Celebrating 10 Years of Blogging
Tomorrow The Craft of Clothes blog turns 10!
This blog has notched up 462 posts including this one. I thank you all for reading, commenting, lurking, and contributing to this friendly part of the internet.
The machine (Singer 410G) is my trusty “everyday drive” and has been used to sew every sample in this blog, books and pdf patterns. I bought it circa 2002 from a second hand shop for $25. It does a superb straight stitch and has enough grunt to sew heavy denim.
You may be interested in how I came to start a blog. It was a year before The Dressmaker’s Companion was published, and I had absolutely no internet footprint – no social media, website, forum activity etc. I lived a private life. With a view to becoming an author, I read everything I could about becoming one, I saw that I needed to write regularly and publicly, like in a blog.
Luckily I liked writing about sewing. What to call it? Not too niche in case I changed direction. How about The Craft of Clothes? I could hardly believe that no-one had picked that name yet.
I thought I could manage to write weekly, and have maintained it for the past 10 years, only paused by internet outages, getting covid, and the blog’s annual leave over Christmas.
On the first day, the first blog post had just six readers: Mum, my brother, my best friend from high school, her mum, the website man, and a family friend. I remember the website man saying “It’s a process of just keep writing; you’ll slowly build a readership over time”.
I didn’t realise how much I would enjoy writing a blog and later a newsletter. It’s like writing a mini magazine article each week, to a friend. I sometimes wondered if I would run out of things to say, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Many thanks for reading and your support over the past 10 years.
Cheers!
Liz x
Thank you Liz for writing your blog. You have given me lots of sewing inspiration and have pointed me to interesting patterns I would not otherwise have known about.
Many thanks Denise:)
What a great achievement, well done and keep going.
Many thanks Helen, and I plan to:)
Mrs Mayer would be pleased with all that writing!!! (And Mrs Sheppard & Mrs Norris with all the sewing!)
Congratulations on a fabulous milestone! I feel like 10 years is a pretty big deal for a blog.
They sure would! I wonder if those teachers are still with us? They seemed to be ancient but were probably no older than we are now.
Thank you for reading from the very start.
Congratulations on 10 years of blogging, Liz! What a fabulous achievement!
Thank you Mary, that is high praise from a long-time serial blogger:)
I’m really impressed by how regular you are. I’ve discovered your blog not so long ago but I’ve been a regular reader since then, enjoying thoroughly all of your posts. Thanks for all the time you spend taking care of this place, it’s part of what makes my weeks start with a smile 🙂
Thanks for your lovely comment Liseli. I think if I didn’t make it a weekly date, it would never happen.
It’s certainly like receiving a letter from a friend each week! A rare pleasure in this day and age.
Congratulations Liz!
Many thanks Wendy, the pleasure is mine.
Congratulations! 10 years of weekly blogging is so impressive!
Thank you Heather, it has become a weekly pleasure.
Congratulations from North Carolina, USA! It takes real dedication to one’s craft to plug away at it for 10 years (I refer to writing, not sewing).
Love you, love your blog, love both your books — love sewing from them.
Thanks LinB, it has been an unexpected pleasure to to write.
I am very happy to read and learn from you, Liz!
Thanks for reading, Ingrid.
It’s always a joy to see one of your posts appear in my email!
Thank you Enui.
It’s a pleasure to learn from a trained sewer/pattern creator on the other side of the world! Congratulations from Missouri, USA
Many thanks Michelle, the pleasure has been mine:)
Congratulations! I’m always thrilled to see your posts and The Dressmaker’s Companion enjoys a place of honor in my sewing loft and snug. I thank you every time I read it. (Thank you Liz!)
P.S. to fellow readers: If you sew and don’t have this book you should definitely get it!
Thank you Lodi, thanks for reading and so happy that the Dressmaker’s Companion is on your bookshelf. Next year is the book’s turn to have a 10th birthday:)
Impressive Liz — congratulations! Thank you for making the time to write and share each week, I always enjoy and frequently learn from your posts. And I try to imagine your daily life in Australia. I am so sorry that you and your daughter have struggled with long covid and hope you are both able to make a recovery. All the very best, from Canada
Many thanks for reading Susan, and thank you for your well-wishes.
Im writing this from the Canadian maritimes with a full winter blizzard going on tonight.I found you recently after bumping into “A Year of Zero Waste Sewing” which I love. I’ve since bought the Dressmakers Companion also. I really appreciate your beautifully clear diagrams and explanations and your friendly, down-to-earth tone. Congratulations on 10 years of blogging. You cheer and inspire me to try myself. Best wishes, Jeannie
Greetings from hot Australia! I hope all is cosy and snug with you.
Many thanks for getting my books and I’m so happy you’re enjoying them, and thank you for your blogging congratulations.
If you’re thinking of starting blog or writing regularly online, I can attest it will really flex your writing muscle, and if you enjoy writing you will have a lot of fun. The thing that helped me most with blog writing was keeping a daily diary (I still do). Best wishes!
Congratulation on 10 years. The Dressmakers Companion is now one of my mostly used sewing books. I always check it first if I am unsure of something and used it recently for pocket drafting.
Thank you Nic!
So happy to hear The Dressmaker’s Companion is useful to you.