This year for Me Made May my pledge was to sew for 25 minutes a day. I talked more about this in this blog post but in short, I wanted to sew more. I moved to Seattle almost two years ago and I’ve been spending a lot more time working on my house and garden. Sewing fell to the wayside, despite having a much bigger sewing space. So instead of the usual outfit challenge, I decided to intentionally devote more time to the practice of sewing.
I started off tracking daily but didn't track for more than a few days—mostly because I felt like tracking wasn't necessary and it was less fun than the actual sewing. Once I got started sewing again, my momentum, focus and energy developed quickly. Honestly, within a day or two, I was back in to the swing of things. Today, I'm sharing a few tips and insights into my sewing reboot.
Here are the things I worked on sewing this month:
Finished 5-point star quilt blocks and designed the rest of the quilt top
Designed a quilt top for blue strip pieces that have been in my WIPs for decades
Finished two racerback Summer Tank Tops (I think these were tests that I never fully finished, and completely forgot about)
Sewed about 6 pairs of undies (See my new tutorial here)
Cleaned and tidied my sewing space
Finished cutting out a Belle Woven Dress by StyleArc (previously blogged here)
Unboxed my coverstitch and started to learn how to use it
Cut out and sewed a Stellan T-shirt by French Navy Patterns
Printed out and muslined the Dani Shorts by True Bias
Insight One: The most important thing is to get started.
Momentum will build easily, once you start. Have you heard the saying "where attention goes, energy flows"? I felt this right away when I started intentionally sewing again. The more I sewed, the more I thought about sewing, the more inspired I was and the more I wanted to sew. I was surprised by how quickly I was able to rebuild my momentum once I started intentionally spending time sewing. It was pretty much immediate. The blocks that I had were mostly mental: deciding what to sew, being distracted by other activities, etc. I have a lot of unfinished projects (that's a different topic lol) so once I chose a project to work on and started sewing, I felt inspired again. I think a lot of things are like this, it seems hard until you actually start doing it.
Insight Two: Start with an easy project
If you're having a hard time getting started go for an easy project. Make something that you don't need to muslin. That can be a pattern you've sewn before or something that doesn't require fitting, like a bag. Pick something you have all the supplies for and will have the least amount of road blocks. This will help you build momentum and minimize frustration.
In the midst of organizing and storing my paper patterns. This was HARD to work through.
Insight Three: Clean and organize your sewing space.
If you are a messy creative like me, than more often than not your sewing space will be crowded with piles of fabric and patterns. Mine was a mess and it was holding me back from sewing efficiently because I couldn't find supplies and tools that I needed. The first few days of May, I spent a lot of time searching for things. (In the process of searching, I found more WIPs that have now been finished!)
I didn't actually tidy up until half way through. In the process, I found a lot of things I'd been looking for the first half of the month. If I had tidied earlier on I would have saved myself a lot of time. (For example, I couldn't find a print out of the Belle Woven Dress so I printed it again. After cleaning up, I found the original.) I should have tidied up months ago. But, now I have more motivation to tidy as I go because I fully understand how valuable it is to have a clean space.
(Btw, I still need to organize my fabric properly. I haven't done it since I moved almost 2 years ago and I'm at the stage where I don't know what I have or where it is. That will be another full day project for the future.)
Insight Four: Set the mood and make it fun
I recommend putting on some fun music to set the mood. Music that makes you happy will help create positive emotional associations with the practice of sewing. And it will make you want to sew more! You might even call it a hack.
Insight Five: Prepare the sewing machine (again just do it)
If changing the thread on your machine is holding you back, push through it. Remind yourself that changing thread is not a big deal. Honestly, it's not. Try a neutral color, like gray that can be used with a variety of colors. And, remember that the more often you practice changing the thread, the easier it will be. When I first started using a serger, it took practice to learn, but now I can thread my serger in under 3 minutes. And if all you do is set up your machine for sewing later, that's a great accomplishment.
I hope these insights are helpful for you. I'm so glad that I decided to choose this pledge for Me Made May this year. It's been a great restart. I've learned a lot and I think I'll be able to continue the momentum for a while. Above is my studio space, post clean but with some projects in process. It’s not perfect but it doesn’t need to be. It’s working for me and that’s enough.
Remember, sewing is a practice. It's natural to have ebbs and flows. Starting with just a few minutes a day can naturally grow into longer lengths of time. As always, remember to have fun, and don't push if something isn't working.
