The great #hashtagathon: Help me get organized and win a fabulous prize

I'm not exactly what you'd call a 'neat' person. Until I met my current partner (who is a total minimalist) I was what one might describe as a 'clutterer', amassing art/craft supplies and kitschy antiques.

These days, I'm definitely more discriminating in my collecting tendencies and I've also developed quite a healthy habit of getting rid of unnecessary stuff. However, I tend to always have a bit of clutter in my life, which makes it important to periodically tidy and organize.

I think artists inherantly collect and clutter (but also organize!) This photograph of the studio of Ray Eames is a great example.

Strangely enough, I'm also a lover of organization systems and efficiency. I make endless lists and categorize things. I love sorting and titling all of my computer folders. I organize my vintage buttons by colors, size, and material. Is this a particular personality type? Is this contradictory behavior typical of creatives? I'm always thinking of ways to organize, plan, and sort and when I follow through with said ways I am often a happy camper.

This is the long way of telling you that I've come up with a better plan for, you guessed it, hashtags.

I love that people can share their me-made brilliance over platforms like Instagram. The hashtag has given us a brand new way to organize content.

However, I'll be real and say that lack of organization in the Blueprints hashtag department is making me crazy. Now, I surely (unconsciously) set myself up for this. One can't simply tag their Cabin dress #Cabin and be cataloged amongst an array of shift dresses. There will be log cabins, airplane cabins, and other cabiny things.

Originally, I suggested the #blueprintsmakes hashtag. While it contains a great spread of beautiful makes, it doesn't specify which pattern the project is made from, so people had to come up with their own project-specific tags. I've seen #cabinshift #cabindress #cabintop, all of which make perfect sense and include some lovely projects, but also lots of unrelated content. And it made compiling all these projects a bit complicated on my end. I take full blame for this tagging confusion and today I intend to make things right.

The trick with hashtags is to assign a unique identifier that will categorize only what you want and not what you don't.

Two rows of the tag #Cabintop on Instagram

1st row: Grace of Beyond Measure's lovely Cabin and a few in-process shots of Cabin projects.

2nd row: A boat, a flight attendant, and a lady doing yoga?

I needed to come up with some unique hashtags and make it easier for y'all to share your projects.

So, behold, the new hashtags!

#BlueprintsCabin

#BlueprintsAframe

#BlueprintsSaltbox

Re-tagging Blueprints projects with these hashtags will make sharing and searching for Blueprints garments easy and streamlined. Eventually, I'll re-vamp the project gallery concept to be part of each pattern's description page.

So I'm asking you, amazing sewists, a huge favor. Would you consider going back to your instagram posts and popping the corresponding hashtag into the comments? You can tag all past, current, and future Blueprints projects with #BlueprintsCabin, #BlueprintsAframe, and #BlueprintsSaltbox.

I know it's a lot to ask, so to sweeten the deal and encourage y'all to tag your makes, I'm throwing a little incentive into the mix.

If you tag all of your past (or current) Blueprints projects during the month of September, you'll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to one of my favorite fabric stores:

On October 5th, I'll draw a winner at random from all the folks who've tagged their Blueprints projects.

This giveaway contest is open to all past, current, and even future Blueprints projects, as long as they're tagged before the 5th. Just hashtag your projects with #BlueprintsCabin, #BlueprintsAframe, and #BlueprintsSaltbox and you'll be entered to win!

And don't forget...

There's only a few more days left of the 2nd Sewing Indie Month Bundle Sale!

Pick up all these fantastic patterns for a song and support Women For Women. The sale ends Thursday, Sept 10th!