Flashback Friday: Jess from Me Sew Crazy

Welcome to Flashback Friday! We are super lucky to have my friend Jess from Me Sew Crazy with us today. Jess is the designer of some adorable patterns, and also shares tons of great tutorials on her blog. I can’t wait till Lola’s old enough to wear a bustle backpack!
 
In addition to producing fabulous tutorial and patterns, Jess also is the woman behind SewSet, the online sewing directory where designers and bloggers can upload links and photos to their tutorials and patterns. The genius of SewSet is that users can search for almost any kind of sewing tutorial or pattern, both free and for purchase, and it’s purely sewing projects. It’s such a great and easy way to find what you’re looking for! I’ve used SewSet to search for tutorials and have also uploaded many of my own tutorials and patterns, and it’s been awesome. It’s funny that it took so long for someone to bring such a great idea to our online community! Thanks Jess!

Hello everyone! I am Jessica, and I blog over at Me Sew Crazy. I was so excited when Abby asked me to be a part of her Flashback Friday Series, its always fun to look back and remember. And today I thought we would all have a good laugh – at me.

That gorgeous piece of work right there is my original blog header. The header that started it all, I call it ‘Ode to MS Paint‘.

 

The images I created for my posts were all from the same Paint family, and now you are going to really fall off your seat. I was inspired by Noodlehead’s logo at the time. What the what?!!! Let me clearly state – her logo was gorgeous. That being said, it looked nothing like this. And lastly…

My first sewn product photo post. A tutorial showing how to turn Martha Stewart’s tomato pin cushions into pumpkins. Notice how I don’t use blog etiquette, and I repost the entire tutorial on my site? I am sure her stats are hurting on that one. Not to mention my great lighting, fabulous focus, and careful attention to detail for the photographic composition and background. Now, why am I showing you all of this? For a good old Friday morning laugh?  Of course. But there’s more. You see, we all need to start somewhere. No one starts blogging and is as good as Dana. It takes time to learn, it takes time to get to know yourself as a blogger and on-line creator, and it takes time to figure out what works for you and your readers. Still doing the ‘compare game’ with your blog vs. the big fish?  Let me give you a tip – go to any one of those blogs and check out their very first few posts. Now breath a sigh of relief. Everyone has to start somewhere. One of the things I absolutely love about blogging is how much it has helped me to grow. I have learned things that I can carry with me for the rest of my life, such as better photography skills. That is invaluable to me as a mother with children, knowing that I can capture beautiful quality photos of my kids throughout life. I have learned photoshop, html, grading and digitizing patterns, pr skills, and so much more. All because of blogging.

Furthermore, I have met some of the most remarkable women through blogging. Friends that I will have for a lifetime that I might never have met if it weren’t for this outlet. Blogging has caused me to stretch in ways I never imagined, and I am so thankful for it. So as I look back and laugh this Flashback Friday at where I started on my blogging journey over 2 years ago, I am also glad. Because it was that silly header that got me going to where I am now. Thanks so much for allowing me to walk down memory lane with you Abby! It was fun to go through some of my beginning posts and laugh / cringe a little – ha!



 

Thanks for joining us Jess! I love this take on your flashback! I think we can all relate. I cringe when I look back at my first header, which I thought was so awesome at the time! And great advice, too. It really does take a lot of time (more than most of us would probably care to admit :)) to learn and grow with our blogs, but luckily we as bloggers have each other for support and encouragement along the way! I hope you all have a fantastic weekend – I have a really fun new tutorial to share with you on Monday, see you then!

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8 Comments

  1. Lovely advice. I enjoy going back through the “big blog” archives. It really does help to see that pretty much everyone starts out with blurry photos and slightly wonky projects!

  2. Thank you so so much for the laugh! I love this! Especially the pinchusion photo. I don’t think I had any header for a really long time, so it totally impresses me that you did your blog design all up from the get go!

  3. Best header evah! I don’t remember that! You must not have had it up for long =)

    As always, I’m loving the series, Abby!

  4. Everything is very open with a precise explanation of the issues.
    It was definitely informative. Your website is very useful.

    Thanks for sharing!

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