Friday 30 July 2010

'How To Be A Sewing Presenter'


Well, due to technical difficulties, both the pants pattern and how-to I vowed to share are currently still under construction. In the meantime, I thought I'd share will you some sewing-related randomness that I got involved in a couple of years ago, just before I moved to bcn.

At that time I was the organiser of a sewing group based in London (even though, for the majority of my involvement with them, I was actually based in deep Essex). One of the joys/trials of being the organiser was the interesting/crazy/funny/bizarre/annoying requests and suggestions I received via email at regular intervals (from non-members, and almost always from non-sewers). I have to say, the bizarrest suggestion I received was from a cross-dresser who clearly misinterpreted the purpose of our sewing group. His email seemed to suggest that he believed we were a group of people who sat around with no ideas of our own, waiting for some kindly soul to offer up a project for us to work on. For free. Umm, how about, 'No'? Anyways...

On the other end of the scale, I was also at the receiving end of all manner of interesting projects and offers. One such offer which I heartily accepted was to front some how-to videos for the website Videojug. Videojug's tagline is 'Get Good At Life', which is endeavours to help you do through instructional 'how-to' videos that the site hosts, many of which are produced by the company itself. Some are humourous such as 'How to give a man-hug', some helpful such as 'How to use curling tongs' or 'How to prepare a Bloody Mary', or down-right essential like 'How to make chocolate pasta' or 'How to Moonwalk'. Get the picture?

So, the peops at Videojug must have decided that their content was a bit craft-lite, so concocted some sewing/crafty how-to ideas to address this issue for which they needed a 'face' (well, mainly 'hands'). For the record, my involvement was very minimal, other than turning up with my sewing machine, eating a lot of biscuits and getting filmed. The lovely producer named Bryony did all the research and planning, and I got £100 plus a ride to Liverpool Street station in a private car (which didn't suck).

So, I would like to share with you the products of that day's filming (BTW, it was freezing in that flat, I wouldn't normally rock my Simplicity 3835 blouse with a cardi). First up, the most involved of the projects, 'How To Sew A Baby-Gro':



Sewing:
How To Sew A Baby-Gro
The project I had the most involvement in designing: 'How To Appliqué A Baby Bib':


Sewing:
How To Appliqué A Baby Bib

My massive smile at the beginning of this video goes some way to convey both how cute I think this project is, and also how amusing the idea is that someone out there might be wondering, 'Hmm, I wonder how you sew a baby hat with ears?'!:


Sewing:
How To Sew A Baby Hat With Ears

The other strongest contender for 'The Cutest Project of the Day' award goes to: 'How To Sew Baby Shoes'. In fact, I've seen projects similar to this one on Burdastyle, I wonder if any of them were, in fact, inspired by this video, stranger things could happen I suppose.


Sewing:
How To Sew Baby Shoes

And the final project that was filmed in all of five minutes at the end of the day, 'How To Make Your Own Baby Slogan T-Shirt':


Style On A Budget:
How To Make Your Own Baby Slogan T-Shirt

So there you have it, my foray into sewing stardom!

8 comments:

Claudine said...

Neat, you're famous! Actually, I forgot all about videojug. Their video on how to put on false eyelashes made my whole evening a few years back.

Lizzy said...

Cool! Thanks for sharing, I've been looking for baby free patterns clothes and that videojug is just great!

Ali said...

Cool indeed! Now I can be a less selfish sewer and sew up some goodies for too naughty neices (who could totally rock a hat with ears!)

Mary said...

Thanks so much! I have a new niece coming any day and the shoes will be fun to make for her.

Bri said...

baby hat with ears AWWWW!

Carolyn said...

those are great how-to's! Well done, and thanks for sharing.

Minnado said...

These videos look great - I need to sew some baby presents so thank you for sharing. A video-internet star? You are full of surprises! I hope you are enjoying your last 2 weeks in Barcelona.

Tilly said...

"Nice one, Zoe!" We must call you "Applique Expert Extraordinaire" from now on.

These videos are strangely hypnotic - a bit like watching someone do their make up on the tube or having someone brush your hair - your work is so gentle and considered, whereas when I sew it's like one big disaster zone!

Will bookmark these for later - baby niece on the way!

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