Archives for posts with tag: hobbies

The Skirt Issue

March 30, 2010 //
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Remember the Modern Circle Skirt that I was supposed to finish a few weeks ago? Well, I finally finished it yesterday. Finally. This seemingly simple skirt was, well, not so simple.

I finished the first few steps of the project in just a few hours, no problem. I cut out the pattern, sewed the side seam, and added the waistband. Look at me!! Where do I sign up for the next season of Project Runway?

But when the time came to hem the skirt, I hit a roadblock. Hemming garments is supposed be easy, right? I’ve hemmed pants several times in my brief sewing career without any issues, but this skirt was going to be the end of me.

Now, in all fairness, I used a decorative stitch for the entire skirt. I wanted to use a stitch that would most closely resemble a serger stitch. And I think that was one of my problems. I’m just not ready, experience-wise, to work with a more complicated stitch. Plus, sewing in a circle, I had a hard time keeping my fabric evenly folded down all the way around (despite ironing and pinning it), which made it difficult to keep the fabric smooth as I sewed over it. Needless to say, I got plenty of use out of my seam ripper.

My problem with most everything I do is that I want perfection and I want it now, which is the main reason why I don’t keep hobbies for very long. I get very discouraged my lack of experience. I mean, in my mind, I should be sewing couture gowns after just a few weeks. But sewing has made me realize that 1) perfection comes with time, and 2) nothing will ever be really perfect.

So, yesterday, I just kept sewing without stopping, despite knowing that my hem wasn’t perfect. And I have to say: the skirt looks pretty damn good (keep in mind that this is a VERY basic skirt). When I tried it on, to my inexperienced eye, it looked even all the way around. Sure, the stitch line is a little crooked, but you’d have to be really close to my legs to see it, and my husband might have a problem with that.

Hopefully, by this time next year, I’ll be laughing at this skirt because my experience level has moved so far beyond a simple circle skirt. Hopefully.

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Categories sewing

Sew Little Time

March 11, 2010 //
4

Though I’ve never actually been diagnosed, I’m convinced that I have adult ADD. All the symptoms are there: short attention span, inability to focus or to complete tasks. I tend to have about 50 million things running around in my head at one particular moment. Sure, it could be the copious amounts of coffee that I consume before noon, but whatever. That being said, it’s always been difficult for me to keep, or hell, even start a hobby. I mean, there are so many things that I want to do: learn to paint, read a book, write a book, take Spanish lessons, do yoga—the list goes on and on.

Well, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to pick one task and focus only on that task. Forget everything else on my long, never-ending list and just focus on one thing and one thing only. So, a few weeks back, I broke down and bought a new sewing machine and signed up for sewing lessons. And let me just say that it’s been incredible. For the first time in my life, I’m not discouraged by my inexperience. In fact, it’s what drives me to keep making the same pair of pants over and over again (and now everyone in my family has the same pair of pajama pants).

Now that I’ve mastered basic elastic pants (don’t be jealous), I’ve decided to move on to another pattern (gulp!). I found a really great book that has a collection of fun dress and skirt patterns that seem fairly simple.

My goal this year is to find my clothes through consignment or make them, and this book looks like a great start.

So my first project? The Modern Circle Skirt. And if it turns out, I plan on making about five of them to wear all summer. I’ll keep you posted.

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Categories sewing
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