Thanks to everyone who visited the jury blogs to cast your vote. We had a total of 191 votes. That's wonderful! I know it doesn't mean we had 191 individuals voting but it's still nice to see that a lot of you voted multiple times. We appreciate you taking the time.
Thanks to Make Magazine the winner will get:
A 1 year subscription to Make magazine generously offered by our official sponsor Make
Thanks to individual donors (this is not coming from Make: Magazine), the winner will also receive:
A $100 cash prize
A custom ipad sleeve
I know you want to know who won. I am glad it was so hard for all of you to decide. That is a good thing to tell these awesome designers! They did such a good job it was hard for all of you to choose.
A big congratulations to Joost* and all designers for their hard work.
What are you going to do with our new Sewcialists logo? First, head over to Joost's site and choose your colors. I totally did this already. You should see the new logo on my upper right hand of the blog. Click on it and you'll go to our sewcialists.org site. There's some background ideas kicking around with what we would like to do there to make it a social site. Stay Tuned!
Now, what to do with your customized logo? Well, some ideas:
Put it on your blog
Make an iron-on transfer and iron it on a t-shirt or a tote
Sketch it on your Trapper Keeper (do these still exist?)
Stencil it on your sewing machine.
Make Stickers!
What shall you do with our shiny new logo?
*Joost asked that we donate the money to a charity. We decided on Boston and Bindis, which you may have heard about from Madam Oona. If you feel like it, its a worthy cause.
You know, its kinda hard to sew for boys. I mean, the pattern options are very limited and while you could probably find some cool vintage patterns there's no guaranteeing that your boy will wear them. While Simon loves his WoW shirt, he doesn't wear it often because its a button down, and that's too fancy for school.
So, I asked him what kind of shirt would he actually WEAR to school. He says "NARWHALS!" (do a google search, they are a real thing). So I pulled up Spoonflower and did a search for narwhals. There are way more options now than their used to be. But at the time we settled on this one:
So for the shirt I used a vintage 70's raglan t pattern. Sorry, no link at the moment. When the fabric came it it was much more purple than expected. Which was fine, cause it matched his stuffed Narwhal I got him for Christmas.
This was the "try on" phase, complete with Dr. Dandy (cause he has a monocle and mustache). I was apparently not fast enough because he promptly ran upstairs "for bed' and then wore it to school, and then Grandma's cause she picked him up before I could pry it off of him. Once I finally got it back it had to be washed. Cause woof... boys are stinky. I added contrast bands to the arms and then self fabric to the bottom. Both needed more length anyway.
As an aside, Spoonflower's organic cotton knit is amazing and worth the price. The only thing I can complain about is the fading of dark colors.
Later I made a pair of sweatpants. I'm glad construction of these are fairly straight foward because I'd had a pretty epic meltdown after finding a dead chipmunk in the kids' rooms. That's one in each. OHGODEEEWWWW. There was a lot of screaming and yelling about the state of their rooms, making the kids cry, my husband fairly silent and "helping" them clean* and my roommate left the house. My roommate never leaves the house.
All that to say, I constructed those bad boys while heavily medicated. If this were a game I would have gained a skill level.
And, thanks to the wise words of Twitter Sewcialists, I saved the next thing for later.
Constellation curtains! This fabric is the perfect curtain fabric. Seriously. The designer really thought this through. Again, spoonflower, and you can get this here in two colorways. These were also super easy. I uses every single bit of this fabric, NO WASTE! And because it was such an easy project I decided to use some glow-in-the-dark fabric paint I had lying around to paint the constellations themselves.
This is the nook, where we just turned the old fish tank table into a hamster table. Next up is covering it with some vinyl for easy cleaning.
All these things seem to have made Simon a very happy kid. I could tell that he was feeling left out with the amount of things I make for Felicity (because.. hello, girls clothes! Seriously, this is why defining what we can wear by gender needs to go away).
So, that's that. I think I'm done here, but gotta go tally up the Sewcialist votes. Tell me, what do you sew for boys?
Oh, and before I forget, here's the Narwhal Song.
*Clean is a somewhat relative term here. We actually did a lot of cleaning this weekend but you can't tell because the living room is currently the laundry staging area and the carpet looks like it hasn't been vacuumed in weeks. Except it was vacuumed four days ago.
I really must sing the praises of this blouse. Vogue 8747 is from the "Basic Pattern Custom Fit" line, and I think I'm in love with these. Its built on their standard block, with most of the bust adjustment done for you. The two major changes on my part were large upper arms for the sleeves and rounded upper back adjustment. This is my second make. I also did a plain black one, but did not photograph it.
These trousers were given to me by a friend that had lost a great deal of weight after surgery. I love them to bits but they are getting kinda threadbare. I will probably use them to help draft a new pair.
I also really like how this goes with my floral bolero.
Hmmm. Hair stuck under the jacket. My mojo seems to have taken a hiatus. I did make a raglan t-shirt for Simon out of narwhal fabric, which he quite loves. I still have to finish it. I want to make a skirt or two for work then get cracking on my raincoats.
Hello you fabulous vacationing sewcialists! I hope you've had a lovely stay here. I know this was a loosely organized focus month that was mostly to put you at ease working with a different kind of fabric. I don't have too much to say today, other than I was happy to have as many of you as I did. I'm posting makes from the Flickr group and if I've missed you and you want to share, please add a link in the comments below!
Please don't feel like this is over. The Chalet is always here when you want to visit. I love this fabric and I hope you do too, now!
First up, the Fabulous Katie of Kadiddlehopper. That woman has some serious sewing stamina. I have no idea how she does it. Here she made a lovely bias cut top and a wrap skirt. Faboo!
Oh Carie, you were after my heart here. Of course you deserve a cocktail! A 90's slip dress? A fabulous print skirt, yes please! And check out here blog to see all her fabulous other makes.
Gillian of "Crafting a Rainbow", after my casual heart. This is the perfect little top for a hot summer day running errands or reading while surrounded by furry friends. Of course she's got plenty of other lovely makes on her blog, and she may even challenge you to a sewing dare!
Last but certainly not least, Miss Devyne. She refashioned an old skirt into a top. Its the perfect little bit of over the top to go with those purple jeans and her fabulous personality. I can't believe I went this long in the blogosphere of sewcialists without making her acquaintance. This is a good top for the Arizona springtime, for sure.
You know, I'm sure there's an awful lot about this dress I could say, but I really don't feel like doing a process post tonight. This is Simplicity 1880, one of the project runway ones. I can see why they are so popular now, as they are extremely well drafted. Suffice it to say that this is my wearable muslin. For the first time ever I went ahead and didn't make a muslin first. I pretty much have these kind of bodices figured out and I was pretty darn confident that I didn't need to test it. I think my next two makes are going to have cap sleeves though.
Oh, before we go on, don't forget to vote for the Sewcialist emblem!
This was an accidental photo of me walking back to pose. I liked it so here it is.
I'm not sure what I'm doing here but, hey, its a good shot of my backside. Mostly.
Check out that fantastic collar. This was, I think, the moment where doing a notched collar finally sank in and made sense in my brain. Now if only I could wrap my head around pants geometry, the world would be a better place.
Pretty flared skirt. I wish I could show you how the fabric sort of sparkles and a close up makes it look like peacock feathers and ferns. My belt is vintage, probably 80's, from Nashville when I went to see the Golden Age of Couture exhibit and met Gertie in person.
I might look like my paternal grandmother in this photo.
That's all folks. I have two more of theses dresses planned, they are all meant to be work appropriate. I'll do a post on what modifications I made and a bit about getting the invisible side zip to be, well, invisible.
As for photos, I think for now on i'm going to take them in the morning when I'm backlit, or maybe another how for the sun to be down further. We'll see.
Welcome Everyone! We're here today to vote on the 6 Sewcialists emblem entries. Please consider the following before you cast your vote:
We asked each designer to design an emblem that...
Relates to sewing and the social nature of sewcialists
Is modern, simple, recognizable and memorable
Is useable in black & white as well as in color
You can read the rest of the requirements on the Sewcialists.org site. On this site, you can also find the rest of the Jury Blogs. You are allowed one vote per jury blog. The Jury itself will not be voting. The jury eliminated the short-list portion of this contest. The designs up for vote are the designs that were submitted.
When you vote on our blogs, please make your vote very clear, typing in the # of the entry and the designer's name.
Included before each design is a portion of the designer's cover letter to give you context.
**Special Technical Note** For those emblems that appear with a brown background, that is because they were made on a "clear" template, which is to say, they will show through whatever is the background color on your blog. In my case, its brown. I have unfortunately not figured out how to get blogger to not do that on specific images.
Voting closes on May 8th at midnight Eastern time in the United States.
Entry #1- Bev
I chose my designs as a globe representing the world wide sewing community, needle and threads to represent sewing, threads of different colours to represent our differences and a computer mouse to represent our mode of communication.
Entry #2- Gareth
I think that this design shows the close-knit (excuse the pun) nature of Sewcialists. It places them within the circle created by the threads coming from the needles. I think this nicely sums up the idea of a community brought together by the hobby that they love.
Entry #3- Sabina
I basically wanted to keep the logo very simple and recognisable. Every sewcialist will at some point use a computer to communicate about their creations or engage with other sewcialists. Although there are lots of different hardware options to enable us to do this (smart phones, desk tops, tablets etc etc) I thought the world at large would be able to immediately recognise a standard laptop to represent how the online community interacts.The sewing machine in the middle was the obvious choice to represent what sewcialists do at the very heart of our creativity. It’s actually based on my Janome 525S machine! The dot and dash circle enclosing the logo represents to me the cutting lines on patterns!
Entry #4- Joost
The design uses a button and bobbin to relate to sewing whereas the smiley face speech balloon relates to the social nature of sewcialists.
The button is slightly rotated. It makes it visually more pleasing and reminds us that sewcialists needn't adhere to the stereotype of off-the-peg garments. The bobbin is half-filled with thread, indicating it's being used. The friendly chatter that sewcialists engage in online is embodied in the form of a speech balloon/smiley face.
The emblem is simple in its design and its button and bobbin shapes breathe 'sewing'. The combination of three basic elements makes it memorable, yet distinctive.
The black and white version at the bottom and the color version at the top prove that the logo 'works' regardless of colors.
But I don't like the color!
You don't have to. You may like the same dress pattern as another sewcialist, but that doesn't mean you should make it in the same color, right?
The strength of the design is its shape. Only you can choose your prefect colors. So, pick your own colors and make this design your very own sewcialist emblem.
My design is a patchwork globe revolving on an axis which is represented by the dress form. The needle and thread which changes to a computer mouse representing the lines of communication going round the globe linking sewing and the social media.
My idea for this came from the inclusive and diverse nature of the sewcialist community represented by the patchwork pieces of the countries - linked by a common thread - our sewing and means of communication. My favourite author is Anne Tyler who wrote the book A Patchwork Planet so a bit of me. I also wanted to represent all sewers, the dress form for the garment sewers among us and the patchwork, yes you've guessed it! for the patchwork community.
The text around the outside gives a vintage feel - I think - to the design. I mention the word Sewcialist at the top and I felt we should aim high - with a bit of humour so a bit tongue in cheek with the proclamation that we will unite the world with our stitches.
Don't forget you can go to all the other jury blogs and vote for your favorite! Only one vote per blog, though, ok?
Hey look, its another Vogue 8701! This one I made out of black rayon/wool gabardine from FabricMart. I made one modification from my previous plaid version, which was to take an extra dart at the neckline. I think I could honestly take this in a bit in the sides as gabardine has more give to it than silk dupioni. It has a wonderful drape and depth of color, though, which I love. And its perfect for a chilly office setting without being too hot when you have to drive home, except maybe during July and August.
I think I was giving the stray cat the stink eye, not sure.
I just recently got this super cute bow hairband that I love to pieces. And this is a self made belt and vintage brooch.
This is me swishing from side to side. Like I said, its a great swishy fabric.
Here you kinda get a peek of the zipper. Its a vintage metal zipper I stole from my MIL stash and put in with a hand pick stitch. And because of the way my waist is, the belt rides up above the dress waistline a bit.
Incidentally, it looks just fine un belted.
Side view. Side note: The shoes are Jeffrey Campbell. Two years and they are still my favorites.
So some stats:
Fabric: rayon/wool gabardine $5yd (bought during a super sale), 3 yards. Bemberg rayon lining, I fussed with it and got it out of 2.5 yards (60" wide), $16 a yard. So $47 dollars. Notions: Zipper and lace hem tape, both inherited from other people's stashes. 0 dollars Time: If I hadn't put the sleeves in backwards, cut to finish would have been 8 hours (hand picked zipper, hand sewn invisible hem). But that added on an extra 2 hours. I started this last month and fussed with it off an on. 10 hours over about four weeks.
