Jumping ship!

Back in August of 2013 we started a little campaign to create a Sewing category on Bloglovin. Almost 1700 votes and 23 months later, it's here! (AND HEY OH HAI VERONICA!)

Now, I've never been a fan of categorization, per se, especially as a mixed chick actress who comes across roadblocks daily in terms of labels, BUT, I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy the bejesus out of this little classification. Mainly because of this:

FIND. BLOGS. IN. SEWING!!!

Look y'all, I love me a good Diy/Craft blog, but when my fingers do the walking to find new fodder, I'm looking for 80% sewing and 20% glue gun. 

I'm always baffled when people on the street are surprised to hear that I sew. Generally, their view of sewing is of extinct Home Ec classes. Of course, we know better. Of course, we are all BRILLIANT SPARKLY FABULOUS THINGS that wear BRILLIANT SPARKLY FABULOUS THINGS that we made ourselves!*

And in my opine a new dedicated Sewing category on the top blog reader on the web is a great way to let your friends, romans, countrymen (not to mention, businesses) know that sewing is back, yo. 

So! If you'd like to make the switch from Crafting to Sewing, just click on your little icon in the upper right hand corner, next to the search bar (below, mine is that little yellowish circle of me with scissors in my mouth). In the drop down menu, directly under Profile, choose Blog Analytics...

Which brings you to your super fancy analytics page.

Click "edit blog info", and in the pop up window you can choose which category you'd like your corner of the web to exist in.

And that's it! (You can also just click on the temporary banner Bloglovin added for us on the feed page.) It takes several hours for Bloglovin to update your info, but that Sewing category is growing by leaps and bounds. Certainly, the posts here will still be about any number of things, who can tell the inner workings of my noggin, but I'm so stoked to find new sewing peeps. Love ya, Free People. Love ya, Beautiful Mess. Love ya, I Spy DIY. I'll come check on you from time to time, but me and my friends gots some stitching to do.

(*not necessarily sparkly, but always brilliant and fabulous.)

come sew with me!

wouldja like to sew up a li'l sexy chic slouchy dolman top with me?  wouldja like to have a drink after and gab with sewists and swap fabrics and patterns and make general merriment? WELL COME ON THEN!

jennifer of workroom social is hosting a special manhattan pop up event, this may 2-4, and saturday boasts not one, not two, but three classes dedicated to sewing knits.

knits get a bad rap.  i fell in love with jersey before anyone could tell me "oooh that's hard to work with."  it's super NOT!  this wonder material and i have had affairs on straight stitch machines (yes it can be done) on zig zags (where it can be done even more so) and of course with ye olde serger (where it can be done once you wanna drop a dime or two).  all three machines can produce great results, so long as you play with jersey the way it wants to be played with.  then it'll take all the fondling you can give.

in this two hour class, we'll be working with a zig zag, and the pop up studio will be filled with all the tools and equipment we'll need. you'll be supplied with oak tag paper patterns and a class guide chock full of resources and fabric suggestions.  the class is small: 6 seats, plenty of attention, and the end of class will find you in a brand new me-made ultra comfy super chic top, which of course you should wear to the party directly afterwards.

oh, did i mention, jennifer set my class up riiiiight before the cocktail party?  good thinkin, gal.  GOOD THINKIN.

here's the full line up:

12:30-2 jersey leggings with fleur 

3-5 jersey skirt with sonja

5:30-7:30 slouchy dolman top with moi! 

8 PM PARTAAAAAY 

again, that's saturday may 3rd.  together we shall sew up a warm weather wardrobe and positively FORCE spring to come out of hiding.  this vixen is in need of some coaxing.  come sweet talk that lass with me!

you say you want a revolution

Well, I say it.  And if you sewcialists out there agree, I'm pretty sure we can get this done, LICKETY SPLIT.

I do so love that sort of charming language, much as I am also one hundred percent a truck driver at a diner slugging 3am coffee for that overnight haul and hurling expletives at a Cleveland Browns fan. Ruggy left a message saying there was some rigamarole going on the other day, and I broke out into a hunky dory grin.

But I digress. Let's talk about another sort of language: blog categories! Did you ever think the word blog would exist, much less the need to categorize it?! Long before the demise of google reader, I'd been looking for a way to read the maaaaaany blogs I love. Time was, I had a nice long blogroll on the sidebar of this here corner of the web. It was set to list blogs as they updated, and that was my reader. Then the creeps and hackers and malware found us, and if my blogroll contained a site that contained a link to a suddenly "suspicious" address, one would find a big red warning flag on my frontpage, and a bunch of worried shout outs in my inbox. I hate that like I hate a messy sewing area. Enter: pretty girl Bloglovin.

You know it by now, many have jumped ship there, and many purely out of necessity. But hark! I see a way to decorate it to our tastes! When claiming your blog, you will notice there are many categories to choose from. And like me, you might think: I don't fit in anywhere. Fashion is for shoppers (a category for each gender, even), we're not Street Style, not fully Design... the closest bet, methinks, is DIY & Crafts. But that shoe doesn't quite fit either, does it?

Must we be labeled? No, not really. I run the gamut from rambling about ballet to sewing for bar carts. But when I'm looking specifically for new sewing fodder, I like to search popular posts by category. A peek today at popular posts in DIY & Crafts brings up how to dill pickles, make a party topper, and a recipe for a pina colada.  (You would think I'd be all into that last one, but I like a little more alcohol and a little less fruit.)

Wouldn't y'all like a Sewing category? Think of it! Think of all the blogs out there just waiting to be discovered and added to your feed!  HOW MANY MORE COUNTLESS HOURS COULD YOU SPEND READING SAID BLOGS INSTEAD OF TACKLING THOSE SET IN SLEEVES???

No, no. Don't think of it that way. But if you'd like to tell Bloglovin to add a special sewing corner for us, where we can easily find inspiration and new sewists, hop on over to my fancy dancy suggestion, and add your vote!

the walls have ears

i'm shocked and appalled at myself, really.  not only did i spend two hours on twitter yesterday (a site that both myself and brother beast scoffed at years ago when big daddy said we should join), i mostly gummed up tilly's #sewingsocial chat with talk of booze.  i'm in danger of becoming a cliche.

(but really, wouldn't a cocktail bar with a vintage sewing machine at every stool be AMAZING?  i think i'd call it "the sew glow".  to combat the cheesiness of the name, it would need an old electric sign that buzzed and flickered dangerously.  as i tweeted and twatted: i would have cartons of multicolored cartoon bandaids on hand, and i'd devise some sort of clear protective shield around the needle for the more boozy clients.  beverages would of course be sewing inspired, "the singer sling", "the overlocked", "the seam ripper".   tailor made drink names. hell, that's a good one too!  of course each machine would also need a retrofitted cocktail tray hovering just above the handwheel.  whenever a sewist's hand reached for said wheel: why look at that, my glass is just an inch away, i might as well have a sip.  THAT'S PRODUCT PLACEMENT, YO.)

did you attend the festivities?  it was almost like having a real life meetup, which of course is scary in a ray bradbury the walls are living computer screens sort of way.  it's easy to get wrapped up in it and lose the day.  so what did i do to battle that sinkhole?  i spent another hour downloading twitter apps to streamline the process. elementary.

tweetdeck came up the winner.  i'm certain it will keep me from endless scrolling and refreshing on the next chat. it lets you add as many categories and columns as you like-- mentions, hashtag searches, conversations... it gives you little media previews...  it will project game of thrones on the back side of your house... no wait, that's bradbury again.  the screenshot looks quite vain, but i found so many conversations i missed during the chat. and, i like me some me anyway.  

you're pretty cool, too.