The Best Ways to Find Inspiration On Pinterest

Show Notes

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  Design Your Wardrobe. Our seasonal wardrobe-building process that helps you sew the clothes you love to wear..


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• Tell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!

Podcast Transcript

Sarai
I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.

Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy.

And today we're talking about the best ways to search for inspiration on Pinterest. We’re going to cover five strategies you can use to find new sources of inspiration to help you generate new ideas for sewing.

All right, so our icebreaker for today. Haley, what's one piece of inspiration that you're taking with you into?

Haley
Ooh. I don't know if there's, like, one piece of inspiration, but there has been something I've been gathering inspiration for, and that's, like, really cute pajamas in the spring.

I’m going to be having a baby, so I'm going to spend most of my spring either, like, incredibly pregnant or with a newborn, and I just want cute pajamas to wear around the house.

So this weekend was working on a mood board with a bunch of really cute pajama sets in general with buttons. So I was pulling inspiration from film and ready to wear and fabrics that I thought would make me happy. That's kind of my inspiration hyper fixation right now, I guess.

Sarai
That's a fun one, because pajamas can go so many different directions, and it's so fun to play with fabric.

Haley
Yeah, I'm really favoring a very classic cut, two piece pajama set, but with really fun fabrics. I'm loving stripes and fun colors and linens and shirtings and things like that. So that's kind of what I've been digging into right now.

What about you?

Sarai
Well, I'll go a different direction. There's no particular garment that I'm fixated on, like pajamas, but I think one thing that's really inspiring me right now is these vintage images of Sophia Loren in the 60s. She's, like, my total style icon right now. I just think not only, obviously, incredibly beautiful woman, but I really appreciate her style in both films and off set, too, like, very down to earth, lots of menswear shirts, but also really, she was a bombshell, obviously.

So there was a lot of very beautiful, structured dresses, and she also wore, especially in films, because of the character. She often played kind of these women in the Italian countryside. So lots of peasant tops and big full skirts and things like that that really remind me of my grandmother. And so those images are just really inspiring to me right now, and that's how I want to dress this summer, for sure.

Haley
Ooh, I love that.

Sarai
I just love her style.

Well, that's our icebreaker for today. And if you have an icebreaker that you would like us to use on a future episode, you can leave it for us. If you're a Seamwork member, just go to seamwork.com/go/icebreakers, and that'll bring you to a thread on our community where you can share your icebreaker for a future episode.

All right, so let's talk about inspiration. So you can really have one of two problems when you're looking for inspiration for your sewing. One, it can be like drinking from a fire hose. There's just so much out there. How do you even filter it down.

Or, it's completely dry, like a desert. You can't find anything that really appeals to you.

So I think some of us suffer more from one of these issues than the other when it comes to looking for inspiration. But they both have kind of the same root issue, which is if you don't know how to identify what you're searching for and really seek it out, you can have too much or you can have not enough to work with, and it can be really difficult to find the balance and find the things that are right for you.

What's your biggest struggle when you're looking for inspiration? Is it the too much issue or the too little issue?

Haley
Well, definitely too much. And then it's a matter of kind of, like, filtering that down but also organizing it, which I think becomes an issue when there's a large amount of inspiration that you're kind of hoarding.

I think that's a little unique to me because I'm seeking out inspiration for Seamwork, for photo shoots, for patterns, and then also myself and my personal style in sewing. So I have to be so meticulous about my organization of it, or else it just is completely lost to the ether.

What about you? What is your struggle when you're looking for inspo?

Sarai
Oh, definitely the too much issue. Yeah, for sure. I was reading just the other day about different play styles. Play, I mean, not talking about just children, but also as adults, different ways that people find play in their day to day lives. And there are different styles of this, and one of them is the collector, somebody who likes to collect things together and organize them and research things. And that's definitely one of my play styles. I like collecting things together, especially inspiration or images.

So I feel like I always have more than what I need versus not enough.

Haley
So I have a question, and be honest. Do you ever look for inspiration outside of Pinterest, or is it mostly Pinterest dominant?

Sarai
When it comes to my sewing, honestly, it is mostly, I look at Pinterest a lot for that stuff, just because it is such a rich repository of images and the algorithms will serve you things that are similar to things you've liked before. So it is easy to find things on there.

But I would definitely not say it's the only source of inspiration for me. I think other places, I mean, there's other places online as well. Everything from Google image search to reading blogs, following other people whose personal style I like, those kinds of things.

But then I think, also outside of the digital realm is a really rich source of inspiration for me. Looking at textiles themselves, I think, is really, really inspiring. Art books, things like that. Quilts. I really like looking at quilts to get ideas about color. There's a lot of stuff outside of the computer or the phone that I find inspiring.

But Pinterest is a really big part of that landscape these days, I think.

Haley
I agree. I think for me, Pinterest is my primary search engine for looking for things related to fashion and clothing. I definitely will branch out, especially if I'm looking at an image and I really like it, but I can't figure out the source of the image. Which sometimes I think is a big fault of Pinterest is that it can be hard to figure out the designer or the origin of an image, and then it can be helpful to use Google to find the original or the source, figure out who the designer is, because then you can do a little reverse engineering and figure out, like, okay, let me look at their other collections on Vogue. Let me Google designers who are similar.

So I'll do, like, outside detective work. But when it comes to a visual search engine, I do think that Pinterest is pretty superior in just their algorithm in general.

Outside of that, I feel like it's mostly, like, off of a screen in general. Books and television, I always find that to be a huge source of inspiration. Looking at reference books, historical pieces, I like looking at the details of those kinds of things, but I would say it's like 80% to 90% Pinterest these days if I'm being totally real.

What do you think is the number one thing that you see people struggling with when it comes to searching for inspiration?

Sarai
I think a hard problem for a lot of people is kind of this chicken and egg problem of, if you're trying to build an inspiration board, for example, where do you start? Do you need to have an idea of what you're collecting together or is it more of an organic process? I see a lot of people get stuck right at the beginning because of that.

So I think that's why it's really helpful to have a process to follow for yourself. It's kind of like writer's block sometimes. You just need to get started and do it instead of trying to make decisions right up front. So I think that's something that I notice a lot, especially in the Design Your Wardrobe community.

Haley
That's such a great observation. I see that all the time as well.

I think another thing that I see people struggling with, and this is directly to do with Pinterest, is I think that a lot of people tell me that, “oh, I'm just seeing a lot of the same thing on Pinterest.” And when I talk to them a little bit more, I think that they're relying for their home page, their for-you page a little bit too heavily and they're just scrolling there, instead of utilizing its capabilities as a search engine and training the algorithm to know what it is you want to see more of.

It's kind of like a constant work in progress. You can't just rely on that for-you page. You have to find that balance of seeking and then finding as know.

Okay, so we have some really good tips that Sarai and I are going to share with you. I will kick us off with our first one, and that is just knowing what to type into Pinterest.

I know this can seem like totally silly, but maybe I'm looking for inspiration for suits or suiting in general, and so I type in “suits" or “suiting.”

And what's coming up is just not exactly what I'm searching for. I think you really have to get creative with your search terms, both in using synonyms to what you're looking for and also in adding specificity.

So identify the words that are going to give you the results that you want. So maybe after reflecting on it, I'm like, okay, what I really want is I want 1970s blazers and then go down that rabbit hole a bit.

I find that Pinterest is pretty specific and you're going to get results that are as specific as you are in your search terms. So definitely lean into utilizing more search terms.

Another thing that you can do is utilize the filtering a little bit, too. If you want to see representations that are more similar to you, you can type in petite or mid size or plus size or tall.

They also have great filtering where you can filter by skin tone as well. So if you want to look at red dress inspiration, but you want to look at it on someone who is a similar skin tone to you, then that can be really helpful to use as well.

Sarai
That's cool. I didn't even know about that. It's really interesting. I imagine that a lot of people looking for make-up ideas or whatever probably use that.

Haley
I use it all the time when I'm finding makeup references for our makeup artist at Seamwork photoshoots, it's really helpful.

Sarai
That makes a lot of sense. So once you start to find results that you like, then you can start to go down the rabbit hole.

So the first thing you can do is if you see something you like, click on it and you'll see some related images. So Pinterest kind of serves as a visual search engine. So once you pull up an image on Pinterest, it'll show you a whole bunch of related images below it. And sometimes those images are somewhat related and sometimes they're very related. So it really just depends. But it can really help you to find similar items to the one that you're looking at.

So if, for example, you wanted to see a light blue blazer and you found one that looks kind of similar to what you're looking for, but not quite maybe exactly the shape or style that you were thinking, if you click on it, you'll see a whole bunch of other images that pop up that are similar. And that's a great way to search for a specific type of garment. So I use that all the time. Also really helpful for a home decor because it'll show you things that are in kind of a similar style to the image you're looking at. It's really, really helpful.

And then once you find things you like, then start to pin those, and that'll help to train the algorithm so it'll show you more images that are similar to that one you just pinned for a while. And that can really help you to discover new things as well.

Haley
If you just continue scrolling without engaging in the content that you like, either by clicking on it or pinning it, then you're not going to continue to see as many of those things. Pinterest is smart in that way.

My next tip is to think outside of clothing. I think if you're someone who's complaining of maybe just seeing just a bunch of stuff that you can buy on Pinterest, which is a totally valid complaintiIt is also a platform that's used to sell you things. It can be really helpful to look at things outside of clothing. So some of the things that I really like looking at are things like textile art. So embroidery, applique, just different fiber arts in general, looking at paintings as well. This can be really great for evoking a mood, but also for helping inspire your color palettes.

Speaking of color palettes, I really love looking at graphic design and packaging. I always find really fun color palettes in those types of things. I'm not talking about the Colgate package, but more conceptual packaging and stuff like that is really fun to look at.

I also love looking at quilts, both modern and vintage, for color palettes.

Also, you can get some cool just fabric and motif print inspo in general. And again, going back to paintings and creating a mood and a vibe, I think that cannot be underestimated.

When you're building a mood board, looking at landscapes, either the ones that you live in or ones that are really inspirational to you, can help to set that mood.

Sarai
That's a really good point. I definitely try to incorporate some of that type of imagery whenever I'm creating a mood board, because I'm trying to evoke a certain feeling, really, with my mood board, not just collect images of exactly what I want to make.

I always try to include some images of things like flowers or even lifestyle things that are just like, this is how I want to spend my time when I am wearing this in this coming season. Those kinds of things, I think really help to kind of set the vision for me.

Haley
Yeah, I love doing that as well. Because your clothing doesn't exist in a bubble, it exists in an environment. And kind of contrasting the inspiration or the effect you're going for with the environment can be very powerful.

Sarai
The next tip is to get hyper specific when you're searching for clothing. So just as an example, if you love to wear a certain brown plaid blazer, you can look for outfit inspiration using a brown plaid blazer, for example. So that's kind of a longer search term. But because Pinterest is so often used by people who are putting together things like outfit inspiration and things like that, the algorithm is really trained pretty well for these types of searches.

So if you're looking for specific outfit inspiration, I find that that to be a really helpful thing to look for on Pinterest because again, it'll start showing you some ideas, and then you can kind of explore from there, click on things that appeal to you, and you'll see even more inspiration that's similar to that, and you can kind of start building ideas from there. And I especially like this idea because it helps you to kind of come up with inspiration around things that you might actually already own, which I think is really cool.

Haley
Another way that this is really fun is if you start doing this for maybe some of the things you already own, and you start to notice that, oh, wow, a black turtleneck is really common in a lot of these outfit inspirations, then that might be pointing you in the direction of adding black turtleneck to your sewing queue. It can be really helpful to helping you to identify those patterns.

Sarai
I do something kind of similar. I have an outfit inspiration board on Pinterest that I have divided up into different kind of staples in my wardrobe so that I can gather, over time, inspiration for things that I already own and how I might wear them together or create new outfits with things that I already have.

Like blue jeans, for example. Obviously, most of us have a pair of blue jeans in our closet, but also black turtleneck or a camel blazer, the things that I wear quite often. So that's a really helpful way. And then because I have those, Pinterest shows me more ideas like that.

Haley
Oh, I love that idea. I have a new Pinterest hyper fixation I'll have to work on. All right.

And then our last tip is don't forget to regularly purge your inspiration and get rid of things that you don't like and also rediscover old favorites. This is something that I try to do at least annually, because I just feel like at this point, I don't know how many Pinterest boards I have. It's a lot. It's, like, in the dozens. And so you can have boards that are maybe redundant, and there's one that you use more often than the other, but the lesser used one has all this great stuff on it that you totally forgot about.

So just making sure that you're going through and identifying the things that maybe you can stand to get rid of and the things that would be really worthwhile to revisit can just help to reinvigorate your existing inspiration and hone it in a little bit better.

Sarai
Well, I helped you a little with this over the last couple of weeks, I archived a bunch of shared boards that we had from, like, 2015 or something. Or 2016.

Haley
We do have a lot of shared boards.

Sarai
I was like, do we still use this? No.

Haley
That's awesome.

Sarai
Yeah. So that's a feature that Pinterest has. You can archive things or archive old boards if you're afraid to get rid of them completely, you can just kind of put them away, not ever think about them again. So that's an easy way to cull your inspiration stash.

All right, well, we went over some really great tips today for using Pinterest to gather up inspiration.

So the first one was knowing what to type into Pinterest so you can do a lot more specific searching.

The second tip is once you start finding results that you like, go down the rabbit hole and find similar results right below it.

Think outside of clothing and look at other things that you can gather together for visual inspiration.

Get hyper specific with your searches when you are looking for outfit inspiration, for particular items of clothing.

And to purge your inspiration and get rid of things you don't like and rediscover your old favorites every once in a while.

So I think those are some awesome tips and a lot of really interesting ways that you can use what's actually a really powerful visual tool out there that's available to all of us for free.

All right, well, what's your big takeaway from this episode? Any tips that you want to try out?

Haley
I think that my big takeaway is that I need to purge my Pinterest. If you archived a bunch of things that I didn't even notice, it's probably a sign that I need to go through and make some cuts and do a little organizing. So I'm feeling very inspired to do that. What about you?

Sarai
I think for me, I also think I need to do a little bit more organizing on there. I have some stuff that's still pretty. It's not that I want to get rid of things or things that are old, but I think there's a lot of stuff that can be kind of recombined in new ways. So I'm kind of looking at rediscovering some of the stuff that I've had on there for many years.

Well, this week is Design Your Wardrobe orientation week. So if you're interested in joining us for Design Your Wardrobe, you still have time before we really get started.

So when you join Seamwork, you get access to Design Your Wardrobe, which is our super popular premium course that walks you through a process of designing a collection of projects for a season. So we're doing it for spring right now and it's not too late to join. So it's also available as a self guided program, but we run it as a group course a few times a year and you can learn more at seamwork.com./go/dyw.

And if you want a taste of what's included, you can get our free sewing planner that we use for design your wardrobe atseamwork.com/go/freeplanner.

If you like this episode, please consider leaving us a review on your podcast platform of choice.

We have a review today from Arma, who says, “One of my favorites. Love how ‘seamless’ the two of you flow in getting useful information out along with a bit of your personal lives. I learn something each time I listen.”

Oh, thank you so much for that five star review. Really, really nice to hear from you.

And we always love hearing from you guys. So if you have anything that you'd like to say to us, you can leave it in a comment and on your review and we will definitely see it and read it and appreciate it. And that is it for us this week. I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.