I have never had much use for making links to popular, well-known sites. It’s boring. Everyone does it. I have no need to say, “See, I hang out with the ‘in’ crowd!”. Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. What difference does it make? So my collection of links is for the more obscure, not the famous things. Perhaps you will be familiar with some of them, but at the very least, I hope to have a unique list of links.

For gawking at, drooling over, pondering to yourself, and just general inspiration:

Sarmite Coats Two sisters from Lativa collaborate on creative coats. Diaga Henson had studied leatherworking and bookbinding, and her sister, Sarmite Svilis, had studied applied art and clothing design. I cannot help but look at the designs without thinking, “Yes, but that should be a different color,” or, “But if I made that, I would change that bit there”. To me, though, that is what inspiration is all about. You see something, and it inspires you to do something as well. Many of the coats are quite spectacular in their own right, but I think that you to will look at them and think “When I make that, I will do it differently.” Inspiration–the desire to do something–but do it differently. The “collections”–2005, 2007, and Travels in Time–are the most interesting. The “Classics” are still interesting, but look more similar to what you might find in a quilters magazines, or “wearable art”. Glean what ideas you may.

Pattern Addiction An online archive of patterns from the past. This site is rather appropriatly named, because Krystin Baker (the owner and operator of the site) has more old patterns than she can count. . .and I just sent her a bunch more! Although there are tons and tons of pictures to look at, this site can be frustrating at times. For example, there’s no way to link to an individual pattern. There’s about 24 thumbnails to a page, and when you click on a thumbnail, it opens a little pop-up window with a closer view. Right-clicking on it opens a little window telling you not to steal the images. All well and good, except when you want to refer someone to a specific design, and cannot even give them a url to the exact page with the image. “Well, you see, if you go to the 1950s page, click on the Simplicity tab, then go the third page, the dress I’m talking about is on the middle row, third from the right.” I tried to convince her to use some other sort of system, but I guess I was unsuccessful.