Ladies and Gentlemen, start your sewing machines! It’s time for a Spring Top Sewalong!
Every time I type those words, I get really excited. And this year I’m thrilled to be able to announce yet another fun-filled Spring Top Sewalong!
Have you been wanting to sew for yourself but haven’t found the time? Are you looking at your spring wardrobe and inwardly groaning? You need some new clothes! Yes I am talking to YOU! This sewalong is for YOU!!!
The Spring Top Sewalong will begin this week with a few kickoff fabric giveaways (you need to have fabric to sew a top, right??). The sewalong photo pool will open next week Monday, March 19, so you can enter your photos as early as next week.
Here’s how it works:
- SEW ALONG: Sew a top/tunic/shirt/blouse for yourself. See this post for more specific top guidelines/FAQ.
- PUT IT IN THE POOL: Take a picture of your top on your fantastic self, crop it to a SQUARE (see this post for more specific photo guidelines/FAQ), and put it into our Spring Top Sewalong 2012 Pool starting next Monday, March 19, 2012.
- FILL OUT THE ENTRY FORM: After you’ve added your photo to the pool, complete my very short, very quick, very easy Spring Top Contest Entry Form for each top you want to enter. This will add your top to my Master Spreadsheet of Tops for judges to score, which is how we choose our “Top Tops”. Note: If you decide you would like to put your top in the pool just for fun and not be entered in the competition, put your photo in the sewalong pool but don’t fill out the entry form and add the words “just for fun!” to your photo description.
- Sit back and watch the fun unfold!
There’s fun, you say?
Four times throughout the sewalong, I’ll post a group of the best tops (“Top of the Tops,” these are selected by judges scores) here on this site so you can ooh and ahh and vote for your favorite. The plan is to have two winners each week, one selected by the reader vote, and one selected by the judges’ scores, and we’ll have prizes for the winners: gift certificates from Made By Rae sponsors…yay!! You know, so you can buy more fabric and make more tops!!! Hee.
Of course, I’m thrilled to be able to offer prizes (thank you so much, Made by Rae sponsors!) but I hope you’ll join us for the sewalong for another reason — to create something beautiful for yourself and enjoy seeing the creations of others! It’s been so rewarding in the past to see you guys sewing something for yourself, so many of you for the very first time.
Dates
The Spring Top Sewalong will accept entries from Monday March 19, 2012 until Sunday April 22, 2012 at 8 pm eastern. (After that time, you may continue to enter your tops in the pool so we can enjoy them and others can comment on them, but the contest will be closed)
Since we’ll be doing four rounds of scoring/prizes throughout the sewalong, I’d encourage you to enter your tops as early as possible, since most of the tops tend to come in at the last minute (and will therefore have more competition the later you enter). If a top is featured in a “Top of the Tops” post, it will no longer be eligible for subsequent rounds, even if it doesn’t win that round. We want as many people to have their tops featured as possible, and as many winners as possible!
Buttons
Please help me promote Spring Top Sewalong 2012 by taking a button and slapping it up on your blog. Even if you don’t end up entering a top in the sewalong, it really helps me get the word out. The more the merrier!
To get the button above, copy and paste the text in the box below into a widget/gadget/post HTML area:
To get the button above, copy and paste the text in the box below into a widget/gadget/post HTML area:
Happy Sewing everyone!!!
41 Responses to Spring Top Sewalong 2012!
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For you to sew!
about Rae
Hi! I'm Rae, Head Boss Lady of Made By Rae Enterprises. I love to sew. This blog is a showcase for my crafty stuff.
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This is totally what I need! I bought a couple of top patterns last month and I haven’t gotten around to sewing them. Next week is perfect! I will totally make something awesome.
OK, I totally have to get in on this one this year. I have zero satisfactory maternity spring tops and I am determined to sew at LEAST one!
Oh drat! I’ve just packed up my sewing machine before I move interstate and won’t be able to use it for at least a month. Oh well, at least I’ll be able to enjoy all the top inspiration!
The code for the first button is missing a / right after the img src code. Can you fix that for others?
fixes it so people can copy and paste it into their html source.
I was just thinking about this today and wondering when it would start! I want to enter this year!!
[...] Yippeeee! Did you notice Rae has launched this year’s Spring Top Sewalong? [...]
I’m so excited, I couldn’t wait to post about it!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
Oh I just may have to give this a try! I’m been meaning to make myself some new tops for spring…even thinking of trying a bit of knit fabric…
Hooray!!!
I’m in! Saw this on cirque de bebe and I was intrigued as my goal as been to sew my own wardrobe for the summer. I had a shirt planned already! So, now I am motivated!!
I’m so excited! I can’t wait to figure out what top I will make.
Fantastic! I’ve had a top sitting here cut out for a week and a half, but I had started to think I’d never get around to sewing it – everyone else’s stuff seems more ‘urgent’ somehow. Now I have added motivation, and the Schoolboy’s requests will need to wait their turn!
I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna do it! Deep breaths! Thanks for hosting!
You can do it girl!!!
I´M SOOOOOOOOOOOO IN THIS YEAR
Thank you!
But it’s autumn where I live – Oh well, I’ll make a top anyway
yeah, I didn’t think about that whole hemisphere issue when I named the thing way back in 2009. BUT, whatever your transitional season may be, you can still sew yourself a top!! Yay!
Squeeee! I love this sewalong! I was hoping it would come up soon. I have made a few tops that last few weeks (after March 1!) and have a few more planned. I can’t wait to see all the spring top inspiration.
I feel like I’ve been waiting all year for this moment!!! YAY!!!
I’m in. Thanks for the motivation. I blogged about it here:
http://thingsthatfloatmyboat.blogspot.com/2012/03/switching-gears-sew-along-fun.html
And I plan to update my progress as I go. Hopefully I’ll be one of those early bird entries and hopefully I bought enough fabric since I bought it before I found out I was pregnant!
YES! I’ve been wanting to sew up some spring clothes and test out my new dressform. This is the perfect motivation!! Thanks!
Can someone help me post this button on my blog?? I’m new to blogging and still dumb about it. I can’t get the first button code to work. It’s giving me errors. I use Blogger.
Hi Shannon:
Sorry it’s giving you trouble. I’m sure my poor HTML coding skills are to blame. Is the second button code working for you? Because if it is, you can copy and paste (ctrl+C, ctrl+V) the URL for the first image and just substitute it for the URL for the second image and it will work fine. I’ll try to get it fixed though!!!
Yay! Last year I followed along but was too scared to jump in. This year, I will!
Cool! I have two tops in the works that I’ll be sure to enter.
I have a few tops on the go, and I will definitely be entering one of them.
Oh that is just what I needed to motivate me!
Thank you for hosting this again, Rae!
Thanks for the motivation. I have two patterns and an entire book of patterns for myself that I’ve been setting aside since Christmas to make “just one more thing for the kids!”
Oooooohhh!! I totally forgot about it this year! I just finished sewing flower girl dresses and now I am off to the wedding for 2 weeks…I will try to crank out a couple of tops when I get back
So much fun!
I’ve missed this in years past, but this year I’m IN!
I’m going to join in this year too, instead of just watching! Mine will be an Autumn top hehe. I’ve given it a plug over on my blog too, http://joyfoolery.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/spring-top-sewalong.html
Should be fun, thanks Rae!
LET THE FUN BEGIN!!!! Wahoooooooo
Hi Rae,
I’m also having trouble with getting either button to work on my blog. (Blogger, as well.) It could be just me, I’m a bit tech-retarded.
No it’s not you…SORRY. It’s ME who is the tech-failure.
Ooooh I love that store!
No, no, no…a year has passed already?! WHAT?!
I’d best get my skates on! xx
any suggestions for patterns? i’d like to join in but am stuck for a cute pattern!
I’m in! I’ve been lacking a bit of sewing get-up-and-go, not to mention time due to a busy family life, so this should really motivate me to get stitching. I’ve just bought some (yikes!) stretch viscose jersey to sew up a pattern I bought a couple of years ago, so hopefully I’ll be able to post the finished top before too long!
Love selfish sewing!!!! Thanks again Rae; I look forward to this EVERY year! I appreciate all the work that goes into organizing this HUGE event:) Such great inspiration in the flickr pool—-love it!
I attempted a top today. Fail. But I learned a lot. I think Ill try again. Thanks for this SewALong!