Sew Grateful: Thanks to all those who inspire and give(away)

North of the 49th parallel we celebrate Thanksgiving in early October — a time which I think is sufficiently far from Christmas to prevent hostess burnout. But in NYC, it's usually 30 C (or 1 million degrees Farenheit) in early October, so I never bother to make a bird for Canadian Thanksgiving. 

But everyone knows Canadians love to say "thanks" every chance they can get. So allow me to be sincere for a few hundred words on American Thanksgiving (as I make a Pecan Pie for our dinner with friends).

• Thank you to Burdastyle.com for featuring my work on several occasions, including as a featured member. That was a major boost for me as I am always questioning whether the things I create are good enough for the scrutiny of the Internet.

• Again, thanks to Burdastyle.com for the two giveaways I won this year: a few yards of Snoozer Loser fabric, which I used to make this shirt dress from a self-drafted pattern:

 

And, for the book Growing Up Sew Liberated, which I used to make this sleepsack for an infant's Halloween costume:

and these leggings:

  • Giveaways are great, but sew-alongs are even better. I only participated in one this year, but plan on taking part in more in 2012. It's a great way to stretch yourself as a sewer. So thank you to Peter Lappin of Male Pattern Boldness for his jeans sew-along. I made the pattern for these jeans myself for class at FIT, but followed along with his tips and tricks to help me get the sewing just right:

Another thank-you to Peter for hosting Male Pattern Baldness Day, a grand get-together of his readers in NYC. which was so fun (Don't we look a little like siblings — or cousins?):

And, ahem, for a vintage pattern, which I won from Male Pattern Baldness and still haven't used.

• Big thank-you to Gertie for her Bombshell Dress Course at Craftsy, which guided me through sewing this, the best garment I have ever constructed and had the pleasure of wearing:

• Thank you to Rubyellen at http://mycakies.blogspot.com for her tent tutorial, which I modified somewhat (with the help of my friend Lizzi) to make three tents like this for my kid's birthday party:

• Thanks to Daughterfish, whose projects inspired me to make this (my favourite dress for the latter part of the summer:)

• Thanks to reader Justsewsew who pointed out my bow-print fabric was Marc Jacobs, which encouraged me to make this dress work after much trial and error during what was the most stressful part of the year for me:

• Thank you to all of my friends and readers for helping me place second in Burdastyle.com's Halloween costume contest with this owl costume I made for Lucy (and she subsequently refused to wear. Have I mentioned that? Oh yes, like a thousand times):

• Thank you to my patternmaking teacher at FIT, who made me feel much better about my skills by asking me every class if I was "in the industry."

• Thank you to Rachel, my former neighbor, for passing down a good portion of her fabric stash, which I used to make (or line) at least a dozen garments this past year.

• Thank you to my husband, who always agrees to shoot photos of me in the garments I make despite the fact that each shoot ends in us arguing:

His evil eye

 
I'd also like to thank coffee, for helping me gather my thoughts in the mornings so I can write this blog. And red wine, for helping lower my blood pressure when a project goes off the rails.

That's all. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. I hope you get some sewing time this weekend!