Interview with me at Rapantinchen / Ich plauder bei Rapantinchen aus dem Nähkästchen

picture from Rapantinchen

Dieses Jahr auf der Blogst hatte ich das Vergnügen die liebe Anja von Rapantinchen kennenzulernen. Ihrem wunderbaren Blog, der es als einer von wenigen schafft gleichzeitig bunt und fröhlich, aber auch schick rüberzukommen, folge ich schon eine ganze Weile und so hab ich mich sehr gefreut die Person dahinter auch mal in natura kennenzulernen. Wir haben fleißig geratscht und nun hat Anja mich auch noch zu ihrer Blogreihe Plauderei aus dem Nähkästchen eingeladen und mir einige Fragen über's Bloggen und Nähen gestellt. Schaut doch kurz dort vorbei.

This year at Blogst I had the real pleasure to get to know Anja from Rapantinchen. Her wonderful blog is one of few that manage to be colorful and fun yet at the same time chic. I follow her since quite a while and thus, was really happy to get to know her in person. We tlaked a lot and now Anja has invited me over to her blog for a little interview called "Plauderei aus dem Nähkästchen". This german saying is quite interesting: Directly translated it would be: To talk out of the sewing basket! Funny, right? And oh so perfect for an interview series with sewing bloggers! Anyways, I didn't want to leave my english readers out and thus quickly translated the interview to English. Have fun reading it:

1. Since when do you sew and how come that you started a blog?

I started sewing 3 years ago. We moved to our new house back then and I actually wanted to sew curtains. Well, these are still missing as right at that time I discovered various english-speaking kid sewing blogs and was hooked.

I started blogging for two reasons: I had found also several german, spanish, french etc blogs and realized that all these bloggers mainly "live" in their bloglands. I wanted to slightly change this by introducing blogs from differnt countries, showing highlights from different blogs (see my weekend sewing posts) etc. The second reason was that when I was only reading blogs I just couldn't really get in contact with the bloggers. After one year of blogging I now have very dear sewing and blogging friends all over the world and so enjoy being in contact with them! It's pretty much the best part of blogging!

2. What was your first sewing machine and which machine do you use today?

I got my first sewing machine for my 30st birthday. It was just a basic machine from a german discounter, but the right thing to try whether I actually like sewing. I even started sewing knits with it!

Now I have an Elna 540 experience, which I really like. Only making buttonholes in areas with many layers is a real pain! Until quite recently I sewed everything on it, but some weeks ago my friend Miriam (mirid.de) rent me her Toyota Overlock and I already love it! 

3. Which is the sewn item that you are most proud of?

That's easy. My daughter's Dirndl (http://naeh-connection.blogspot.de/2014/01/roots-sewing-your-heritage-giveaway.html)! Last January Heidi from Elegance and Elephants invited me to join her roots sewing series. It was the first time that I got invited for a blog series and I was really happy to join. I was supposed to sew something connected to my heritage and as a girl from Bavaria a Dirndl was the obvious thing to sew. I sewed many many hours and I'm still very proud about all the gorgeous details!

4. What would you love to sew, but haven't dared to so far?

Well, just recently I tried to sew my husband a button-up shirt. It so didn't work out. His measurements were slightly bigger than those of the pattern that I wanted to use. Even after several muslins the fit was all wrong. I still want to sew him such a shirt, but it's not the right time yet. Maybe in a year or so I'll be able to adjust the pattern easily or even to make my own pattern?

5. Which sewing gear wouldn't you want to miss?

Can I choose several?

Because there are two things that I definitely need for preparing patterns: My cutter and glue. Forget scissors and tape. It's so much faster if you use cutter and glue.

The other thing that I wouldn't want to miss is the amazing measuring tape that I got at Abilmente: It has cm on one and inch measurements on the other side. As I sew so much with english patterns, I'm just so glad that I finally don't have to use the cm/inch converter all the time any more!