Why 100?

Dear dress-wearing you,

If you are not part of my two-member fan club or my family, then I can safely guess you like clothes as much as I do, unless you are reading this by mistake. Go on, I will not be offended if you close this now. Otherwise, welcome to my sewing blog!

First, a raison d'etre. Sandaang damit (100 dresses in Filipino) is a blog where I will be featuring 100 dresses (a no-brainer) and the experiences accompanying their creation. But why 100?

At the beginning of this year, I chanced upon a blog that alters a dress everyday. Apparently, it was inspired by the movie Julie & Julia. Since I'm already refashioning ukay-ukay items and creating other clothes from scratch, I asked myself, "Self, why not?"

So a weekly refashioning blog was born. Bad idea. I forgot to take into consideration one thing: I do not follow guidelines, schedules, and (certain) rules. Result? It lasted three months.

After wallowing from my failure for a month, I was able to finally watch the movie Julie & Julia. And I understood my sewing hiatus better. I was not inspired by the film as much as the other blogger was. So what to do? I spent another month introspecting (more like 29 days sleeping and movie marathons and a day of asking myself "Why are you sewing? What made you want to sew?"

Aha! Time warp. I was sent back to my elementary years where I read this story which greatly moved me: Sandaang Damit (100 Dresses) by Fanny Garcia. (Click title to read the story. No english adaptation, sorry.) I urge you to read it first before continuing this novel of an introduction.

Done? So, here it is: new blog, new rules! One: I will be featuring not only refashions or alterations but also those I made from scratch - designing, drafting, all the works. As much as possible, I will try to recreate the clothes described in the story. Second: there is no time frame. I may make ten items a week or one in a month. Three: I will showcase a "Side-sew" section (like someone's "side thoughts", get it? :) ) which will show accessories and bags and what-not. On the whole, the only rule is that there is really no rule to this new blog.

All clear? Well, then. Ready, get set, SEW!