Eitchy's Blog

I haven’t had the time lately to be crafty, we’ve had plans for many weekends and in the evenings there’s so much else that needs to be done. I would prefer to be able to sit at least an hour with any project, but maybe I should realise that I can’t spoil myself like that and instead just do a little work whenever I have some extra time.

I will from now on try to be less controlled by the TV and in stead do things. Crafting or taking walks. I was at a party this weekend and my, all the girls were skinny, I felt so big. Then I thought to myself that why spend two hours each night in front of the TV in stead of doing things? So I’m trying to change.

As for new projects, I don’t know why, but I got an urge to sew aprons. I have one, store-bought, that is pretty ugly and old. So I would love to make myself two aprons, one full and one half. Here’s where the jealousy comes in. Whenever I look at other blogs, Burdastyle, any place where I can see creations really, I get jealous. Everyone has such fabulous fabrics, and writes about visiting several stores just soaking up the inspiration there. I don’t have many fabric stores near me. In the town where I work there’s two fashion fabric stores (the others are more for interior design and curtains), one in the other nearby town and that’s it. Three stores relatively nearby. And there’s not much rotation on the fabrics so very often it’s the same things every time I go there. So, yes, I’m jealous of those having plenty of stores to choose from.

But for now it’ll be a plaid maxi dress and possibly some aprons (if I can find a good fabric for it in my stash).

However, I don’t think it will be much crafting in the near future, because on Sunday I’m leaving for Paris. I will be there for one week, returning on the next Sunday, so that’s two weekends “to waste”.

Two things about the past week:

Burdastyle Sewing Clubs. What a teaser, just putting up the US clubs, making us “internationals” waiting one more week. I haven’t signed up, but I’m hoping that soemone from my area has. It would be great to meet some sewers around here. I haven’t decided if I will sign up if nobody else does. I will at least wait for the list next week. Like I said, how mean to get the IS clubs started and making the rest of us (the majority, I suppose) wait another week.

I signed up at Burdafashion as well. Before you could get their free patterns without being registered, but now you have to be registered to take part. It doesn’t really matter since it’s free. What I noticed on this site (which has nothing to do with being registered) is that you can see the features from the latest Burda WoF. This means that I can see what patterns I would be getting if I was to buy the magazine. For some reason the magazine comes in a plastic bag, so you buy the magazine based on the headlines on the cover. You really don’t know what you’re going to get. I understand this, but I find it odd because the Plus size version of the magazine comes without plastic.

That’s what I’ve learned the past week, and something to look forward to for next week. I hope someone will do a sewing club near me; it would (hopefully) be so much fun.

Many times have I made Burdastyle clothes. I have sometimes made things just for fun, to see if that style fits me. Many times have I recommended this site; for being a great community but also because of the free patterns. It has changed.

I’m not that stupid that I don’t understand market economy, especially in the current times, but it’s still a chock. Without warning they’ve decided to start charging for patterns. This would be fine, if it wasn’t for the fact that patterns that up until now have been free now have a price tag on them. I have downloaded a few to my computer and I also have the ones I’ve printed but I still think about those patterns when I’m browsing fabrics. But that will have to change. Maybe it was a marketing plot all along. They’d be free for two years, they’d spread the word about the sewing community which, to be honest, mostly lived on being a source for free patterns. The forum is not good in many aspects (new posts don’t get bumped, it is impossible to distinguish new posts since last visit), it’s sometimes a slow site when many people visit, people have come there for the free patterns and stayed (and endured) the rest.

The patterns were downloadable in pdf-formats, plenty of papers. You had to assemble the papers yourself or draw to get the pattern pieces. It’s work, but it was worth it since I got the pattern for free, but it was luxury those times I used a “real” pattern printed on a big sized paper where all lines were even, where I hadn’t spent hours taping them together and aligning them.

I have thought about getting a subscription to some sort of fashion/clothing magazine. I never found out which I wanted (some seemed too mature, some too juvenile; some seemed to much high fashion, some seemed too gossip-y; I wanted wearable, affordable inspiration). One of the magazines I thought of was Burda, to get fashion ideas and patterns. But I want to buy a copy first before I subscribe. Maybe this is a push in that direction.

The irony is that I will (probably) buy a Burda magazine. The company as a total looses nothing. One magazine is more expensive than one Burdastyle pattern (just the price, not including paper and ink). But not by much. One magazine contains more patterns than just one a hopefully more inspiration. I won’t have to print and tape the patterns. I hope I can pick one magazine up today.

Just a few days ago I was telling SIL about a site with free patterns. I’ve been writing here many times about that great site with free patterns. No more. As I find my now errors I will edit them and I won’t recommend this site anymore. I do like the community and getting help in the forum, but to be honest I was a Craftster first. It’s actually a bit sad, because I think that the site will lose what made it appeal to people and many prospective members might never sign up. I’m not giving up hope, but it’s a bit sad.

Everyday, on my way to work, I pass a fabric store. I’ve really come to like it as they have plenty of different fabrics; in both style and material. They have lots of prints, which I’m trying to incorporate into my work, so it’s been a good source of inspiration for me.

They had a summer sale, with 50% off everything in the store; fabrics, threads, buttons, everything. It kept on going and when I came back from vacation in October the sale was still on-going. I thought it was weird, but of course I welcomed it and bought some fabrics. The last time I was there they had closed one section of the store; I figured it was for renovations. A few weeks ago cardboard was covering all the windows; I stuck to hope and thought they were renovating the entire store, just not that section.

Then I noticed that the marking on the door was gone. My last hope went away. The store had closed. Something else would move in and I’ve been curious as to whether or not it would be a new fabric store. But today I could finally see what would open. A “lifestyle” store (aka interior decoration). Probably an expensive one at that too, since they market themselves as a “lifestyle” store.

I don’t like those stores; they’re usually pretentious and over-priced, hardly ever my style. It makes me kind of sad. It was great going in there trying to find inspiration, or just passing the store while looking to see if they had any new creations on display. The girl who worked there was nice, they had a great variety and, for personal reasons, I liked that it was close to work.

I still have other sources of inspiration, obviously, with Burdastyle and blogs being the major part. But what I like about fabric inspiration is that the fabric must speak to me, come alive inside my head to form a garment. Just looking at other’s creations on pictures don’t do that for me.

My fabric browsing will, sadly, be less frequent now as I must take time to go a fabric store. It’s unfortunate. There is only one more fabric store relatively close to where I work, it’s a bit out of my way, but still close enough that I can go there by bike after work. However I’m not as fond of that store. One store I like is in the outskirts of town, however not in my direction. There is one in the town where I live, but I’m moving from that in just a few weeks.

I guess I’ll have to get by, although it will take away some inspiration and browsing. That’s life.