Thanks everyone for your lovely responses to last weeks Featuring You guest post by Amy from SewsNBows!

This week, I’m very happy to introduce this very versatile and chic young lady to you: Hannah. I’ve been a follower of hers for quite a while now and am totally on love with everything she makes. If you love vintage clothing, girly dresses and everything that’s cute – prepare yourself for this lovely sewing blogger!

Well Hello There! My name is Hannah Smith and I blog over at Made with Hugs and Kisses where I share my obsession with sewing and all things creative.

I have been blogging for just over a year now, although it took me quite a while to get to grips with things. I was probably six months in before I finally figured out how to actually blog – you know, how I wanted it to look, what I wanted to say, where I wanted it to go. There is so much more to blogging than I originally realised but I have loved every second of it and am so excited for every post to come.

What has surprised me the most, however, is the people I have ‘met’ through blogging. My confidence and belief in my sewing skills is continually on the increase due to the amazing feedback and encouragement I receive from my lovely readers, and I thoroughly enjoy keeping up to date with the many, many blogs I follow, stealing tit bits of inspiration, and sometimes sharing them as part of my Eye Spy With My Sewing Eye series.

So a little bit of background info about little old me and my relationship with sewing.  To start with, I am completely self taught. Exactly 4 years ago I was preparing to start university and had a month or two off before I began with nothing much to do. I had a sewing machine stored away that had never really been looked at never mind used, and decided to get it out and just have a go. Not being one to take things slowly I just jumped at the deep end and start making dresses ( sadly I don’t think I have any of these to take pictures of anymore). Of course there were a lot, and I mean a lot of mistakes made in those early days, and being impatient and a perfectionist did not help, but I persevered and did my best to work out what things meant and how to do things. And before I knew it I was completely addicted. Now, four years later, I have graduated from university, I have started a job as a primary school teacher and I am more obsessed with sewing than ever before, oh, and I have married my lovely husband, who best of all, supports my crazy obsession with sewing!

I mainly make dresses although I have been challenging myself to branch out into skirt and tops more recently. I would even love to try a coat this autumn, but we shall see.

My sewing style has developed a lot over the last few years as well. I suppose the most appropriate word to describe my sewing style would be girly! Team this with my love if a traditional silhouette, the big skirts the fitted bodices and an obsession with vintage was a natural progression and over the past year in particular I have seen many more vintage elements sneaking into what I sew, not to mention the start of a vintage pattern and sewing machine collection.

Q: Why did you decide to start a blog?

I suppose I started my blog because I felt like I was putting an awful lot of hard work and effort into learning how to sew and creating handmade clothes but, being self taught,  I didn’t know if I was actually doing it ‘right’. I wanted to push myself, develop my skills, gather new ideas, but most of all I wanted to know that what I was doing was ok, that what I was making was ok, perhaps even bordering good! It sounds silly, and perhaps a little self centered, but I severely lacked confidence in my sewing ability when I started out my blog and was looking for a way to reach out, get to know likeminded people and generally improve. I now feel like a completely new person. I have come to learn that the only ‘right’ way to sew it to just make sure you are enjoying it, and the same stands for blogging too!

Q: What where your first ever blog posts about? How do you feel about it now?

Oh dear, I cringe when I think back to my early blogging days. Like I mentioned earlier I had no idea what I was doing back then. Looking back at them, and I urge you not to, I think they seem so impersonal. But hey, we all have to start somewhere. If it wasn’t for those early months I wouldn’t know what I know now about blogging. I know for a fact I will look back at my blog in another years time and probably cringe about everything I am writing at the moment, cursing myself for being too chatty or not having good enough pictures.  I look at some of the blogs that are starting out now and think, oh my goodness they are so fantastic and clear, so professional looking and full of personality, how do they do it and how have they figured this all out so quickly! But it is all a learning curve and I am proud of what I am in the midst of creating.

Q: What are you doing when you’re not sewing or writing blog posts?

This question is a joke right… what is there to life other than sewing and blogging?! 😀

Nah, I’m only joking, although sewing, blogging, work and sleep tend to take up all 24 hours of my day. Of course I love spending time with my hubby too and I also have a multitude of animals that require my love and attention. When I find time I do like to dabble in lotother creative outlets from jewellery making to baking. A few extra hours in the day would be useful though.

Q: Do all of your friends/family know that you are a blogger?

Of course! I rarely meet someone new without talking about sewing and blogging!

I find a lot of the time people don’t understand what I mean by ‘I have a sewing blog’. They certainly don’t understand how time consuming, addictive and rewarding it is. But to be fair, a year ago I wouldn’t have known what that meant either.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A few posts ago I let slip that I have been working on drafting some patterns to put up on my blog for my readers to download for free to use for themselves. This has taken up a lot of my time recently but I have learnt a lot from the process. I am hoping to have the first one up very shortly. I don’t want to ruin any surprises so that is all I will say for now 😀

Q: If you had £500 to spend on your blog/hobby, what would you buy?

I would like to migrate over to wordpress.org so that I can have more control over my blog, but this is a very complicated process from what I have read so I would want to pay for the WordPress squad to do this for me.

There would be quite a bit left over so with this I would organize a sewing bloggers meet up, perhaps in Birmingham again, and go on a HUGE shopping spree and lunch!

Q: What can we look forward to seeing on your blog in the future?

Well, not only will there be some free patterns to download, I also have plenty more tutorials planned, some indie pattern reviews and of course lots more handmade creations. I have BIG things planned for Made with Hugs and Kisses it would be great if you could follow along with my journey 😀

Now… I just need to find the time to do all of this!

 

Here is a quick round up of some of my favourites

My favourite handmade creation:

              

My favourite blog post:

Perfectly Vintage – read it here!

My favourite fabric:

My favourite pattern (that I have used):

I have lost count of how many dresses I have made with this pattern!

My favourite pattern (that I want to use):

 Victory patterns – Anouk