Two years of Sewing

Exactly two years ago I sat down and published my very first blog post.

I wasn't quite sure what I was going to blog about, but I knew that there were a lot of things that I wanted to try and I felt that blogging about them would give me the motivation not to chicken out.

Then about a year and a half ago, I dusted off my sewing machine and made my first faltering steps into sewing. I found online tutorials and learnt as I went along. I shared my successes and my failures as well as links to the tutorials that I had used.

I strongly believe that if I can teach myself to do all these things, you can too! The important things are:

Don't be scared to make mistakes.
If you do make mistakes, don't dwell on them- learn from them and move on.
The more that you try new things, the more that you will want to stretch yourself. Get out of your comfort zone, you won't regret it!
Remember that others are generally not nearly as critical of your work as you are yourself!
A slightly wonky handmade gift means more than a perfect shop bought item.

If you can, I really recommend finding a small corner of the house where you can leave your sewing machine set up. Its so much easier to grab a few minutes of sewing here and there if you don't have to get your sewing machine down from the top shelf; get it out of the box; put it together; thread it etc...

I think that part of my sewing success comes from the fact that I love a good puzzle. When I was an archaeologist, I used to love piecing artefacts together, or even piecing a story together from the few remains that still exist. Now that I have started sewing, this love of puzzles keeps me going! I love working out how things are made and trying to produce my own version of things or applying techniques that I learnt for one thing to a completely different object. I guess that if I was a guy you might find me taking engines and computers to bits to figure out how they work! Curiosity is a really good thing!

A very close friend of mine recently said that "Learning is one of the best things I have found to keep me fresh, whether it’s classes or just on the internet or from books, it’s good for your mind." I think that this has certainly been true for me in my time as a Stay at Home Mum. At a time of life when its easy to feel that you haven't achieved much in a day- sewing and learning new creative techniques leaves me with something tangible to show for my day.

As I said the other day, things are about to change fairly drastically in the Tartankiwi household. I have a new job at The Make Cafe. Its a sewing cafe consisting of a cafe (where you can hire a sewing machine while you sip on your latte), a fabric shop and a workshop running loads of cool crafting classes. I can't wait to work with the team of creative people that Kirsty has put together and to meet and encourage people who come in. If you're in Christchurch and you drop into the Make Cafe, please say hello, I'd love to meet you!

I am going to try my hardest to keep this wee blog going, but posting may become a bit more sporadic especially in the early days as we all adapt to our new regime. I'm really excited to see where I will take my sewing over the next year- any suggestions of things I should try?  Requests for things you'd like to see or learn? I am open to suggestions.

Anyway, thanks for sticking around and all your encouragement over the last two years. I really do appreciate the fact that you regularly drop by and leave kind comments, encouragement and feedback.

You guys are the best!

*Things are a bit mad around here so I haven't managed to getting around to all your kind comments about my return to work. Thank you so much, your support was really really heart warming! *