Let's have a Spring Top Sewalong, shall we?
Oh, yeeeeaaaaaah! It's that time again, y'all. It's time to sew for YOU, and it's the perfect time, because the sun is starting to reappear and with it enough daylight to see that the sad sweater you've been wearing every day for the past four months is not going to cut it anymore. The birds have decided that this side of the planet is actually habitable! The air smells like worms!! It's time for a Spring Top Sewalong!!! And let's not drag our feet here, people. Because you know that any day now there will be another KCW(C)*, and then it will be all "let's sew for the KIDS!" again, so there's no time like the present to sneak in that selfish sewing. CHOP CHOP, LADIES! LET ME HEAR THOSE MACHINES HUMMING.
STS 2013 banner
This year's Spring Top Sewalong will run from now until Friday, April 19. I'm going on vacation next week (can you say family train trip to San Francisco? That's right, you heard me), though, so I probably won't do anything top-related for at least a week yet. It will be pared down a bit from the sewalongs of yore in the sense that it will JUST be a sewalong, in the simplest sense, without the additional contest. When I think about the essence of this event, it's this: a challenge to sew something for yourself, for a change, for heaven's sake. I don't think anyone will really mind if we skip all the craziness behind the scenes, the contest entry forms, the rotating panels of judges scoring each and every top, numerous spreadsheets and totals, setting up multiple rounds of reader voting...will they? And if you do mind, you'd better not say so, because you don't want to be THAT person who is only in it for the prizes, because that would look pretty selfish, now, wouldn't it? Do you see how deftly I just got myself out of a shit-ton of work while at the same time making it look like you'd be a jerk to complain? What a freaking genius I am.
Here how this year's Spring Top Sewalong will work:
Sew a top (or more) for yourself!
Spring tops in this sewalong should be made by you, for you. For these purposes, a "top" is something that covers the majority of your top half, but not the majority of your bottom half. You can see where that would put leggings and negligees, can't you? (NOT TOPS.) We can have the Unmentionables Sewalong in June. JUST KIDDING. The term "spring" indicates that it should be sewn in spring, THIS spring, to be precise, as opposed to last year. But, generous soul that I am, let's define "spring tops" as tops completed after March 1, despite the wintry weather of this past month. There is no limit on the number of tops you may sew for yourself this year, since I don't have to score them all, so knock yourself out. Need inspiration? You can find all of the tops from years past on my Spring Tops page.
Share it with us!
The Spring Top Sewalong 2013 Photo Pool will again function as the primary means to share your photos, either of tops in progress, finished tops, or piles of fabric you wish were a top. Please share those photos! Do try to remember that text-heavy and multi-photo images don't play very well in feature mosaics. Be sure to include a link to your blog if you post about your top.
If you post your Spring Top Wewalong photos on Instagram or Twitter, add the #springtopsewalong hashtag to your description so we can find it. Don't forget send them to Flickr while you're Instagramming them, and then add them to the pool that way, as well (does everyone know how to do that?).
I REPEAT: THIS YEAR THE SPRING TOP SEWALONG POOL WILL INCLUDE PHOTOS OF TOPS-IN-PROGRESS, AS WELL AS FINISHED PHOTOS.
This year I think it would be fun to see more photos of tops in progress, more people discussing fabrics and patterns, and helping each other out if necessary. I felt like the format we had before (where you could only post one finished photo of your top) was a bit limiting that way. It meant that the pool was more of a final show and tell, instead of helping us all sew along with each other. So let's SEW ALONG!
Top Tops
I'll feature my favorite tops from the pool here on the blog throughout the sewalong, as part of the fun. Maybe I'll even hand out crowns again! It's going to be great!!
Take a button
Feel free to use a button on your blog or website to help me spread the word. The html/widget code for the button can be found at the bottom of this page (scroll allllll the way down). Adjust the width by entering the width of your choice in the width="x" area of the code. Anything up to 200 pixels wide should look OK.
Let the sewalong begin! What are you going to sew this year?
*I have it on good authority that KCW will run this spring from April 22-29, so that's perfect timing, right? First get yourself all prettified during STS, and then you can refocus on getting the little blighters looking spiffed up and presentable during KWC. Am immensely pleased with self at clever planning.