Men & Sewing
It was pointed out to me a few weeks back that this site, and many others like it, tend to cater mainly for women, with the articles and projects that we provide. It is often overlooked that there are in fact many men who sew, when you think of fashion designers, tailors, fabric designers etc some of the biggest names are male. However, you don't often hear about men sewing or see many sites or projects aimed at men.
When this
was pointed out to me I checked the demographics of my Facebook page and found that 5% of my fans were men which really did surprise me. I started looking around for projects and sites aimed and men sewing and realised that they were very difficult to find. I asked around to see if anyone had written any projects for men I could use on the site and hit a blank.
Obviously some projects, such as those for furnishings, phone cases etc can be adapted for men by using different fabrics but those specifically aimed at men are relatively hard to find (believe me I spent most a day Googling to find the ones below!).
So I decided to try to get together a selection of useful links to site and projects for men. I did have to start out with linking to this article http://www.helium.com/items/711903-why-men-who-can-sew-are-sexy.
Projects
Sewing.org have a section of men's projects including a toiletry bag and a tool wrap. They also have an article on how to measure men: http://www.sewing.org/html/mensmeasure.html
A perfect project for the coming winter is the men's fleece project on craftstylish.com: http://www.craftstylish.com/item/30695/how-to-make-a-mens-fleece-hoodie
Wikihow have a pattern for an i-pod slipcase: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-iPod-Carrying-Case-From-Fabric
About.com have a few projects suitable for men, including this one for a laptop case: http://sewing.about.com/od/bagstotespurseproject/ss/sbslaptopcase.htm
You can of course find a selection of projects on You Tube including this tutorial for making a men's shirt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mcPEC35w-Y
Sites & Blogs
Dudecraft is a blog written by a male crafter and covers many different types of crafts including sewing, it also links to many projects and ideas that have been found on other sites.
Manbroidery is another great blog, written by a male embroiderer (as the name would suggest) who is also learning to spin and weave. 
Mr X Stitch is a site that was set up by a man who wanted to bring cross stitch and embroidery to a whole new audience. I love this felt takeaway meal recently featured on the blog (pictured).
Male Pattern Boldness claims to be the world's most popular male sewing blog. It follows the male blogger's sewing journey using vintage patterns and vintage machines.
It did sadden me to find the prejudices that male sewists come up against. I saw comments on many of the sites/blogs/videos that I looked at criticising men who sew, because they are doing a ‘woman's hobby'. In an age when women can indulge in many activities that were previously considered ‘male' such as DIY and car mechanics it is hard to understand why men get abuse for doing something like sewing.
I hope our site continues to get male fans as well as female fans and I am trying to seek out some projects more relevant to men, as well as interview more men within the industry. If any of you know of any good sites/blogs that I have missed please let me know and I will add them to this article.
