Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Best Laid Plans

I believe I may have discovered a flaw in my plan to engage in some sewing related activity every day. I theory, this sounds like an excellent plan; each day you find ten or 15 minute to pre-wash a fabric, stitch a seam or to, hand stitch a hem or whatever activity fits the available time.

In practice, my question to you is: once started, how the heck are you supposed to stop? I obviously lack the discipline to just do a little bit, then lay it aside for the next day. So rather than have a nicely cut garment, waiting to be stitched together in easy stages, I have a nearly completed tunic despite several other important tasks awaiting my attention. Like carpets to be vacuumed. Like dishes to be washed. Like paying work.

The BWOF girl's tunic top is coming along nicely, despite my inability to understand their instructions. As I said before, I am liberated! I can do it however I want! And keep my fingers crossed that it all works out in the end!

I just turned my sewing machine OFF. That means, no more sewing today. I'll easily be able to finish up tomorrow, even if I decide to add patch pockets; it's very cute, but seems a little plain.

6 comments:

Kat said...

I completely understand the "How am I going to stop?" question. In fact, when I started having kids, my sewing started to frustrate me because I couldn't spend a huge, unbroken time chunks working on my projects. It took a lot of time getting used to the fact that I'd have to stop, nurse, soothe a baby right in the middle of whatever.

Eventually I got used to it, but am returning to being spoiled again with all of them in school :) .

Meg said...

As seen on a t-shirt:

sewing forever,
housework whenever


Good words to live by, I say.

Dawn said...

Vacuum? Housework? Yeah, right, that's man-work. tee hee.

Here is my lame strategy. I try to do as much housework-y type stuff as I can when the kids are awake and crazy (I can't sew anyway because they need supervision). When they go to bed, I set a timer for 15 minutes and do housework that I can't do with them like loading and unloading the dishwasher. When the timer dings, I sew. You can really get a lot done in 15 minutes. Really. I'm not saying that my house is super clean but 15 minutes of daily concentrated effort keeps it manageable. I usually spend one day a week doing a "super-clean" on one area of the house. Wow, this is a lot longer than I thought it would be.

Rhoto said...

Hi Paula!! "Like paying work"... Do you work from home?
I'm still looking for those 15-minutes of available time... ;) :(
Enjoy your comments on PR and your Blog!!
Warm greetings,
Rhonda in Montreal (PR)

Paula Gardner said...

Rhonda, to answer your question, yes, I do work from home. I'm at my computer off and on all day as I fit work around my wifely and motherly activities, which is why I'm able to post frequently on PatternReview.

Bunny said...

When I worked full time this was how I had to work. I would sew for 25 minutes every morning, getting up a half hour early to do so. Many was the morning that I wanted to keep going and call in sick. But that was not my style either. I did end of getting a lot done that way, a lot of sewing that is. Now that I am not working full time I use my sewing time as a reward, ie, I will scrub the floors, but if I get them done I get to sew the rest of the day with no other chores. Sometimes my rewards aren't that big but lots of times they are. So I use the reward system.