Happy Friday! I don't know about you, but I can't wait to bust out of here for the weekend. I'm hoping for that perfect mix of beach time and sewing...what? A girl can hope, can't she? In the spirit of yesterday's post, I thought I'd end the week with a round-up of some sewing websites/blogs/forums that I've found handy as I've learned to sew. There's nothing as educational as actual hands-on experience, of course, but a good how-to book or website goes a long way.

• label-free provides sewing resources, hints, tricks and tips for people who want to make their own clothes. Check out the interfacing and sewing-machine needle guides, the links to free patterns, and the book recommendations, all listed in the right sidebar.
• Sew Mama Sew is more than just an online store; check out their impressively active blog and forum for project ideas, how-tos, and handy Q+As.
• The Purl Bee has a great list of patchwork and sewing tutorials (see left-hand sidebar) and a glossary, plus tons of project ideas.
• BurdaStyle is part sewing how-to, part social-networking, part buy-and-sell. Open-source patterns mean you don't have to pay to use them and you can update/alter them as  you please.
• And on a slightly different note, not too long ago Alicia at Posy Gets Cozy asked her readers "Do you sew?" She got almost 1,250 responses, and some of the stories are just great. Reading them is almost as good as sitting down at the sewing machine (except you won't get all those little threads all over your lap!).

Do you have a favourite sewing blog or website? It'd be great if you'd share it in the comments. And don't forget, you've got until 5 p.m. today to enter this week's contest. See you on Monday, hopefully with another new shirt to share!