Hashtag the year away…

Happy New Year!

I wanted to take a moment to shout out a few hashtag projects that I found during last year that I am super excited to (hopefully) take part in this year.

#makenine

This has been going for several years now and I have no idea how I’ve missed it… #makenine2019. The idea is so simple and yet its blooming genius… pledge 9 things that you hope/plan to make through the year. Whats so amazing about this hashtag project is its creator @homerowfibreco launches it as a “gentle self-guided challenge for makers” with the idea being that if you don’t manage to complete your 9 then that’s absolutely fine… no one is judging. What this means is that people post at the end of the year too showing the success of their planned 9, discussing what they did and didn’t manage and if they decided to substitute something in. It’s so refreshing to have social media showing the truth and instilling that not all plans come to fruition. So if you’re looking for a no-pressure sewing project this year then this is one for you.

#memademay

Me-made-may is a massive hashtag movement in the sewing world now. The idea is super simple, try and wear me-made clothing everyday in may. Most sewists life time goal is to be able to create an entirely me-made wardrobe and this project sets the goal in motion, sharing with the rest of the community the joy that’s created from wearing your own creations. It’s creator @sozoblog says her aim for this is to”encourage people who make their own clothes to develop a better relationship with their handmade wardrobe. A very common pledge is for a participant to aim to wear one self-stitched or refashioned garment each day for the duration of May.” Check out her blog from April onwards to sign up.

#sewphotohop

The photo-a-day challenge for sewists. Created by @houseofpinheiro it runs throughout September and lists a series of prompts for you to try and post a picture for each day of the month. The idea of this hashtag project is to create “a community challenge that aims to connect and inspire people with similar interests;particularly sewing.” Photo-a-day challenges are notoriously hard to keep up with, but if you have the time (even if you just dip in and out) its the most amazing community of people who come together for this and is a really good fun challenge. Checkout her blog for more info.

#makeyourstash

@timetosew and @pilar_bear launched this last year as a “sustainability sewing challenge”. The only rule… “We will make garment(s) that we will love and wear, using fabric that has been in the stash for more than 6 months.” and it ran from March through May. It’s been really thrown into the limelight recently the importance of sustainability within fashion and trying to squash fast fashion, so for me this seems like its a more important concept than ever before in encouraging us all to really make the most of our handmade wardrobes. I’m hoping it will run again this year as I really need to get better at sewing from my ever growing stash. Checkout her blog post for more info.

Some of my favourite hashtags to follow (thank goodness instagram finally enabled that feature):
#sewcialists #imakemyownclothes #memade #memadeeveryday #makersgonnamake #sewistsofinstagram #makeitsewcial

Of course this is in no way an exhaustive list… if you spend long enough searching through the instagram sewing community you will find there are loads of hashtags popping up. Its such a supportive community of creatives that I’m slowly finding and adding to my feed for those moments when I really need the inspiration of others to keep my creative juices flowing.

Please comment below with other hashtags and hashtags and projects I need to add to my following list…