Sewing Challenges and hashtags to follow in the sewing community

Are you looking to meet other makers, connect and share your sewing journey? We’ve compiled lots of sewing hashtags representing the diversity of our sewing community for you to discover. Or perhaps you are looking to take part in a sewing challenge? Find like-minded makers to chat and share your projects with using these hashtags. Sewing hashtags and challenges are a great way to get inspired to be creative with your sewing patterns and follow bloggers and makers in our community. This page is bursting with inspiration!

Annual Sewing Community Challenges

Me Made May – One of the biggest sewing challenges of the year, Me-Made-May is organised by Zoe Edwards of ‘So, zo…’ blog, is all about improving your relationship with your handmade wardrobe. Zoe says “Me-Made-May’  is a challenge designed to encourage people who sew/knit/crochet/refashion/upcycle garments for themselves to wear and love them more. The participants decide the specifics of their own challenge, so that the month is appropriate and challenging for them and aim to fulfil that pledge for the duration of May each year.”

The Make Nine Challenge – This was thought up by @Rochelle_new in 2015 on Instagram and is now very popular. Post the patterns you plan to make for the year and follow along @makeninechallenge #makenine to see what everyone is planning to make.

#SewTogetherForSummer – Sarah of @sewsarahsmith, Monika of @rocco.sienna and Suzy of @sewing_in_spain bring a themed challenge each year to Instagram dressmakers. Each year is a different theme, in previous years it’s been wrap dresses and jumpsuits. Find out more on Sarah’s blog and look out for Instagram announcements each year for details of the new theme.

Inclusive Sewing Community Hashtags to follow

#sewover50 – Have you seen the hashtag #sewover50 started by Judith Rosalind? Get inspiration and support from fellow sewists to share your makes. Follow @sewover50 on Instagram and be part of this active group of makers.

#sewincolour – set up by Rumana of The Little Pomegranate over two years ago in response to seeing the first Hijab wearing woman on running magazine going viral online. Rumana then analysed 52 covers of bestselling sewing magazines and discovered none featured models of colour. She repeated this again a year ago studying 102 cover issues to find that only 6 issues featured a model of colour. Follow @thelittlepomegranate on Instagram to be part of important maker discussions.
#POCwhosews – created by Candice for people to share their sewing projects, backgrounds and stories of marginalisation. Follow @candiceayala on Instagram to be part of important maker discussions. Follow @candiceayala
#rainbowsewing2020 – created by Isabella of Bella of the Ball on YouTube for the month of June, the goal of this challenge is to spread joy and support the LGBTQ+ community by sewing and making during the month of Pride. Many prides have been cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic so celebrating PRIDE at home is a great way to connect with other makers.
#blkmakersmatter – Black Makers Matter are a fantastic group of women coming together to make important changes in the sewing and craft industries. They want to ensure the diversity of makers is represented in our sewing community through education and resources. There are many makers who have come together to work as a team for this, creating a movement to give a voice to black makers in our community. Find out more and follow on Instagram @blkmakersmatter
#cscmakes – the Curvy Sewing Collective is on a mission to get more curvy women sewing, blogging, sharing their makes and feeling fabulous! Follow @curvysewingcollective on Instagram.

Previous Sewing Community Challenges

#SewPhotoHop – organised by Rachel Pinheiro of House of Pinheiro blog, the #sewphotoshop is a daily photo challenge, where sewers are encouraged to post daily pictures related to a theme on Instagram. #sewphotoshop runs for a month and covers lots of creative themes.

Color Us Creative is a DIY:  inspired daily photo challenge which participants are encouraged to post daily pictures for one month. Every week in the month of April, you will be introduced to a DIY blogger who will share a fun, new project that we hope will inspire you to join in and start creating. At the end of each week, a random participant will be selected to win one of our amazing prizes. Participants can play all month long or as they feel like it. All we ask is that you have fun, enjoy yourself, and meet fellow creatives in the process.

#alittlelawnparty– Between March 15th and and May 15th, Atia (@thebrightblooms) and Mel (@handmadebyditsytulip) ran a Spring themed sewing challenge. Sew a Spring themed item in cotton lawn or similar fabric! Check out the sewing prizes here.

#makeyourstash – Between March and May, Kate (@timetosew) and Pilar (@pilar_bear) organised a sustainable sewing party on Instagram! They bought nothing and sewed from their stash. To join in, turn something that’s been in your stash for more than 6 months into something you’ll love to wear. Take a photo, tag Kate and Pilar and use the hashtag #makeyourstash. There are pattern prizes up for grabs each month from like minded pattern designers.

Do You Use Sewing for Self-care? Laura from Sew For Victory is creating a space for anyone who is interested to share their account, in their own words, of their experience with sewing and self-care. Whatever sewing has provided you, if it has helped you to tend to yourself and your needs, Laura really want to hear from you.

Who We Are: Sewing and mental health. The Sewcialists are sharing stories about sewing and mental health.

Sewing Makes You Love Yourself – A new challenge in 2018, #SMYLY2018 is organised by Athina, Hattie and Lisa. The idea is to sew a garment that makes you feel great and to tell your story about how sewing has changed your life. Find out all the ways you can share here.

The Day and Night Dress Challenge: Coffee and Cocktails is organised by Elizabeth Made This! The day and night dress challenge will have 2 parts: 1. A blogger/vlogger portion and a community challenge with prizes.

The Ready-To-Wear Fast 2018: organised by Sarah from Goodbye Valentino blog, this pledge commits you to not buying and ready-to-wear clothes in 2018! Find out more here and join the conversation about this in the forum.

Secret Valentine Exchange (now closed): Follow this non-traditional Valentine’s handmade event on Instagram with hashtag #2018sve and take part by signing up to the exchange. It’s based on the Scandinavian Secret Santa tradition called Julklapp. Now closed for this year, check back again next year to take part.

Dress Like Your Grandma! A vintage sewing pattern challenge, follow hashtag #dresslikeyourgrandma

#soiselflesssewing – Lisa Comfort from Sew Over It is dedicating her makes for April to others. She will be sewing for her family instead. Join in!

#sewingleftovers is a challenge which aims to put meaningful use to the bits of fabric leftover at the end of a project and hopefully create a more cohesive wardrobe along the way (challenging waste, lay plans and fabric requirements in the process too)! There are no prizes, pressures or time constraints, this is purely a personal challenge. Members of the sewing community are welcome to get involved by sewing their own leftovers at their own pace! You can follow the hashtag #sewingleftovers on Instagram for inspiration and use it to share your own ideas and makes, with regular round ups and inspiration posts, Find out more here.

Maker Sewing Community Hashtags to follow

#findmypattern

We set up this hashtag a few months ago and you love using it! If you see an outfit on TV, in a movie, magazine or on Pinterest, for example, but can’t find a pattern like it, fear not! You can share a picture of it with us on Instagram and we will suggest sewing patterns that are as similar as possible. Just use the #findmypattern and leave the rest up to us!

#memadeeveryday

This is fantastic if you want to have a look at what other people have made and get inspired. It’s being used really regulary and always ahs lots of new stuff to search.

#makersgonnamake

This is not sewing specicifc but always has lots of interesting things to look at the the making community.

#makeitsewcial

Created by possibly the nicest person you could ever meet, Allison Sadler, #makeitsewcial is a hashtag to share your creative projects on Mondays. The aim is to kickstart your creativity for the rest of the week. With over 33K images shared, there is loads of creative inspiration to be had. Post your latest project, fabric purchase or share a tip on Instagram with the hashtag #makeitsewcial

#sewcialists

This is one of the most used hashtags by sewers, with over 44K images shared on Instagram. It’s a great way to share what you’ve recently made with the sewing community and see what everyone else has been up to! It’s also the best hashtag to use for sewing advice on any stitchy problems you might be having. Share your image or post your questions on social media using the hashtag #sewcialists.

#feelingstitchyig

If you like being creative with sewing and hand stitching, share your makes with #feelingstitchyig and blogger Amy Byrne will pick her favourites and share them on a Friday as part of Feeling Stitchy’s Friday Finds. It’s a great way to get your products noticed by a stitchy audience.