Have a great 2012!

Kisses,
Kim

The new contest should be easy enough for everybody, so we are hoping for lots and lots and lots of exciting design ideas. What we are asking you for this time is an essential piece for everyone’s wardrobe. It would be fantastic if this would result in a pattern that people would use over and over again, in different colours, fabrics, with slight modifications etc., don’t you think? So what would be that basic piece you always wish you could make? Draw a little sketch and send it in!

Kisses,
Kim

I’m 22 years old, I’m a graphic design student in Florida, United States. I have a million interests; reading, writing, drawing, photo-manipulation, photography… the list goes on. I even do voice-acting for the animated videos a friend of mine makes.

As far as fashion goes, I usually do costume design more than fashion design, so my designs tend to be a bit fanciful. I do, however, sometimes design things meant for every day wear. In the case of this contest though, I felt that the terms of it were just begging for something out of the ordinary, though I did get more carried away with it than I intended…

While I draw out a lot of designs, I’m not very experienced in sewing. I have altered many articles of clothing when they didn’t fit me or my siblings, or mended clothing, and a few times I made clothing for small dolls or stuffed animals. But I haven’t had the materials or opportunity to sew something new from a pattern, and certainly nothing of my own design. Now I hope that I may soon be able to do so.

The new contest is called Dress a Celeb and it should be lots of fun! Have you ever wished you could be the personal stylist to your favourite star? Well then, use your crayons, pencils, watercolours or a painting software of your choice and let us see your ideas!

In the meantime we are working on the overdue patterns. Next up is Eva‘s self-titled dress from our Let your shoes be your muse contest. It is almost ready to be published, we just need to take a couple of photos, so expect the finished pattern up on the website before the end of the week!

Kisses,

Kim

As much as we love zephyree‘s winning entry, this doesn’t seem to have been our most popular contest so far. With the lowest number of submissions since the “Sew your song!” challenge a year ago, we cannot help but think that our “Pure Elegance” subject was a bit too hard. And we do need your help here, everybody – did we set the bar too high this time? Or was the theme just not inspiring enough? Do let us know! We’d really like to make this as much fun as possible for all our members, so we need to hear what you’d like to see more of in the future and what just doesn’t work for you guys.

For the current contest we decided to go for a subject that has come up in the forum and e-mails to us a couple of times. This time we’d like you to send in designs based on characters from your favourite books. This should be something that a lot of people can relate to, so we really, really hope that we get lots and lots of beautiful and original submissions. Do you feel inspired already? Then join the fun now!

In the meantime we are catching up with the patterns. Up next is Eva’s dress from our shoes contest – from what I’ve seen so far this one is going to be a stunner and definitely something to look forward to!

Kisses,

Kim

We hope you like these little interviews as much as we do. Today we’ll get to know the winner of our “Top Priority” contest: Style Rockstar zephyree. Enjoy!

I’m a 27 years old french girl, working in a research institute. My job is to organise symposiums and workshops, welcome visitors, present our research domains… I’m always on the front line and need to be lovely, nice and elegant every day (which is not always easy, we all have bad days – well, i do!). I live in a little apartment in the east of France, in a very small village with nothing to do when you’re not 80 years old or don’t have children. Bus rides through the countryside with “Granny Tours” or summer camp with your child’s class, that’s your choice.
I love sketching, SF movies, writing some stupid novels and cooking. When i was younger I enjoyed creating pearl necklaces and bracelets.

I was always attracted by the dark, artistic side of life. I also do sports regularly and go to the spa with “partners in crime”, we then spend the whole afternoon lying on our bellies waiting for massages.

And two years ago I started learning how to sew. One day, just like when you say “I’m going to eat an apple”, I thought: “I’m going to take sewing lessons!” (That’s when my husband told me I should stop taking up granny hobbies – but it was the beginning of what I plan to be a long story!)

My main reason to start sewing was to get some special clothes that would also fit me. I’m more like Joan Holloway from Mad Men rather than Kate Moss, and I always had troubles finding pants or dresses that really suited me. I really can’t say I sew to save money, because when I look at the fabrics I choose and how much they cost… ooops!

I still have a lot to learn, especially in the pattern area, I can take a pattern (Burda, Simplicity…), follow instructions and make some minor modifications but I can’t create a pattern from scratch. I bought books about this, and I’m trying to make some simple tops alone. What is really frustrating is that I have a notebook full of sketches of dresses, skirts and tops, but I don’t know how to make them. I see exactly the kind of fabric I want, the way the fabric will fall, the shine, the movement, but I don’t have the skills to draw the pattern and make this dream comes true. But maybe in a few years…

I’m also building a little blog (I’m still working on the design now) because I want to share what I learn, what inspires me, some cool online shops, tutorials I saw… I’m planning to write step by step articles about creating clothes, a kind of “let’s learn together” approach: what I am doing and why, where I encountered problems and how I solved them…

The address is http://www.ouipatrons.com – in French “patrons” means “patterns” but also “boss” so it loosely translates to “obey the pattern”, because the patterns are always right!

To everyone on Your Style Rocks!, thank you for your entries on the different contests, I really enjoy browsing the sketches and seeing all the different interpretations we have of the same few words!

zephyree‘s submission was the last to enter the competition and yet she managed to get the most votes for her “very feminine cowl neck top“. And a beautiful design it is: inspired by the fabrics surrounding her in her sewing room, zephyree created a simple yet sophisticated layered top.

We particularly like the way she gives us some insight on the story behind her entry as well as a selection of accessories that would go well with the finished piece and a pretty good idea of the fabrics she would use, so we can really see why you guys voted her submission the winner of this contest.

Having said that, there is one thing that we don’t quite understand: considering the number of visitors we have on our website each day (hundreds), there is a relatively low number of people casting their votes (87 in two months). We would really like to understand why most of you guys out there (over 4.000) don’t use the opportunity to co-determine which patterns we should publish next. Of course we are always open for your ideas and suggestions, be it via e-mail, in our forum or as a comment in the news section, so if there’s anything you would like us to improve, please talk to us!

Anyway, zephyree‘s simple and elegant piece inspired us for the next contest, which is titled “Pure Elegance”. The name says it all – this time we would like to see your ideas for elegant pieces reflecting purity, simplicity and minimalism (in shape, colour or construction). We are aware that this might be a tough challenge for some of you, because it is quite open yet it doesn’t leave much space for frills or overly intricate details. But, as always, rules are made to be bent (not broken ), so we’re very, very excited to see what you make of this theme!

Kisses,
Kim

Just look at it – what a fluke!

Kisses,

Kim