Whiptips is an crafts advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving your comments. View the Whiptips archive here. You can submit questions, to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos with your questions! And a link to your own blog :)
Thank you to all the commenters making Whiptips so helpful!
Valdemar is “stuck in the middle of Swedish nowhere” and just started his own new craft blog. He writes in to ask for some newbie advice saying “I am kind of lost in the internet jungle.”
If you’ve just started your own craft blog, what are the first things you should do? Any services or ideas you should try?
I think it depends on what area work in, or what are your goals with your craft blog. There are alot of advantages to keeping a blog. For example:
- Developing a focus in your life for your hobby/budding business
- Getting help and helping others
- Selling
- Documenting
- Meeting people for swapping
So depending on your goals, the things you try might be different. But there are some ideas for participating in the blog-world in general. I’ll kick this off with four tips, I look forward to hearing from others:
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Spirits dancing made this suit for the theatre group A Bunch of Posers for a performance at an event that marked the closing down of the Australian Bureau of Statistics mainframe computer earlier this year.
Pixelgirl Shop – a place to give artists who make unique high-quality items a central hub to sell their creations.
CRAFT Magazine – A new magazine from the creators of MAKE! Coming this fall. Sign up for the free CRAFT newsletter.
To enter go to the whiplash page – see button on your right – and read for instructions.
There are three categories to enter:
Tutorial:
I love a good tutorial – these must have clear photos or illustrations and good detailed instructions, the project can be simple or complicated – can be a deconstruct/reconstruct project or a embellish/decorate project but the main criteria is how easy the tutorial is to follow.
deconstruct/reconstruct:
This involves taking a piece of clothing – yours or someone elses and changing it in some way – you might like to turn some old pants or jeans into a skirt, or take a baggy t’shirt and make it fitted and funky, or turn your old clothes into new clothes for your children, or take that old shirt with the gorgeous fabric and do something fun with it … Before and after photos please
embellish/decorate:
This involves taking a good but plain item of clothing and enhancing it in some way – you might like to embroider or bead some detail, edge or trim the cuffs or hem, or crochet a collar or cuffs, silkscreen or handpaint a design… Before and after photos please
Resources:
Wardrobe refashion check out the side bar for lots of resources and read the entries for great ideas
fiftyRX3 good ideas and links
what the craft check out the patterns
generation T will be reviewing the book and offering it as a prize too – the website has some free tutorials to get you started.
sew whats new some great how-to if you are new at sewing also advanced techniques too.
craftster search for tutorial or altered clothing
wists search for tutorial or altered clothing
Prizes:
Book:
Megan Nicolay, Generation T; 108 ways to transform a T-shirt, donated by Workman publishing and generaton T.
There’s a new revolution in town – a T-shirt revolution. … Generation T; 108 ways to transform a T-shirt is the new bible for the legion of hip, urban, craft-it-yourself teens and 20-somethings rebelling against cookie-cutter apparel and mass-produced fashions.
patterns:
3 patterns from Amy Butler – for the Cabo Halter top and the gypsy fashion set.
How-to instructions are one of the best things about the internet. I stumbled upon a wonderful site the other day that has a whole Do-It-Yourself section. It’s called No Media Kings. A lot of it revolves around writing and book promotion, but there’s two sections that might be of interest to Whip Up readers:
1. How to silkscreen posters and shirts, which has a really clear step-by-step guide to the gentle art of silkscreen printing. I’m not a screenprinter, but I may be after reading this. It’s demystified the process a lot.
2. Do It Yourself Book Press, with good clear instructions on how to make casebound (hardback) books and perfect-bound (softback) books. To be honest, as an aspiring bookbinder, I recognise that the methods in this section aren’t Teh Right Way, and that there is a lot more to know if you want to be a Real Bookbinder, but I’d rather see you all make beautiful books this way than never try for fear of not being Kosher.
I’ll hopefully post a lot more about book-making methods, both traditional and experimental… but this is a quick start, and I hope it helps some of you to have a go!
Okay, I’m a self admitted Flickr junkie, but the combination of yarn and Flickr — can it get any better? Yes it can! People selling their yarn at rock bottom prices as they clear out their stashes. And if you need a little more space and a bit of cash in your pocket, you can do it too. Just check out Destash & Restash the super cool new Flickr group dreamed up by Jess of Fig and Plum. Now excuse me while I go photograph some of that yarn that’s been lingering in the stash. . .
