The Cult of Sewing Perfect and Keeping it Real

Ok, so for day 2 of the blog and I am back. Don't worry, I won't spam you everyday with my deranged thoughts but I am feeling sassy and, particularly inspired, at the moment. I want to "spill the Tea" so to speak, to address one of my pet peeves with sewing and social media feeds: the illusion of Sewing Perfect.

Now, if you are one of those individuals who are scarily organised, with, you know, systems for things, I think that you are AMAZING. We need to protect you, put you in a field and gather in small, hushed groups so that we see you in your natural habit, like the sewing gazelle that you are. If you regularly use bullet journals to organise your projects, find them to be useful and find satisfaction in creating and up keeping them, then only Wayne can express my admiration...

If you Kon Marie your stash...well...frankly, you scare me a little bit.

If you cannot tell, organisation for me is....challenging. I try. I honestly do and its something that permeates into my workalife too. Its exhausting. It requires a level of commitment which I simply cannot muster for what is supposed to be my creative outlet. For me, creativity is that sense of play that you lost when you mum shoved a Bic razor at you and told you that you are starting to resemble Chewbacca and in a single moment your childhood was lost forever. True story.

My sewing workroom is MY space. It is quite literally the one place in my life where no one has a right to an opinion to it. At times, it can a oasis of organisation, worthy of one of voyueristic, almost pervy craft room tours. I love watching those when they say "pardon the mess" as one stray thread is on a workbench.

But, in truth, most of the time its a minefield of thread, paper, scraps, pins stuck in the carpet, which stick in my Bf's feet but rarely in mine, ideas, freedom and fun. And I'm willing to bet for a mass majority that is you too

So, why bother writing a blog post about it?

The truth is that home sewing isn't perfect. It isn't generated in a sealed environment, no matter how good you are, there will always be a stitch, slightly out of place, a seam a slightly degree off. Learning this craft takes time, it takes mistakes, it takes a sense of fun. You don't go bing! "Done, Im perfect now. I can throw away my seam ripper." no matter how beautiful your thread colour co-ordinaton is. When I see an endless stream of perfection, with Instagram pictures of you in a field staring, wistfully into the middle distance holding flowers, while the chiffon catches the wind and billows out in a cloud, catching the morning dew, my response is a genuine, "Wow, that is a beautiful picture", but, please, also show us in your wellies, laughing/with at your husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/casual bit on the side on the way to the field. Please show that wonky seam or the mistake that you managed to turn into a design choice. Both are equally beautiful, like mirror images, balancing each other because perfection is a cruel myth. Like you are not. Like your garments are not. One shows the art, one shows YOU.

I am quite passionate about this. Primarily, because I noticed in my own thoughts that I was comparing my own pictures, my sewing room, my cupboards, my makes, my BODY with this blistering, critical eye. And Jesus, thats a rabbit hole to crapness. I don't know about any of you, but I always feel like I am not enough. I am not smart enough, funny enough, interesting enough...pretty enough. Seeking that picture, where the fabric hits you in that sweet spot and makes you look thinner, younger, feeling like you are required to apologise for YOUR body, like its something to be ashamed of, is something really destructive. Especially when you consider all that bullcrap is for something someone is going to scroll past pretty quickly on an endless feed. But its an endless monster of perfection that feeds itself.

I consider sewing to be a rebellious act. Against many, many things, which, no doubt I'll rant about another time but lets knock a few holes in the monster. That's why on my feed, very often I'll sneak in a silly picture, a bad make. I hope, maybe, now you do to.

Phew...glad that serious bit is over...now where is bloody seam ripper.