Photos: Maddie Flanigan
Bobbins, needles and trims, oh my! Maddie’s vintage sewing notions.
SEW AND SHARE
A good sewing blog offers advice, insights and stacks of inspiration. We meet four crafty bloggers who make it look easy and urge you to give it a try.
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logging is one of the 21st century’s simple pleasures. Providing you have an internet connection, all you need to do is find a topic you’re passionate about and you’ll be ready to start sharing. For sewing bloggers, this can be your projects, triumphs, failures, favourite fabrics – just about anything that catches your eye. Tilly Walnes of www.tillyandthebuttons. com started blogging five and a half years ago “as a way to connect with other sewing geeks, as at the time I didn’t know anyone into making their own clothes. Luckily sewing has become more popular since then, and I’ve met some good friends through blogging. Later on, the purpose of my blog evolved to become a platform to provide sewing tips, tutorials and inspiration, with a particular focus on people who haven’t been sewing for long.”
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You may remember Deborah Simms from the 2015 Great British Sewing Bee, but she began blogging about sewing long before that. “I started my DFabricate blog when blogs were a fairly new thing,” she says. “It felt like everyone had one at the time, but no one really knew what to do with them. I decided to use mine to track the progress of the things that I created, starting with home projects mostly. I’ve used it on and off ever since, most recently when I decided to make my wedding dress two years ago.” Lilly Everett of www.rakeandmake.com sees her blog as a means to mentor other would-be sewists. “I have always enjoyed sharing whatever knowledge I have and have taught and been a mentor before. I feel there is so much we can learn from each other, so I wanted to create my own space for that kind of dialogue. I also
wanted to document my own progress, successes and failures.” If blogging appeals to you, the first thing you need to do is decide on your publishing platform – most of the bloggers we spoke to love www.wordpress.com. Lilly says, “I think branding is really important and I wanted my website to be easy to find, the name to be easy to remember and for it to be self-hosted (no Wordpress or Blogspot at the end). I have found Wordpress to be very user-friendly, yet still customisable. Plus, there are some really great templates and plug-ins available for it.” HOW, WHEN AND WHY You already know you want to blog about sewing, but how often should you post? Your priority really should be quality over quantity, Maddie Flanigan of www.
A GOOD READ says. “Blogging without purpose isn’t as exciting for the blogger either. Reasons to start a blog are that you’re passionate about a particular topic or hobby, or you want a creative outlet. Reasons not to start a blog are that you want to be famous, get free stuff, or, worst of all in my opinion, you love taking photos of yourself.” Tilly’s blog is just one part of her thriving sewing business. “Everything I do in my business, Tilly and the Buttons, has the aim of inspiring and empowering more women to sew their own clothes, particularly those who haven’t learnt to sew before,” she says. “It started with a blog, then I began releasing easy-to-use patterns, wrote a book on dressmaking for beginners, and now we run workshops too. The same aim, just in different media, if you like! Plus, it’s a space to share pictures of what other
people are making with the patterns – it’s great to be able to see what the garments look like on a diverse range of women, with different body shapes, styles and fabric tastes.” Lilly, meanwhile, simply wants to connect “with other like-minded and creative individuals, who enjoy doing the same things as me. To teach and learn, inspire and be inspired.” That certainly sounds good to us!
“SOME OF MY FAVOURITE BLOGS POST ONCE A WEEK, BUT THAT ONE POST IS INFORMATIVE, RESOURCEFUL AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, PASSIONATE.”
HOME FROM HOME One of the beauties of blogging is you can do it from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. Maddie tells us: “I’m not particular about where I work on my blog. I have a Wordpress app and often write and edit posts on the go.” That isn’t to say, however, that having your own dedicated workspace isn’t
Top: One of Lilly’s biggest sewing successes – her wedding dress. Colour us impressed! Above: Tilly’s informative tutorials have helped turn her popular blog into a business. Subscribe at www.simplysewingmag.com
Check mate! Deborah takes a relaxed approach to blogging and sharing her projects, which include this super-stylish shirt dress.
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Photo: Deborah Simms
Photo: Arielle Gamble / Tilly and the Buttons
Photo: Amy Kiel Photography-www.amykielphotography.com
madalynne.com advises. “I usually post three times a week – four or five times at most. Some of my favourite blogs post once a week, but that one post is informative, resourceful and, most importantly, passionate.” Tilly agrees, saying: “I post once a week on Wednesday lunchtimes, occasionally more when we have lots of tutorials to share around a new sewing pattern.” In other words, don’t post simply for the sake of posting. The next step before you launch your blog is to define what you hope to achieve with it. “My main goals are to try and reach as many people as possible, in order to provide a body-confident voice to the sewing blogger world,” says Deborah. “It’s one of my favourite things to see a dress pattern on a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and I hope my blog adds to that wealth of information.” Bra-maker Maddie urges us to carefully consider why we want to blog at all. “Getting clarity on your purpose and topic will lead to more consistent blogging,” she
A GOOD READ
Photo: Tilly Walnes
Photo: Lilly Everett
Photo: Deborah Simms
Photo: Maddie Flanigan
Photo: Maddie Flanigan
Middle left: Sharing her handmade wedding dress sparked Deborah’s love of blogging. Below left: The desk where the Tilly and the Buttons blogging magic happens! Below: Maddie models a stitched summer dress in her light, bright, airy studio.
beneficial. Lilly, who makes her living as a photographer, is fortunate enough to have a studio in her home, with one side dedicated to her computer, scanner, printer, and so on, and the other side devoted to the actual sewing “with my sewing machine, fabric and notions storage and ironing board. It’s really great to have a dedicated sewing space, where I can leave my projects out and my sewing machine set up, so I can work in short bursts if I want to. I also keep a light set up over my sewing table, so that I can quickly take overhead shots. My tiny studio is pretty functional and efficient.” Deborah’s approach is enviably laid-back: “I tend to work on my blog at home in front of the TV, hopefully with a cup of tea,” she says. “It’s important to me that I make writing my blog as enjoyable as possible, as it’s something I’m doing for fun. It shouldn’t be a chore.” Blogs that keep readers coming back 84 WWW.SIMPLYSEWINGMAG.COM
will undoubtedly have one particular visual element in common – plenty of photographs. “Images are extremely important in a blog post. A picture is worth a thousand words is the saying, right?” says Maddie, who shoots her blog photos with a Canon EOS 6D and primarily with a 35mm/f1.4 lens. “I chose this model over the Mark II or Mark III because it’s lighter, better at low-light photography and has Wi-Fi so I can upload photos easily.” For photographer Lilly, quality shots are understandably especially crucial. “Images for a blog post are the first priority for me,” she says. “When writing a post, the first thing I do is take the photos, then I write the post around them. I shoot with a Canon EOS 70D fitted with either a 24-105mm or a 50mm macro lens.” Images are also helpful when it comes to walk-throughs and tutorials, as Deborah explains: “Sometimes when reading a blog post, especially if it is a technical one, I’ll skip the writing and look at the images, and save the reading for when I’m trying to do the technique.” Tilly agrees that great images are essential for a craft blog, “whether to provide dressmaking inspiration, instruction for visual learners,
or simply sewing eye candy for someone who is browsing blogs as a way to chillax.” FINDING TIME It’s worth noting that, although enjoyable and rewarding, blogging can also be extremely time-consuming. “People often ask me how I find a work/life balance,” Maddie says. “My short answer is that I don’t. Madalynne is my baby and I care for it around the clock. It can be a challenge, but I love it, and I’m learning to love that challenge as a fact of life.” Fitting it all in around a rent- or mortgage-paying job can be difficult. “I have so many ideas and things I want to do for my blog, but I work full time, so I only have so much time I can put into it,” says Lilly, who admits that space, too, can be an issue. “My studio is functional despite its size, but I have to be organised, since it gets messy really fast. I fantasise about the day when I have room for a permanent cutting table.” Deborah aims to post at least once a week, but “I try not to force myself into a routine. I have a full time job, and it’s often difficult to do everything I need to without creating self-imposed deadlines on top of that.” A good point – blogging should be
“IT’S IMPORTANT TO ME THAT I MAKE WRITING MY BLOG AS ENJOYABLE AS POSSIBLE, AS IT’S SOMETHING I’M DOING FOR FUN. IT SHOULDN’T BE A CHORE.”
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Photos right & below: Lilly Everett
THE SEWING BLOGOSPHERE
Above and right: Quality photographs are key to a successful blog – Lilly Everett’s craft tutorials are accompanied by clear, easy-tofollow shots like these. fun, not an extra task on your to-do list! There is one other consideration to take on board, as Tilly warns. “Occasionally you can feel overwhelmed by the sense of being judged by people who don’t know you,” she explains. “For example, when you spend all day writing a tutorial to share for free, getting an angry comment about an unpressed seam can be disheartening! At times like that, you have to remember that life’s too short, rise above it, and laugh it off with friends – after all, it’s only sewing!” SHARING THE LOVE Done well, blogging can enrich your sewing life immeasurably. “What I love most about my blog is the community aspect,” says Maddie. “I consider myself articulate, but I’m a better writer, and the internet is a platform where I can connect with like-minded people globally. I once received an email from a Roman Catholic Benedictine monk in Lithuania!” That said, she adds, echoing Tilly’s comment, “There is a line you can easily cross by sharing too much of your personal life. I want my blog to be an accurate reflection of myself, and I want to connect with my readers on a personal level, but I don’t want my blog to be a diary.” She does, however, hope to become a better sewist through the motivation a wider audience provides. “I Subscribe at www.simplysewingmag.com
think goals are important to staying on track and I make them, but they’re not set in stone,” she says. “Life will always throw you curve balls, but my goal right now is to become a better bra maker.” Running a blog can also generate ideas. “My favourite thing to do is to catch up on what readers have been making from my patterns and tutorials – I love seeing what fabrics they choose, design features they add, and how they style the garments. It’s so inspiring!” says Tilly. So, any advice for wannabe bloggers? “Go for it!” exclaims Deborah. “Don’t worry about followers and commenters – that’s all secondary to the enjoyment of writing about what you love. I wish I’d known what my blog would become, and how much joy it would bring me.” Written by Judy Darley.
Blogging is a two-way process, so it’s worth taking time to read and comment on other blogs as well as writing your own – you might even make a few blogging friends along the way. In addition to Deborah’s www. dfabricate.blogspot.co.uk, Maddie’s www.madalynne.com, Lilly’s www. rakeandmake.com, and Tilly’s www. tillyandthebuttons.com, these crafty blogs are some of the best. ■ Bimple and Pimble: www.bimbleandpimble.com ■ By Gum, By Golly: www.bygumbygolly.com ■ Closet Case Files: www.closetcasefiles.com ■ The Coletterie: www.coletterie.com ■ Didyoumakethat: www.didyoumakethat.com ■ Dixie DIY: www.dixiediy.com ■ Grainline: www.grainlinestudio.com ■ Jennifer Lauren Vintage: www.jenniferlaurenvintage.com ■ Lladybird: www.lladybird.com ■ Lucky Lucille www.luckylucille.com ■ Male Pattern Boldness: www.malepatternboldness. blogspot.com ■ Makery: www.makery.uk ■ Miss Crayola Creepy: www.misscrayolacreepy.com ■ Miss Make: www.missmake.com ■ Scavenger Hunt Blog: www.scavengerhuntblog.com ■ Scruffy Badger Time: www.scruffybadgertime.co.uk ■ Sewaholic: www.sewaholic.net ■ Sew Fusion: www.sewfusion.co.uk ■ Sewrendipity: www.sewrendipity.com ■ Sew What’s New: www.sewwhatsnew.co.uk ■ Sparkleneedles: www.sparkleneedles.wordpress.com
Left: If these fabulous dresses made by Lilly Everett don’t inspire you to get sewing and blogging, nothing will! WWW.SIMPLYSEWINGMAG.COM 85