Hi everyone! I hope you all enjoyed Sabrina’s feature! I’m very excited about the feature today, as I’ve met this little lady in real life! đ I met her at a London blogger meet up and was delighted to have found a fellow German seamstress living in London! Pretty cool, eh? You will be surprised when you learn that she just recently started blogging – you absolutely can’t tell! Her blog, her pictures and her makes are amazing and if you’re a big fan of sewing, quilting, knitting or guinea pigs – you must check out this blog!
Hello I am Daniela from âEla Sews And Doesnât Sleepâ. I am so excited that Charlie has invited me to be featured on her blog. Thanks a lot for this opportunity Charlie.
Just let me give you a quick heads up about me. I am 29 years young and in my final month of my practical work for my PhD in biology. I will start writing up in October and will spend loads of time at home then in front of my computer. So that will be a complete change of my life đ I live together with my boyfriend and two guinea pigs in London in a little house with a garden. I am lucky enough to have my dedicated sewing space, where I have my sewing machine, fabrics, cutting mats and haberdashery set up. I started sewing seriously about 8 months ago, after having given up on sewing 3 years earlier. I love to sew dresses and skirts and whenever I get frustrated with the fitting process I will take out a quilt and do some free motion quilting. So my blog is not only about my adventures in dressmaking but also about quilting and soon to be come about knitting as well.
Q: For how long have you been blogging and why did you decide to start a blog?
I started to blog only 4 months ago â so I am still a blogger newbie đ I started to blog because I wanted to share my sewing progress and get some input from other makers. When I started to sew (and it still is like this), I couldnât stop talking about sewing. How much fun it is, what I want to make â you get the idea. The problem was I had nobody to talk to, to exchange ideas with. Not that it stopped me from telling all about it to my boyfriend, friends and colleagues. But after a while I noticed that they became pretty bored â not my boyfriend though đ So, I started to think about blogging.
Two month further I started my blog Ela Sews And Doesnât Sleep. And up so far I havenât regretted it. I am getting input and motivation from other bloggers and I even made friends when attending a bloggers meet-up.
Q: What was your first ever blog post about? How do you feel about it now?
A bit embarrassed? I could have just started with writing about one my makes or a little tutorial, but I thought I need some kind of an introductory post. And then I was sitting there and had not really an idea how to start. It was not that easy to come up with something when the only thing you want to announce is: Â Hello I am here đ .
Q: What was the first blog you regularly read?
That was Tilly and the Buttons. I stumbled upon it (and on the world of sewing blogs) when I was looking for info about the Great British Sewing Bee. I have actually read all of Tillysâ posts because I wanted to know how she became such an amazing seamstress after such a short time.
 
Q: How and when did you learn how to sew?
The first time I touched a sewing machine was 4 years ago. It was during the term summer break that I decided to sew little cuddle houses for my guinea pigs (see my blog post here). So I bought fabric, batting and thread, printed a tutorial and convinced my grandma to show me how to sew. My grandma had an old Veritas sewing machine, which was actually produced close to where I live. She showed me how to wind a bobbin, to thread a needle and most importantly how to sew đ I then dug up my mumâs old sewing machine, which had been neglected for 15 years and brought it to a service shop. Then I tried to sew at home, but somehow the thread tangled and I thought the sewing machine was still broken. So, I called in the service center to complain and was told the machine is working alright. I then went there with my sewing machine and a very old tailor showed me how to use such an old sewing machine properly.
 
Q: What are you doing when youâre not sewing or writing blog posts?
Mostly working (see below). I have also started to knit and I just love to cuddle up with my knitting next to my boyfriend on the couch. I also love to watch detective movies on Saturday nights. My favorite ones are Agatha Christies Poirot (I have the whole DVD collection), Morse and Lewis (I just love Oxford).
 
Q: What does a normal day in your life look like?
Very busy and far too short! I get up 6:30 in the morning, have some breakfast and feed my piggies and leave the house at 7:30. Then I have a lengthy tube ride, in which I try to catch up on the newest blog posts, before I arrive at work at 8:15. I try to not leave work later than 5:30 to have some time for myself in the evening. Having had dinner, it is usually already 19:30, which leaves me with 1.5 hours of sewing, knitting or cuddle time. I try to stop doing anything sewing related at around 9:00 because otherwise I canât fall asleep when going to bed at 22:00. Even reading about sewing or being on pinterest keeps my imagination going and I can forget about sleep.
 
Q: Do all of your friends/family know that you are a blogger?
Most of them know, but I donât think anybody is reading it đ My family does not speak/read English, so for them I usually put pictures on my Flickr page. And I guess for my friends, they are just not into sewing.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
There are so many different projects I am working on. The most important one is a Birthday Quilt for my mum. I started to work on it in March and have to finish mid October so that it is ready when I am going home. I just started to quilt it and it takes up a lot of my time. Because it is a Birthday present, I canât post anything about it on my blog. You never know, my mum could stumble on it by coincidence.
I am also participating in the Fall for Cotton challenge, where I am going to sew a vintage dress made from cotton only. And as if that was not enough, I have also started to knit a lace scarf.
 
Q: What is your go to pattern brand?/ Or if youâre not using patterns, what is your favourite tool/technique to work with?
Thatâs an easy question! Colette Patterns! I do have the Colette Sewing Book and 4 other patterns. I just love the playful style and great descriptions. But I am trying to venture out a bit and also have the Kelly Skirt Pattern from Megan Nielson and a jersey dress pattern from Maria Denmark. Simplicity and McCalls are also in my stash.
Q: If you had 500 dollar/euros/pound to spend on your blog/hobby, what would you buy?
A mannequin, overlocker, more Colette patterns and fabrics!!!! I would run out of the money quite fast I suppose!
 
Q: What can we look forward to seeing on your blog in the future?
More me makes đ And hopefully some knits. And as Christmas is approaching, I am planning to do some tutorials to give you ideas for Christmas presents. As soon as I am done with my mumâs quilt, I will get started on that.
 
This might be interesting for all the London-based peeps!
I enjoyed reading all these resolution lists last week, and since one of my sewing/blogging resolutions is “Make Lists & Plan Projects ahead”, I thought it would be a good start to begin the year with my own list of “re-sewlutions”.
*Blurry Pic Alarm*
