Today's interview guest is Nell from Bienvenido Colorido. Most of my german speaking readers will definitely know her, but I guess that most english readers will get to know a fantastic new blog today. Bienvenido Colorido is one of the most amazing sewing blogs that I know. Nell comes originally from Austria, but lives in Spain. She writes in both German and English and sometimes even Spanish. Her sewing and pics are really special. I would recognize a pic of her within hundreds of others! And her sewing for her daughter is just so cool! Plus she doesn't just sew, but she also designs cool patterns, fabric (her wonderful "In the kitchen" fabric is available since June 21st) and has lots of freebies and tutorials on her blog. Told you she is amazing, didn't I? Here are three of my favorite creations by Nell from the last 4 months - I didn't get further back as I already had too many possible pics... You have to check out her blog yourself!
Nell's own trousers pattern, foxes everywhere, be my star |
First
things first: Please introduce yourself
(who are you, tell us
a little bit about your family, which country and maybe city do you
live in, are you originally from this country, do you work or are you
a stay at home mom, etc.)!
Hey
there, my name is Cornelia, but most people would call me Nellie.
Originally I am from Austria, but for quite some I live (most
of the year) in southern Spain on a big finca in the middle of
nowhere.
You
wanna know what brought me here? Most likely the only thing that can
drag you out of your compfortable central-heated and “tonight let’s
order some pizza” life into a very far away wilderness: the crazy
thing called love. With my degrees in history and journalism I was
very well equiped for being in the campo and so I spent my first
years studying the art of making fire (in a woodburning stove),
repairing the generator (which always broke when I was on my own) and
getting the hang of cooking, bakeing and gardening. It was quite an
exciting time, but still it felt like something was missing... about
nine months later Rosa was born, our beloved daughter.
So
that’s us: Rosa, her grown-up half-brother Alexander, Fred and I.
We share the finca with quite a few animals, at the moment two dogs,
three cats, a bunch of chickens, ducks and peacocks.
We
have about 100 orangetrees, loads of plums, apples, lemons,
tangerines, pommegranates, almonds, figtrees and always a
kitchengarden supplying us with nice organic veggies.
We
try to live a green life as far as it is possible, using solar
energy most of the year, water from our own well...
I
miss my friends and family back home, I miss the city, I miss Vienna,
sometimes. But I guess I would miss this little paradise even more...
Let’s
talk about sewing:
When
did you start and who taught you to sew?
When
Rosa was about 5 years old. I loved these colourful dresses I kept
seeing on e*ay, did some research and came across farbenmix.de. I
thought myself how to sew with the help of all the tutorials on their
website.
Do
you consider yourself a beginner, intermediate or professional sewer?
Intermediate,
indeed :-)
Which
three tips would you give a beginner sewer?
Don’t
buy the cheapest machine, because it actualy is much harder to sew on
them.
Always stretch the binding well when you sew a neckline on a tee (my favourite!)
Always stretch the binding well when you sew a neckline on a tee (my favourite!)
And
the one, that helped me most: Just make sure your stitches hold,
everything else is design.
For
whom do you sew?
Mostly
for Rosa, for the family and for friends.
How often do you sew?
Kinda
almost everyday :-)
What fabric type(s) do you like most to sew with?
I
love knits!!! I would always pick a jersey first.
How do you get inspired?
There
are many different ways inspiration finds me, which might be the
reason for all the different things I make: I design patterns,
fabric, embroidery-files and each one of these needs different skills
and techniques.
I
think curiosity helps as much as ambition: I always want to be able
to do/make/create everything myself, doesn't matter if I am designing
a new fabric, planting tomatoes in the garden or baking bread. The
only obligation I have is that I need to like it myself. I am very
lucky that I don't need to be productive on a daily basis because I
have to make a living out of it. This kind of pressure would surly
turn off my creativity.
Do you have any real life sewing friends?
Yes!
Sabine and I met through our blogs but also in real life.
You blog at bienvenido colorido. I’m curious to hear a little bit about your blog:
When
and why did you start to blog?
I
started when I figured that it is nicer to share your stuff with
people equally interested :-)
Is there anything that you would make differently if you started your blog now?
No,
not really. Everything is a process, needs time to improve: sewing as
well as blogging.
How often do you blog? How much time do you spend each day/week blogging?
I
try to blog every 2-3 days. Usually I sew a lot more, than I blog.
Do you plan your sewing, picture taking and blog posts in advance or do you just let things happen?
I
do a lot of test-sewing (e.g. for farbenmix), so there is a part that
needs to be planned because there are some deadlines that mustn’t
be missed. All my “private” sewing happens very spontaneously.
What are the three sewn (and blogged) items that you are most proud about or that you yourself like most? Show us some pictures (with links)!
The
first time I did some upfront sewing for farbenmix was one of my
alltime highlights! I will never forget the day when I took those
pictures:
Another
favorite collection I made quite recently. Have a look here:
And my third choice would be Rosa's favourite outfit:
Do
you make money with your blog or do you have any sewing related
business (e.g. Etsy or dawanda shop; pattern shop)? Do you have tips
for someone wanting to start a blog business?
I
did have a dawanda shop, but it somehow did not suit me. I like to be
free to use my creativity whenever I feel like it. So sorry, no tips
here ;)
Taking Pictures and editing these is an important part of blogging. Good pictures are often what makes us want to visit a blog again and again. Unfortunately, I only have a compact camera (and two kids that rather want to play with their friends than take pics). I’m excited to read what camera you are using and if you have to bribe your kids, too…
What
Camera and Objective do you use?
Nikon
D5100, AF-s Nikkor 18-55mm, AF-s Nikkor 50mm, some filters (pol/uv)
What is your skill level in photography? Did you learn everything yourself or did you take a course or similar?
I
once had a boyfriend who is a professional photographer. He showed me
lots of little tricks and important things, we spent days walking
around Vienna taking pictures. But these were different times when
digital photography was not really out there yet :-)
How do you get your kids to cooperate when you want to take pictures?
Fortunately
Rosa is very cooperative. If she is not in the mood, I simply ask her
if she really wants to be on the blog with a grumpy face and
magically her smiles and good will return.
Whenever
I have a bunch of kids to handle it usually is even easier. They love
to pose for me and every session becomes a real show :)
What programme do you use for picture editing and which steps do you normally take to edit your pictures?
I
use photoshop, gimp and photoscape. My editing is very basic. Usually
I only use some filters to enhance colours.
What would blogging be without other blogs? I’m always on the hunt for new inspiring blogs. And I love to get in contact with people from different countries. Who knows maybe you have some blog favourites that I don’t know about?
What
are your three favourite sewing blogs to read? Why?
Believe
it or not, it is not easy to answer this question. Sure I have
favourite blogs but choosing only a few to mention here is really
quite hard. After a long time thinking about my answer I can offer
you five of my favourites:
One
of my all-time favourite sewing blogs is written by Natalie (Sewing room by myNata). Most of
all I simply admire her work, I would love to be thought by her cause
there is so much to be learnt... Natalie's sewing is as splendid as
can be, every piece a highlight!
Steffi's
blog (http://www.kleinerhase.com)
I love for several reasons: first of all I really like her style,
especially her way of combining fabric which often reminds me of my
own. I love the pictures on her blog and her super cute models :-)
The
3rd
blog I need to mention is Andrea's. She was one of my very first
sources of inspiration. I love her style! Very straight forward, cool
and every stitch sewn to perfection. Andrea is one of the few
bloggers I was lucky to meet in real life too:
http://lyaundich.blogspot.com
My
good friend Sabine is author of the blog
http://streuterklamotte. blogspot.com
I love her page because it is written with all of her heart. Her
speciality is crotchet: those cushions are not to be missed! And
even though our taste is sometimes somewhat different, she manages to
surprise me time after time.
Last
but not least I have to mention Yvonne. Her creativity is absolutely
stunning. I love her drawings, the way she plays with patterns,
fabric and paints... always a highlight!
http://lillithrose.blogspot. com
Do
you follow any blogs that are written in another language? What are
your three favourite ones?
Of
course I do. To mention a few of my favourites:
Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my questions!
And
now let's get sewing! I'm curious to see your signature tee!
This truely is my "signature tee": A Rosita (my pattern), using Woodpecker fabric (my design), and a big "bienvenido colorido" on the front. And this mixed with overlock seams on the outside, an open hem, etc. More "me" is impossible ;)
This truely is my "signature tee": A Rosita (my pattern), using Woodpecker fabric (my design), and a big "bienvenido colorido" on the front. And this mixed with overlock seams on the outside, an open hem, etc. More "me" is impossible ;)
Thanks again, Nell, for taking the time to answer my questions and for sewing such an amazing signature tee. I really loved to get to know more about you, your blog and your life in Spain!
And everybody else, come back next week to get to know Marta from the portugese blog Do Guincho or if you haven't so already, check out last week's interview with Jo from dotta.
Deine neue Reihe gefällt mir sehr. Und noch mehr Spaß hatte ich daran, etwas über Nell zu erfahren, die auch zu meinen größten Inspirationsquellen zählt und deren Tochter eine meiner liebsten "Modelle" in der deutschen Nähbloggerszene ist. Ihre erste Jersey - Serie zählt zu meinen absoluten Favoriten und wird manchmal nur sparsam eingesetzt, weil ich da Verlustängste habe. Nell hat mich zu Anfang meiner Bloggerzeit auch immer wieder sehr ermutigt, das vergess ich nie...
AntwortenLöschenLiebe Grüße
Astrid
vielen dank, liebe annika, für das große lob in deinem vorwort und für's dabei-sein-dürfen überhaupt :-)
AntwortenLöschenund astrid: jetzt kann ich mit geröteten heidi-wangen feierabend machen :-))
glg nelli
Your blog name reflects your style perfectly. Such happy, colourful clothes! I love the group photo of your fox collection.
AntwortenLöschenSaskia
wow!! I am so glad you did this series! I am happy to have discovered this sewer! wow !! I am in awe!
AntwortenLöschenI get $20 for filling a 20 minute survey!
AntwortenLöschenGuess what? This is exactly what big companies are paying me for. They need to know what their customer base needs and wants. So these companies pay $1,000,000's of dollars per month to the average person. In return, the average person, like me, fills out surveys and gives them their opinion.