SEWRENDIPITY
18 Backwards –> 19 Forwards |+ Giveaway for my 4 years blogoversary
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18 Backwards –> 19 Forwards |+ Giveaway for my 4 years blogoversary

Happy new year, dear readers! I have been incredibly chilled (aka lazybones) this festive period and decided to procrastinate my way to January 2nd for the customary looking back/ planning forward post. I was re-reading the one from last year which was also posted in early January and I quite enjoyed it. The world did not end because I was late, so I’m cutting myself some slack again. Though I have an inkling feeling I should be doing something about that procrastination habit… Maybe… later… Anyway, here we are, early January 2019, how did that happen? I mean, other than eating and…

3 January 2019
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Boycott or Buycott? | Let’s debate as we try to survive Black Friday
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Boycott or Buycott? | Let’s debate as we try to survive Black Friday

Yes, that time of the year it’s upon us. And lo and behold, it’s turning from one day into a whole season of discount and general unbridled deal-ramming down our throats. Yes, that includes the sewing community, I have already seen discount codes popping in my Instagram feeds or in my inbox.
So, as a minimalist and a sustainability-minded person, this is probably the time of the year where I get riled up and I just can’t keep it all in either. And it’s now making its way on my blog as well.

25 November 2018
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On failure and sewing | How to stop giving ourselves such a hard time
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On failure and sewing | How to stop giving ourselves such a hard time

In January, I had started a coat as part of a project for Simplicity Patterns. I was on a deadline, it was a collaboration post and I had never made a proper coat before. So there was a lot of pressure to produce something good. I was also using a fabric that I had dyed and spent a lot of time on, which I did not want to waste. And it went terribly. It was so bad that I had to abandon halfway through, after spending waaay too much time on it. My husband, who is ever so patient and never complains about how much time I am hidden away in the sewing room, actually complained that he never got to see me. I ended up making another garment for that collaboration, a quick cardigan,  and this coat went into my ‘drawer of shame’, where the UFO pile resides.

14 October 2018
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On loneliness and sewing | Thoughts and how to address it
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On loneliness and sewing | Thoughts and how to address it

was listening to the latest episode of Love To Sew Podcast where Helen and Caroline talk about sewing struggles. They turned to the community to see what are the most common struggles and one of the first things that came up was loneliness. I spend many weekends sewing and I don’t even contemplate going out of the house unless I have to (or my husband makes me). So I can completely relate to that.

And this made me think if, in spite of the amazing sewing community, blogs, vlogs, Facebook groups and Instagram, is sewing making us feel more lonely?

In this blog post, I’m exploring this in a bit more details and also offering some solutions to help you become less of a sewing hermit.

30 September 2018
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Let’s build a meaningful wardrobe together! | Sewrendipity blog relaunch
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Let’s build a meaningful wardrobe together! | Sewrendipity blog relaunch

After 3 years and a bit of blogging, someone asked me one day why do I blog? The answer that came to mind was not actually to the intended question. What I answered instead was the question ‘why did I start blogging in the first place?’.  
In 2014, I had finished my stint on the Great British Sewing Bee Season 3 (although it was only shown in February 2015), and I was feeling totally useless. I got eliminated in episode 2 (of 8) and I was convinced I had made a fool of myself on national television. Although I had only been sewing for three years at the time, I felt I needed to prove myself to the world.

26 July 2018
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Think #Smyly thoughts | Sewing Makes You Love Yourself Challenge 2018
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Think #Smyly thoughts | Sewing Makes You Love Yourself Challenge 2018

January is such a navel-gazing month, isn’t it? All that goal setting, planning, resolution-ing just makes us analyse our feelings, habits, relationships, you name it. Well, this January, three brave ladies (Athina, Lisa and Hattie) have decided to put their stories out there and challenged the rest of us in the sewing community to do the same. Together they created the #smyly2018 challenge, which stands for Sewing Makes You Love Yourself. I think the clue is in the name, but in a nutshell, they are asking the sewing community to share their sewing stories, especially around how it helped us…

24 January 2018
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2018! Here we go! | 3 year bloggoversary
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2018! Here we go! | 3 year bloggoversary

Hello, hello, darlings! Freshly returned from the virtually internet-less Cuba, where I enjoyed the most wonderful 3 weeks of relaxation, you will pardon the delay in presenting you with the customary year review + goals and resolutions New Year post. In fact, please pardon the lack of customary reviews and goals (though I will put down a few reflections, just for records’ sake). On the plus side, I have just about celebrated my 3-year bloggoversary, on the 31st Dec, but I was too deep in the clutches of jet lag to be coherent enough to write about it.

5 January 2018
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An incredibly sad post | Lorna Monje Great British Sewing Bee
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An incredibly sad post | Lorna Monje Great British Sewing Bee

Dear sewing friends, I have just received some very heartbreaking news… My fellow Great British Sewing Bee Season 3 contestant and friend, the wonderfully talented, full of life, stylish and such an amazing lady, Lorna Monje, is no more. I am incredibly shocked and saddened and I feel the sewing community is now poorer for having lost such an amazing seamstress. We are a very close group, the GBSB 3 alumni, and it was so great seeing Lorna whenever she was available from her travels. Last night we were all united in celebrating Lorna and remembering her on and off…

28 February 2016
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Mum, look! Alex is sewing on the telly!
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Mum, look! Alex is sewing on the telly!

Let’s see which of you eagle eyes can spot me! Clue: I could not compete with Claudia on the fringe front, so I waited until after the show to have it cut.

28 January 2015
29 Comments
A life in sewing machines | My sewing story
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A life in sewing machines | My sewing story

For some people, their passion for sewing starts with their mum making their clothes for them as kids, or their gran being a fabulous seamstress or even in their Home Ec class in school

10 December 2014
4 Comments