Inspirational Blogs

Following on from my earlier post regarding the Excellent blog award that Vicki (Hong Kong Shopper) nominated me for, I have been thinking about who I should nominate. This award seems to have been very popular so I thought I would simply list those blogs which really inspired me to start my own. I would love to just refer you to the bloglist over on the right hand side there, but I am hopelessly out of date with this now that I have discovered Bloglines so please be aware that I avidly read a LOT more blogs than are listed here.

So onto the original inspirers - I cannot believe there are any readers who don't already follow these blogs themselves, but you never know. In alphabetical order;

Couture et Tricot - Tany
I think the first time I found this blog my jaw fell open (I believe it was the Orwell coat). Tany's work is just impeccable and the detailed step by step photos of her projects in progress are inspiring - even if I know I will never have the patience, never mind the skills to produce anything to this kind of level.
Erica B's DIY style
Erica can take a pattern and show you it's full potential, with tons of style. Sometimes this is made easy (did you see the recent post on the new Hot Patterns - so interesting) and sometimes it takes her vision and knowledge of trends to spot a great "DIY style" pattern. Really Erica should be on the payroll of the Big 4 pattern companies, more patterns would fly out of the door if she was styling the pattern envelopes!
Laura's Sewing Room
Another example of impeccable sewing, what makes Laura's clothes so special and inspiring are the couture details she adds to even the simplest of garments, elevating them to luxury items. The finishing is also so amazing you could almost wear her clothes inside out and they would still look great!
Real Life - Live & Unscripted - Adrienne
Adrienne posts about all kinds of things other than sewing, but whenever I read anything she has written I instantly feel uplifted and energised (or maybe exhausted!). As a photographer she has a great eye for selecting fabric/pattern combinations so the sewing posts are a real bonus too.
Pins and Needles - Summerset
Summerset makes the most incredible wearable art garments using vintage patterns. Her work is award winning and yet she generously posts all her techniques and design processes. Even though this is unlikely to ever be the kind of work that I do there are great ideas to adapt for everyday use and seeing the project come to life through her posts is fascinating.
Sewing Fanatic Diary - Carolyn
The queen of TNT's and Embellishing (both subjects of her recent posts funnily enough), this site is an inspiration for taking great patterns that fit and suit your figure/lifestyle and using those as a jumping off point to creating a stunning wardrobe.

Thank you so much ladies for inspiring me to start this blogging adventure and of course, along with all my other blog feeds, for helping me continue my sewing education. With the latter in mind I also want to bring your attention to Sigrid's blog. Sigrid has just added links to a large number of really useful internet tutorials as well as her own, a fantastic resource. Puts me to shame for not even managing to keep updating my bloglist!

I've also been continuing to sew - I'm working on something from BWOF 03/2008, and I received my April issue yesterday and can't wait to get started on a couple of things from that. More soon!