Not quite dead: on blogging and dressmaking (again)

From a lookbook for CentralSaintMartin's students, Swarovski competition 2017

Let me tell you at once: my blogging has not come to an end. I thought I should make my position clear because I have been reading here and there that blogging is dead.
I started blogging eight years ago, nine if you count my guest posts on a blog that used to be written by an art model based in the US who went by the name of Unbearable Lightness.
 Blogging was no longer a novelty back then and it was already in the process of being co-opted,  some bloggers had already begun the monetising process, with sponsored blogs.  I toyed with the idea of getting sponsorship,  then rejected it. I had started my blog as an art model and my early posts were littered with photos of myself as an art model. Unashamed self promotion. As my modelling developed and I branched out into different areas of modelling, being eventually signed by Grey,  my images changed too. But, mostly, I used my blog as a kind of 'public' journal and I continue to do so. I was never great on comment response and after a while the interactive quality of the blog died out. Some people do read it with 1,202663 since it began, the blog is listed on Bloglovin and I have a handful of followers.  It is also linked to my website.
I have to admit that I have considered  stopping, in the past couple of months,  I was so busy with a writing project I had little time to blog. But something tells me there is no need to stop, I am not harming anyone by blogging and doing it gives me focus and helps me to get a few ideas together for other kinds of writing. I look forward to my first ten years of blogging, it will be something to celebrate, a chunk of my life online! Much blogging has now been  superseded by Instagram. I do post on Instagram but it does not feel as good as blogging...
Anyway.
The last month has been weird. I did a short spell as a juror and was glad to see the back of it. Then I managed to complete my book on contemporary fashion in Indonesia, now with the publisher and series editor - I eagerly await their feedback. It will be out in 2020, perhaps slightly earlier - I am not quite sure, I have managed to complete it ahead of schedule.

Now I find myself in a strange place. I can't really say my book project is over because I will need to rework it  as soon as I receive the typescript back, with comments. But I am not working flat out on it as I was earlier. I had a routine of waking up at 5.30 am and being at my computer by 6.30.  Now I still  get up that early and then I feel a little lost. What I most regret was that while we were having a most amazing summer I was cooped up indoors, all windows open, a fan on,  just typing away. But I am having a short holiday, at the end of the month, just a few days in Ibiza, I need to be on a beach, whereas from tomorrow I will be doing all sorts of touristy things in London as my sister and brother in law are visiting. The absurd incompetence of the people that issue the London Pass is something that deserves a post of its own! After various email exchanges, scanned proof of this and  that,  we hope to resolve the problem in person at the Leicester Square office. I almost felt tempted to cancel the purchase but it does provide considerable savings, so I shall count to ten, take a deep breath and deal with the London Pass people  in person, armed with statement, card, passport and anything else they need to verify ID.

 I am taking up dressmaking and have begun to practise - I said i would a little while ago. I have made myself the solemn promise  that within a couple of years I will no longer buy new clothes, I will wear the ones I make myself.  Before getting started on the sewing machine I am going to learn hand stitching properly. I have begun with alterations and repairs and have found old clothes tucked away in a suitcase which I did not remember having at all.  Some are quite nice. What was I thinking? Why did I hide them?  A few will be good once reshaped. Over the next few days I shall be also be visiting charity shops to pick up fabrics and old dresses I can play around with.
Inevitably this blog will discuss my adventures in dressmaking. I can't wait to show off my achievements (and share my failures). There are many blogs out there with plenty of tips on how to get started. I particularly like Sew Seamless by Elena Cresci.
Here's to a new beginning. Watch this space, in a couple of years I might launch my very own collection.