Sewingplums

I don’t think I’ve ever done a purely “have a look at these” post. But here are some starting points for inspirational Weekend-Web-Wandering over the holiday. Links to links !

Enough for two weeks of this – first on fashion and sewing. Later on personal style.

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Fashion

Here’s a list which claims to be the top 99 most influential fashion blogs.

It’s a good season for remembering the difference between style and fashion. Have been looking at a UK magazine issue for this month. Which says this summer we must wear black and white, or bright colours in big florals or blocking. Emerald, sunflower, red, bright blue, fuchsia.
Well, those will only flatter people with ‘Winter’ or ‘Spring’ type colouring.
And within those colour groupings, only people with some colour personalities and some personal styles would be happy wearing them.
Also apparently neutrals (grey, navy, dark brown) are a no-no this season.

Actually that leaves out a big colour story this summer, the pale beiges and pastels (see Cos) – good for some ‘Summers’.
‘Autumns’ ? – how about some gold or bronze metallic, or tangerine, greyed jade, chartreuse.
Here’s the Pantone spring 2013 colour report.
And there’s the grey/ silver metallics and sheers.

Happily other sources have a wider range of ideas about this season’s possibilities.
Here’s the Style.com US Vogue spring 2013 trends.

YouLookFab lists must-haves for spring/summer 2013.

And have a look at what M&S thinks we should be wearing this summer. Set the occasion on the left, the current ‘look’ at the top, and see what they suggest !
Fashion of course, no allowance for personal style. Plus lots of videos of models wearing the outfits. I don’t find them at all tempting (they might not mind this – I doubt I’m their target customer :D), but they are entertaining.

Yet more delight from looking at clothes ? explore the outfits at Polyvore.

While Style.com have already listed all the RTW fashion shows for winter 2013.

And Style.com’s pre-season report says the Fall 2013 trends (click on ‘The pre-fall Guide’) are :
Candy coloured coats
Leopard print
Quilting
Plaid
Turtleneck sweaters
Modest coverage evening wear
Big proportions
Oxfords and saddle shoes

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Patterns and sewing

Sewaholic patterns come out top pattern company in the Pattern Review of top patterns in 2012.
Good instructions, and some patterns have on-line sewalongs (sorry, they’re for pear shape people).

There are many easy free download patterns from Hot Patterns, if you’re looking for an ‘instant gratification’ project quick enough to make over the weekend.
(well except that assembling a download pattern isn’t instant gratification. . .)

Dozens more quick free sewing patterns at AllFreeSewing. Though no guarantee of the quality of the patterns or instructions.

Or look through the Hot Patterns videos – they are intended (and effective :D) to get you to buy their main pattern line, but there’s a lot of useful information as well.
They actually have a ‘channel’ on YouTube.
Click on the words “Uploaded Videos” in the button.
(The Favorite videos are something else entirely.)

Or explore FashionSewingBlogTV if you like to watch easy videos about technique.

Get inspired by the wondrous wardrobe sewing at Stitcher’s Guild. This year’s Sewing With A Plan contest ends in April. Use your Tried ‘n True patterns and there’s still time to take part if you enjoy speedy sewing 😀
Or do it without pressure and follow the seasonal capsule sew along – always one in progress.

And if you get to the end of the weekend and find you’ve made a wadder – make a special sewer’s frustration tool from Shirley Adams at Sewing Connection. Make it from the worst bit of your wadder 😀

Back to serious – you can sign on free for a couple of days at The Sewing Guru (it’s easy to cancel the instructions at PayPal).
You might manage in one weekend to watch all his videos on making a tailored jacket, but would you remember it all 😀 If you get hooked you may want to stay a member so you can watch them slowly.

At the advanced end of the technical skills scale, couture companies like Chanel give more details about what underpins their collections.

Hermes have videos about the work of their expert artisans.

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Second post planned on links for exploring personal style.
Following up all this could take weeks not days !
Have leisurely relaxing fun over the holiday weekend 😀

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Links available March 2013

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This entry was posted on March 26, 2013 at 1:25 pm and is filed under current fashion, sewing technique. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.