The Seven Year Stitch: Leaving MSN

Last December, I said a fond farewell to the Mood Sewing Network. That's seven years' worth of stitching you see above (and it took me roughly seven years to make that dang poorly laid out collage!).

MSN helped me to level up my sewing game. At the time I'd only been sewing three years, on dollar-a-yard kind of stuff, so getting to play with fabric that was out of my wallet's reach was an absolute gamechanger. Especially as a beginner! Though I'm not scared of the scissors, I wasn't playing with silk and brocade and velvet and what-have-you until that fabric allowance came along. And let's face it, it's easier to cut with wild abandon when the yardage costs you nothing but your time, if you have the time to spend.

And I spent some time, yo. Save for a weird little stint in which I tried to sew everyday separates, I was attempting Extra right out of the gate.

The Anna Sui dress up top, my first MSN post, is due for a better zipper insert now that I know more (said zip is faced with lace, why I do not know), and this blue chiffon gal was my last MSN post. And man did she take forever, and man do I ADORE HER. 

However, many of my Mood makes didn't survive the years. In fact...lemme white out what didn't make it...

HAHA WHAT?!! 

I'm not surprised or even regretful of all that white space--some things went to live in other people's closets, some things got repurposed for other garments, and some things were just flat out fails to learn from. And some survivors are in the midst of being refashioned! All good things in my book.

The joy of playing with (and sometimes murdering) fabric aside, what really kicked me in the butt was sharing a space with some truly amazing sewists. Sewing with that inaugural group lit a fire under me. I was determined to level up to my sewsisters. The crew has changed over the past seven years, still full of awesome--yet every time someone left, I thought, HOW?! It's free fabric!! But eventually, the trade-off of sourcing, planning, stitching, shooting, editing, writing and posting on someone else's site then reformatting to share here, for several yards of cloth, just wasn't working out for me personally. (And sometimes, you gotta close a door yourself to see what window opens ;)

And how 'bout y'all? I remember when MSN was announced, it was the first sewing blogger network--now that networks and collaborations are everywhere, how do you feel about them? Would you join one, if the fit was right?

eta: hey Chris, thanks for your comment-- here's a side by side of what was made/what was kept for ya!