In May-June this year I spent a bit of time redoing all my photos on my website. Every single blog I have posted since 2017 were re-visted and the pictures optimised. As you already know, my blogs are very visual and I use a lot of photos. Imaging the time I have to spend doing this.
Why Bother?
That’s one thing about learning to build your own website, you learn as you go along! The pictures on my website were taking a bit of time to load. I learnt to resize them but I didn’t know anything about optimising. So, basically I wasn’t doing it the right way. Also I got a new phone at the end of 2017. I retook a lot of the Sham Shui Po photos because I now could take wide angle photos. Before I couldn’t step back to capture the entire image.
Here on the left is what my Home page should look like. Once in a while, especially when I post a new blog up, it messes up! When I shrink up and down the images shifts all over the place. If you see this, I do apologies. I really don’t know how to resolve it. I have been trying to find a solution for over a year and I am giving up!
I have always had problems with the layout with my website, ever since the beginning. If you ever read up on my Journal Logs, you will know I am always moaning about something. There’s always something that goes wrong. If not straight away, it’s going to appear after a few days or if I’m on another device. I thought if I am going to redo my pictures I might as well redo some of the file sizes and pictures. I resized a lot of my smaller pictures to make them bigger for my readers. I’ve always wondered why they look a bit blurry too. Apparently it was my eyes. I need to wear my glasses when I am working on my Mac! Do’h!
See what I mean? Left picture is what I want and see. Right picture is when the website is not behaving as it should be! The layout is all over the place.
What is going on behind the scenes?
I took a break from working on the North American Smocking while I wait for the rigging to arrive. I created 2 posts on Fabrics Transformed, and I got good feed back from it. I will be working more on these projects when I find more interesting fabrics to experiment with.
Yes, I have finally found some metal for rigging the camera and lighting equipment. As you know, I am currently living in Hong Kong. Space is almost non existence here. I constantly having to take out and put away my tools and equipment every time I want to do something. I had a make shift camera clamp in the bedroom but when the baby is sleeping I can’t do any filming in there. When I am working in the lounge, I am working on the only table we have for dinner so there’s no room for working, planning or filming. It is very frustrating. Sometimes I just want to give up!
Restoration Project!
Just before I took a break to redo all my blog photos, I took advantage of the heatwave we were having in Hong Kong. It was a 10 day forecast of 32 degrees and above. I decided it was time to restore the colour of my Bernina sewing machine. I am not sure about other people but when my machine is a nasty retro beige colour, it really puts me off using it! It was an eye sore. I really wasn’t inspired or even want to go near it and use it. Especially having to feature it in my blogs and tutorial videos. I’ll be having people asking me where I bought this retro looking machine from!
It took me a bit of research and experimenting to get my machine restored to the original colour. As you can see the machine developed into 3 different shades!
Why was it important to restore the colour of my Bernina machine?
As you know I am a pattern cutter and sewer. I also like Blythe dolls. It is natural for me to design and make Blythe garments eventually. Especially having a baby daughter, she’s going to want to dress her dolls one day. I was working on testing my Blythe patterns. I have to make sure they will work before I make them available for free download.
Got side tracked!
While I was working on my Blythe patterns, I got side tracked and started working on pattern envelopes. I thought it’ll be great to have a nice envelope to put your Blythe patterns in, just like real patterns. I also started to rework my Blythe illustrations. Refining them further. I was rather pleased to be honest.
At the end I even used the illustration to design my own measuring diagram for future tutorials. I will be showing you how to take personal measurement and make clothes for yourself.
I am also going to rework my branding for my Etsy Shop. That’s another future project.
Definitely worth the effort to redo my Blythe template.
Projects in the pipeline
Making clothes for a doll and making clothes for a real person are 2 different things. A lot of people that teach you how to sew or people learning how to sew are always trying to look for shortcuts. This doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best method or the proper way to sew. I will be exploring different garment sewing techniques used.
Sewing underpants is always something I have always wanted to do. Ever since being pregnant and having a kid, I now love wearing big underpants. The bigger the better! Actually, I have a good reason. I have a 4 inch scar on the side of my stomach due to the emergency operation I had a few days before I went into labour. The elastic keeps cutting into my scar and irritating me. It got to a point I started to change all the elastic in my underwear. So, I might as well turn this into a tutorial and show you how it is done, from pattern cutting to sewing the pattern.
What about the past behind the scene projects?
These projects will be slowly released depending on the what I am currently working on. For example the Oral Kiely inspired project, I have ideas where I could use the design as an embroidery for one of Blythe’s garments or a print for a piece of ceramic. It really depends on what I am currently working on.
The orchid template was originally planned as a polymer clay project. It might be a while before I start on that tutorial but I could also possibly use it for a paper ornamental project.
The cute illustrations featured in one of my Journal Log post was the starting point of my embroidery collection. That was put on hold until I have decide on what to do or when to start my Etsy Shop. As for now I’ll work on a few more designs before I get even more side tracked.
That’s it really. For now I have managed to get quite a few blog posts done with the only spare time I have when I am not chasing my toddler around. Yes. she’s not a baby anymore but a clingy toddler.
Once all the rigging pieces are here, I will try to start on video tutorials. Finger cross the website won’t be giving me anymore grief!
See you in my next blog.
Shan x
Oooops I spoke too soon………………….
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