 54″ wide ivory silk taffeta to make my wedding dress from – and I *hope* it’s enough. Seriously.

    Anyhoo, I don’t know where I’m going with this. Do you already know about Grosgrain? I just recently got turned onto it (thanks to WWEPW) and she’s doing a really fab knitwear make-over month. It makes me want to go thrifting like mad!

  11. I think my blog is pretty interesting. I find several while reading blogs, people will post a link concerning a garment/pattern that has inspired them.

  12. My most recent fave is the Messy Method (messymethodsewing.wordpress.com), because she’s hilarious. There are lots of blogs I read for awesome content, but only a few with writing that really tickles me, too.

    I think everyone (who sews) should have a sewing blog, or at least a Burdastyle profile they link to and post on ;). Some of my favourite commenters on my blog don’t have blogs of their own and it feels awfully one-sided that they always leave me wonderful notes and I never get to do the same. Plus I’m dying to know what they’re working on!

  13. I send my sewing comments to twitter rather than a blog or BurdaStyle. Although I have both set up, but just find twitter is the only one I actually update (linked above).

  16. Hmmm . . . well, we share some personality traits (I’m not gonna say which ones!), I write about everyday clothes and think about sewing non-stop. You be the judge!

  17. On a different topic, I have a question for you. When I read about how to sew clothing, all the books talk about making a muslin, usually starting with a dressmaking pattern. The problem is (well, the first, there are probably many) that my books tend to be rather vintage and the commercial patterns they suggest seem to be out of print. Is there a commercial dressmaking pattern you could recommend for a novice sewer for this purpose? I’ve dreamed of making my own clothes for most of my life and it’s time to either get on with it or give up the dream. I’ll be very grateful for any advice you might give. I’m most likely to see a comment on my blog. Just throw it in there any old place if you can. Thanks.

  18. Well, I feel like I might be enabling another “bad” habit when I share these blogs…..among the many that I read on my Google reader. I’m not sure I’d measure up to the youthful part myself but you won’t hurt my feelings. These are similar to your blog, fun, creative, fashionable and useful….and so are the many other on my blog roll. How did I procrastinate before the internet?
    http://tenthousandsewinghours.blogspot.com/
    http://mushywear.blogspot.com/
    http://sew-4-fun.blogspot.com/
    http://clairekennedydesign.typepad.com/the_atelier_of_claire_ken/

  19. Hi Cidell, I’ve been reading sewing blogs for a few years and finally had the courage to start my own this past February. I definitely tend to be on the shy side. I remember, back then, not really understanding the lingo when bloggers would say words like peeps, lurkers, DS, DH, etc. And I remember being really nervous when I would see that a blog could “see” that someone from HI was visiting their blog. Oh my, how far I’ve come. Yours was one of the first I started reading. Very inspirational. Anyway, come on over for a visit if you like!

  20. Isn’t blogland great, the way we can interconnect with our fave hobby! You would never have met each other without it, let alone all the contact with sewing bloggers internationally. Such a big learning opportunity too. The only negative is that it takes up some of my sewing time….!

  21. Thanks for introducing us to a new face – she is on Peter’s blog today too! I’ve added her blog to my blogroll. I agree, I love finding new-to-me bloggers

  22. I too must admit a sewing obsession. I mentally deconstruct garments I see on others (maybe I should try this next time I have to speak in public), get cranky when I haven’t sewn anything in a week, and manage my stash like a little mother hen.

    I’m writing at emadethis.wordpress.com

  23. Thanks for posting this! It gives all of us in comments a way to find new bloggers too! I already have two new sewing crushes!

    I have blogged about sewing. I’m currently trying to struggle back from a six month hiatus after the Tennessee floods and moving house. But I have a dedicated sewing room now, so I should just get on it! Also I recently blogged about a bicycle, does that win me any points? 🙂

    http://blog.willamettestar.com/

  25. I really enjoy your blog. I am bit shy so I started a private blog on WordPress (StitchNerd) recently simply to keep track of projects I work on but I still have not decided if my blog would be interesting to others.

  27. What a great and timely post. I spent a considerable amount of time today searching for and reading “new to me” blogs. There really are some great blogs that I have never stumbled upon before.

  28. I love your blog; I check in to catch up on your exciting life at least once a week. I love to sew, but don’t write too much about it. After all, I use the same patterns over and over, and just don’t find myself all that fascinating. Not that my cooking is exactly exciting, but my dog is pretty cool; I think that he’s why I have as many readers as I do.

    Anyway, do go back and get some fake fur for a capelet; at that price, you’ll feel badly if you don’t!

  30. This is already considered a vintage machine and there are a lot of collectors who are definitely after it. Just as there s a huge learning curve for a beginner working on a complicated electronic sewing machine if you re not used dealing with the simplest machine you may find the Singer 66 sewing machine a true challenge.

  32. I was curious if you ever considered changing the
    page layout of your site? Itss very well written; I love what yuve got
    to say. But maybe you could a litte more in the way of copntent so people could connect wih it
    better. Youve got an awwful lot of text for only having 1 or
    2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?

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