Featured blogger: Beemade

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Creating unique pieces to share on your blog to inspire others: the sew & blog combo is all the rage. It's exactly because the number of bloggers keeps multiplying that Fibre Mood is featuring a new blogger every month. This month we’re letting blogger Barbara of 'Bee Made' take center stage. And she doesn’t waste any time knocking you off your feet with the number of gorgeous pieces she shares there.

Beemade profiel En

What made you start your blog/sewing?

I was already following several different sewing bloggers as a fan, which is what tempted me to latch on to that idea and start my own blog. Still, I wasn’t quite sure whether I should; in the end though my daughters and my husband got me to give it a go. That was about six years ago, and ever since it's been post, post, post!

How did you learn to sew and get busy crafting?

I was about 16 or 17 when I started sewing things for myself. Getting started, I made really simple stuff, copied my own clothes or just tried laying the fabric right on me. After a while I started collecting Burda magazines and learned technique by doing.

Have you always been so creative?

I started sewing for my dolls when I was seven or eight years old. My mom sewed too and had a friend who was a seamstress, who let me use her leftover fabric scraps. At the time I would come up with clothing for my Barbies or outfits for my brother’s “G.I. Joe”. To tell the truth, I've always loved crafting: from recycling packaging, shells, and stones to inventing new objects and games.

Where did you get the name for your blog?

Bee made is the product of a brainstorming session one Saturday morning at the breakfast table: Bee...as a letter, “B” refer to my name, Barbara, but it can also just be a bee like it is in English. The image of a buzzing beehive and a busy bee goes well with how restless I am, which is where my creativity and the ideas bouncing around in my head come from.

What do you think is your finest creation?

Without a doubt, my best creation is the wedding dress that I just made for my eldest daughter! It’s made entirely of silk and guipure (lace), and took me hours and hours of work to get done. The outcome though is something I'm really proud of!

What do you see as challenges?

Learning new techniques and perfecting the approach so well that no one would ever guess that I had sewed it by hand. The wedding dress was especially challenging, in the same way a jacket I sewed for my husband was.

What do you dread most about sewing?

Cutting into really expensive fabric!

Where does the inspiration for your blog come from?

I get my ideas from magazines, the internet, on the street, and from time to time my daughters provide me with inspiration too!

My blog is transgenerational: the age of my readership spans from younger than 18 years old all the way to 75+! I don't set any limits, but I do always try to put myself in their place; that way I can make them happy and offer nice and diverse content. The kinds of homemade outfits I post depends entirely on the season. For example, in the winter I post more knitting.

Where do you do your sewing?

You can find my sewing room on the second floor of our house.

Beemade Atelier

Do you get a lot of satisfaction from the comments on your blog?

Yes! I'm always super happy to get comments on my blog. The sewing community is a caring place and I get lots of complements; however I also get requests for advice, which I always try to answer. Some readers have been following me for several years and comment regularly; everyone is so committed, even if we've never even met before!

What is there that you'd still like to try making?

My next projects for the fall are: a skirt, two dresses, two jackets for the off-season and a coat...you'll see them soon on the blog! My list isn’t quite set in stone yet, because at any given time I may run across a new fabric or pattern that causes me to drop everything else for later.

What tips would you definitely like to pass on to seamstresses who are just starting out?

The best plan is to start with simple sewing models, like an easy top, for instance. Little by little, you'll learn how to incorporate details like pockets, detailed sleeves or buttonholes. I would also recommend working with simple materials, such as cotton. You can easily find three meters of cotton fabric for ten euros. That kind of deal gives you the opportunity to practice, and if something goes wrong, the loss isn’t such a big deal.

Beemade 1

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