Liebster Blog Award and 2013 Essential Top Sew-a-Long

Sometime last year two of my sewing blog pals, Faye (of Faye's Sewing Adventure) and Deborah (of the now inactive blog The Tropical Sewist), presented me with the Liebster Blog Award. Thank you so much!! I am a follower of Faye's blog since I gave birth to the Bean (before blog) and got to know Deb via Burdastyle (also before blog). I think both of them must have been my very first back and forth with sewing bloggers (I usually just read rather than comment before...). They have always been very kind and encouraging to me. :) 

Back then I was not familiar with blog awards and then my family moved from the midwest to WA, with moving stress, apartment hunting and so on, naturally I forgot to send back the award out to other "new" bloggers.

Fast forward to 2013, it has been almost (but not quite) a year since the awards from Faye and about a year from the Starting at the Top (Spring) Challenge sew-a-long that she organized. Alas, the challenge blog is no longer there, but I think we (the participants) all were quite productive during Faye's 2012 Top challenge. I know I was! I made 4 tops during the 2 weeks sew-a-long:

• #1: Spring Gingham Peplum Blouse (refashion project from a men's shirt)
• #2: Draped front neckline top (from pattern Vogue 1282, Donna Karan Collection)
• #3: My 3rd take of V1179 (My TNT, i converted this dress pattern into a top with long slim sleeves)
• #4: A franken-top, with contrast piping. Initially was supposed to be an anniversary dress, but the print of the fabric screamed murder at me, so I saved it by chopping it off and layering it with contrast red fabric. ;) Since then, the red fabric bleeds into the main fabric in the wash.... Hah.

Needless to say tops must be what I sew most, and love to sew most. I wear them with my thrifted pants/jeans/skirts. Since I have not mastered (and my last attempt to make some skirts during Faye's Carnival of Skirts came out short) le bottoms last year, I need more of these nice, pretty tops/blouses to be the highlight of my outfit come spring and summer (when I can no longer hide under my black down jacket...). Again, our kind and dear enabler (or fearsome leader?), indulged her own needs and mine (and yours?) when she announced her latest sew-a-long:

Faye's amazing new button!

Do I want and need color and excitement in my wardrobe? YESSS!

Do I feel that tops are mostly easy to make? YESSS! More so than bottoms, most definitely!

Do I think that sewing tops going to wake me up from sleepy sewing motivation? Judging by the pile of UFOs that recently piling up (and just mentioned in passing) of non-tops, OHHHH YESSSS!!!

If you feel the same way as I do, and want to join us in Faye's 2013 Essential Top Sew-A-Long that's starting this weekend, just click on the picture above (or the button I am adding to my side bar after this post) and it will take you to Faye's page and explanation. :)

Oh yeah, and back to the Liebster Blog award... I was googling the award and stumbled upon this post discussing its origin. It seems like there are many different ways that people do with the award, but I am just going to do as Faye and Deborah asked: 

Nominating 5 blogs that has less than 200 followers :) 

unknown source to credit...

So the following are the blogs I nominate for this Liebster Blog Awards, in no particular order ;)

• Liz - Haphazard Musings and Creations (Liz is a fashionista who probably never wears the same outfit in a month, let alone a week! In her blog she shares with us her knack of combining outfits (thrifted, non-thrifted, self made, etc etc), her food (she cooks!) and currently her new 1920s home revamping projects. I look forward to see her sewing room!!!)
• Ellen - Button Lover (Ellen is a geologist who migrated to Australia. I wonder if she faced immigration blues like I did? Anyways, she sews, a lot, and even has a pin-up apron pattern that she shares for FREE on her blog!)
• Njeri - The Cute Kipepeo (Njeri is a very very busy working mother of 1 son, who makes time to cultivate her love for card making, sewing and cooking. She shared some of her self-made cards on her blog, and gosh they are sooooo pretty!)
• Agy - Green Issues (Agy is another fellow refashion enthusiast who writes about green issues (of course) and concerns about environment, features other bloggers who shares the same refashioning interest, and now also runs upcycling workshops in her adopted country Singapore!)
• Sarah Liz - SarahLizSewStyle (Sarah Liz's blog is the latest blog I follow. She just started her blog in January, but she's been blogging diligently ever since! She documents her sewing experiments and shares with us her steps, and I can learn a lot just by following along her journey. She also shares with us her reading - currently sharing this 1928 styling guidelines book, which indeed drew a few LOLs from me, hehe)

There you go, 5 nominations from me. Maybe you ladies already received this award before, but that is not an impediment to accept this one. And on the same token, by no means that you have to accept even if you never received one. :) But if you do, I'd ask that you also nominate up to 5 new blogs (by "new" I am taking it to mean blogs that have not more than 200 followers. It will be a great opportunity for us to discover new blogs to read and find inspiration from, eh??? :)

Mucho love,

Far