Here’s a wonderful post you’ll love from Sewover50 by Judith Staley:
First Wednesday of the month is #MeMadeMittwoch day.
We have seen this hashtag popping up along with #SewOver50 by many of our German speaking followers and became intrigued. Quickly discovered that Mittwoch translates as Wednesday, and worked out that the posts tended to appear at the beginning of the month.
Gabriele @kissntuss kindly agreed to find out more and put us in touch with Carola @naehkatze20 who is one of a team of four women who run the hashtag and the blog at www.MeMadeMittwoch.de
If you are German speaking/writing perhaps you would like to join in?
The rules are
. show a photo of yourself wearing a garment you have made
. Write a description or story of the garment
. Ads and sponsored garments are not allowed
. Use the hashtag #memademittwoch on Instagram and link it to the link party on the blog.
If you can’t join in, you can still admire the sewing and hit the translate button on the posts.
🇩🇪 Der erste Mittwoch des Monats ist #MeMadeMittwoch Tag.(… und ja, wir wissen, dass heute der letzte Mittwoch im Monat ist).
Wir haben diesen Hashtag zusammen mit #SewOver50 bei vielen unserer deutschsprachigen Follower auftauchen sehen und waren beeindruckt. Wir fanden heraus, dass “Mittwoch” das deutsche Wort für “Wednesday” ist, und dass diese Hashtags immer eher am Anfang eines Monats erscheinen. Gabriele @kissntuss erklärte sich freundlicherweise bereit, mehr herauszufinden und stellte den Kontakt zu Carola @naehkatze20 her. Carola gehört zu einem Team von vier Frauen, die den Hashtag und den Blog unter http://www.MeMadeMittwoch betreiben.
Wer deutschsprachig ist, möchte vielleicht mitmachen? Dies sind die Regeln:
. ein Foto von sich mit einem selbstgenähten Keidungsstück zeigen
. Eine Beschreibung oder Geschichte des Kleidungsstücks dazu schreiben
. Werbung und gesponserte Kleidungsstücke sind nicht erlaubt
. Den Hashtag #memademittwoch auf Instagram verwenden und, wenn gewünscht, mit der Linkparty auf dem Blog verlinken
Wer nicht mitmachen kann (oder möchte), kann die Näharbeiten bewundern und den “Übersetzen” Knopf drücken.
Lindy of Stokxpatterns
Thursday 7 April 2022: Lindy of Stokx patterns has been a big supporter of SewOver50 followers.
Gabriele of Kissntuss discovered Lindy when Lindy first started her business. What you’ll hear is the support Gabriele and Julie of consistentlydifferentdesigns have provided Lindy to keep producing sewing patterns that are different to mainstream patterns. You’ll hear both Gabriele and Julie talk about their first coat twinning experience in their podcasts.
Lindy is an Australian living in Berlin Germany, developing clothes and sewing patterns for us to enjoy making.
Stokx In The Wild on Instagram is going from strength to strength with sewists showing how they’re enjoying using Stokx patterns in their lives.
Helga and Nicole podcasts
Tuesday 22 March 2022: Helga and Nicole chat about bra sewing.
This was an unplanned podcast where we were discussing how to get started when you’re thinking about sewing your very own bra.
Tuesday 8 March 2022: Do you want to know what Helga and Nicole are working on next? Have a listen to part 2 of their friends podcast.
Thursday 3 March 2022: Helga of Salixsews and Nicole of Septemberfaden are sewing friends both online through SewOver50 and locally in Augsburg, Germany.
Their friendship started on Instagram and through SewOver50. They’ve both felt very welcome by SewOver50. Nicole was a guest editor for SewOver50 and it was Helga who reached out to her and they realised how close they live to each other.
The Mirridresssewalong has helped bring both Nicole and Helga closer to their online sewing friends Julie of Consistentlydifferentdesigns and Gabriele of Kissntuss.
Helga’s first podcast
Thursday 27 May 2021: Helga @salixsews felt the warmth of Sewover50 from the moment she made her Instagram account public. She had kept her Instagram account private until she had had enough of feeling isolated through each covid lockdown she had been experiencing.
In this podcast, Helga tells us about all the recognition she experienced in the first 10 days of opening her Instagram account.
When we all celebrated the 30,000 follower Sewover50 milestone in April, Helga posted some family photos. She is a genealogist and she chats about how sewing is in her blood.
Her life has included an international fashion retail role that you’ll enjoy hearing about.
She considers Sewover50 to be the Mothership and you’ll need to listen to why she says this.
Meet Uli
Friday 19 March 2021: Uli has agreed to replay her podcast in honour of #mendmarch. You’ll hear how her family background keeps Uli visible mending.
Friday 23 October 2020: You’ll find Uli or schneckstein creating amazing mending on an amazing array of textiles. Uli lives in Kunststopfen, Kassel in Germany where she creates visible mends with such beauty. Uli has been featured in the Wednesday collage posted by Mending Mayhem’s Katrine.
Uli uses embroidery, crotchet and weaving techniques to embellish that various mends she accomplishes each week.
Her love of mending began when she was 4 years old and her mother taught her the importance of making sure you buy good quality goods and extend their life through mending.
Her eye for design influences her mending ideas and her children help her decide on the mend idea to pursue. They play a game to image what a hole to be mended looks like. The first one Uli mentioned was hand sewn into an elephant. And the fun of deciding how a mend should look like has continued.
Uli’s creativity makes each visible mend unique and easy on the eyes. It’s when you look at the detailing that you then start to appreciate her mending artistry.
Uli follows other great menders like Mending Mayhem, Marlen @milli_and_the_bee, Mending kate
Kissntuss or Gabriele podcasts
Sewing friends with Julie
Tuesday 18 January 2022: Gabriele and Julie are sewing friends from the SewOver50 community.
Gabriele reached out to Julie though a DM. She helped Julie become more comfortable with general Instagram functionality like stories and chatting.
In part 1, you’ll hear how their sewing friendship has grown and grown.
Thursday 28 January 2021: Gabriele admitted that her Instagram name was a twist of words developed by her wonderful husband.
Her sewing journey all started with Gabriele’s objective to learn how to sew couch cushions.
Why did Gabriele want to make cushions in the first place? That came about when Gabriele and her husband left their apartment in Frankfurt in 2010. Her husband had a big pile of old ties that he wanted to throw away. These were ties he had collected since he had first started working. Some ties were wildly patterned ones and he had some really high-priced designer pieces, too. All the ties were silk ties.
I thought these ties were far to pretty as fabric and one should make cushions out of them. So they went into storage and stayed stored for a few years.
In 2016 I saw the sign in Lara @1000stoff store window, that she offered sewing classes. So I started to learn “the trade”, all my first makes were pillows. The silk ties we had were still in storage.
‘I really enjoyed – and still do – stitching the cushions together. Front and backside always in different fabrics. And if possible, include piping. Most will be made from more than two different fabrics – I really enjoy matching fabric types and colours. Not only in pillows, but in everything I sew.
At one point I thought I could make a business out of it. But that failed. People have the 20€ Ikea price tag in mind – which will just pay for fabric, zipper and tax, but not cover any work I put in.
So, I increased my offering over time to making bags, hats and clothes. For myself, husband, nieces, family and friends. I have a small but loyal circle of friends who regularly order pieces. I ask them to pay the cost of the material and donate an amount they find appropriate to a charity of their choosing. Some send her their receipts – makes me very proud how generous they are!
After Lara stopped offering sewing classes, I was on my own for a while.
Participated in two sewing camps, where I had to humbly notice that I am still a very innocent novice when it comes to sewing.
So since last fall (2020), I have a tutor – Lore. Altogether, I have enjoyed 12 sessions with her and learned a lot.
My tutor is a trained dressmaker, certified seamstress /tailor or as we say in Germany “Schneidermeisterin”. This involves 3 years of vocational training and then another 2 or 3 years to take the final exam for the “Master” – which is a word used in the sense of the old guilds.’
Here is a link to the Grimms story about the Brave little tailor. This is a link to the story about Frau Holle, or the lazy girl.
You’ll hear about how Gabrielle and Julie Yost became close friends and have been twinning on Instagram ever since!
Sew organised style podcast 