The Blog Hop!
I was nominated by the lovely Lara of Dreaming of Avonlea to keep the blog hop tour going. She a very talented seamstress and I adore her style! If you haven’t done so yet, please hop over and check out her blog!
Nobody really seems to know where and when the blog hop started. If you have any idea – please share! The only thing that is known is when taking part in the blog hop, you answer four questions before nominating two other bloggers to keep the blog hop alive. And this is exactly what I’ll do! So here we go.
Why I write
Why do I write? Probably because I once started writing and just never stopped. I started writing as soon as I learnt how in primary school. I scribbled tiny stories on Post-its in second grade and the continued to fill notebooks with imaginary sequels of my favourite books. I had way too many pen pals back then. I continued to write stories when I was older, but soon noticed that I was a bit too impatient for that and had way too many other hobbies which consumed my time.
I always liked the whole idea of blogs and at some point really wanted to write my own, although I had no idea what to write about. When I moved to London I took the plunge and started thisblogisnotforyou.com. It started out as a personal blog for friends and family who wanted to track my new London life, but it changed into crafts and sewing very quickly. Luckily, the blog name gave me lots of freedom in terms of the content of the blog! So here I am now, writing and sewing at the same time! Add a little design, photography and picture editing to the mix and you’ve created my favourite hobby!
What I’m working on
Since the release of my last patterns I’ve been doing so many things. I thought I would need at least a couple of weeks to recover from my previous workload, but I was back at the sewing machine after only a few hours. Now that I do not have too many to-dos and tasks to get done, I can basically sew whatever I want! How awesome is that? (I forgot that it used to be like that all the time!)
So now I work on several projects simultaneously, inserting a zip here and cutting out fabric there. I’ve just finished another Hepburn Dress (scooped neckline version), photographed my new (and awesome) Coco (Tilly & the Buttons), printed out the Malvarosa (Pauline Alice Patterns) and another Hepburn Skirt is waiting for a waistband.
In planning are at least one Miette skirt and one or two Mimi blouses (Tilly & the Buttons), a quilted baby blanket, a knitted couch blanket and, fingers crossed, a pair of trousers.
How my blog differs from others of its genre
Good question! I have no idea! Well, maybe it differs because I do not just strictly stick to sewing. I enjoy and love to write about the odd craft project, I shared blogging tips and love the occasional refashion post. I would also describe my process as quite experimental, I’m not the kind of person that follows instructions and patterns meticiously. I am a big fan of the trial-and-error approach and love to share all my fails along the way. I also started my own sewing pattern company recently and generally enjoy developing my blog further.
A little bit about my writing process
Whether there’s a process behind the madness really depends on my mood and how much time I have on my hands. Sometimes I feel all professional, making to-do lists, printing out schedules, writing blog posts in advance and pretending all I do is super duper important, like stock prices and that sort of stuff. And then there are days (and weeks and months) where I do not stick to my own blogging advice, because I realise that I need to focus a bit more on the real life – friends and stuff like that. That’s when I do not plan anything, do a bit of sewing here, a bit of picture editing there and then frantically put together a rather crappy blog post because I noticed I haven’t written any in the past three weeks. I really like my non-existing balance and so far it worked really well for me.
My two nominees
Freya May who blogs over at The Dressmaking Diaries. We’ve followed each other’s blogs for a long time now and I consider her one of my bloggy friends, although we actually haven’t met IRL yet. Freya is always up for collaborations and fun projects and we’ve hosted the Hollywood Sewalong together.
Hannah from Made With Hugs And Kisses, also one of my bloggy buddies. Hannah is a very talented seamstress and she drafts and shares her own patterns on her blog every once in a while. Check out that Allie Dress!
Happy sewing!
♥
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I only had a metre of the lining fabric, so I cut out the skirt without the box pleats and also cut out the variation with a shorter hem. I kept skirt made from the georgette fabric long and since I sewed a narrow hem instead of the wider hand-stitched one, this added another 3cm to the length.
I love how this dress is playful and smart at the same time and can’t wait to wear it more often. It’s a bit too chic to wear at work, but it will be perfect for going out with friends.
A little while ago, I noticed that I often go very safe in terms of fabric choices. For some reason I never go with the bold prints and colours (with the exception of bright red, I guess) and usually grab all the plain colours, especially navy blue. Since the 
I made the knee-length variation of the Hepburn Skirt and chose to use a different for the front and back side panels. 
I finished all seams with my new overlocker – such a bliss! I actually now enjoy overlocking more than sewing. Is this normal?
(The seams acutally do not pucker at all, I have no idea why they look so awful in the picture above!)
At the moment I am also working on the fitted Hepburn dress variation which combines both skirt and dress patterns. I will make a knee-length version in a plain colour and at least one mini dress that is colour-blocked. I already picked up all the fabrics a couple of weeks ago and can’t wait to finish the dresses as soon as possible. The dress itself comes with many different variations, but (as you can see in the figure below) when combining both patterns the possibilities are endless.
Here a few close-ups of the neckline as it’s quite hard to see in the pictures due to the busy print:
The fabric was quite a bargain – I got it for £4/m at A1 Fabrics (if I remember correctly). It’s a peachskin polyester and the quality was surprsingly good. It’s quite heavy but drapes very well and is super soft and cool to the touch. The white parts of the fabric are not see-through at all and therefore, I could use the same fabric for lining the bodice. Soft inside out!
I’m a bit disappointed that the summer seems to be over so suddenly. Luckily, the Hepburn neckline works really well with a cardigan, so I will be able to wear the dress at work in the next couple of months.