I'm not a natural born sewer. I used to sew some of my daughter's clothes when she was a toddler, but had no clue what I was doing. A quarter inch seam allowance? On the bias? Cut notches? Sew interfacing? Make a button hole? I had not a clue to any of those. Yet, I continued to sew for her because I enjoyed it.
Skip ahead 20 years later and I'm still learning. I just found out last week that I have a quarter inch sewing machine foot. I still can't make a proper buttonhole. But I've been reading up on the internet. I've been following people's step-by-step tutorials and watching how-to videos. And through the process of creating each project I've been learning from my mistakes. My seam ripper is becoming my good friend.
I have enough problems making enough mistakes on my own that I don't need the internet messing me up, too.
This week I made four potholders. For three of them I followed a step-by-step tutorial and for the fourth I watched a video. Unfortunately (as I found out much too late) the directions on one of the tutorials wasn't complete and the measurements on the video were off. So I wound up having to re-do/guess/cut corners as best I could.
And that best wasn't good enough for me. So while they may look okay in the picture, they're not up to my perfectionist standards.
And that's another thing I'm learning about sewing. I can't be perfect. My skills, although improving, aren't there yet. But I'm not sure it matters. Is there a sewing police that will check to see if my seams line up or my points are folded correctly?
If so, I'm in trouble.
