Progress, Not Perfection
We have come to the end of another year and I am grateful to have a week off of work to finish some more projects. I was rummaging around looking for a missing pattern on my cutting table when I ran across my “skills to learn” sheet that I created two years ago. These were all the essential skills that I thought I would need to learn before I could call myself a professional bag maker. Of course, you really don’t need all of them. Looking back at this list I’m really feeling accomplished and have done most of them. I don’t have to complete the others before the end of the year but I do have specific projects that I will be learning these skills on. It’s just nice to see all those checkmarks, especially since I’m not one for practicing (ask my husband about the guitar in the corner, no wait, don’t ask him).
I can easily get wrapped up in scrolling Instagram and seeing all the beautiful and detailed bags people are making and start comparing myself to others. I know that most of these makers do this as their only job, or if they don’t they just devote more time to sewing than I currently do. But that’s okay. Where I am at is just fine. In fact, it’s more than fine! I’m in a really good place! I’ve learned so much over the past two years and really feel like I’m knocking it out. I don’t struggle as much with my stitching and even things like bias binding aren’t as stressful for me. But I’ve also learned that there are some things I’m better at than others. And I know that, moving forward, where I can invest my time for the best results. And just because I have another two years’ worth of patterns waiting in the wings doesn’t mean I need to make all of them. Most of them I picked out before I knew what I was going to be good at and what makes me want to stab myself with a seam ripper.
I’m not sure why I committed myself so diligently to this particular craft. I’ve not been so committed to others in the past. And I hate to practice. I really hate not being perfect at something the first time. I am a perfectionist and it gets in the way of my learning. If you are the same way than you’ve likely been where I’ve been when it comes to learning things. I think that sewing just seemed like the natural choice since I like to pick out fabrics and mix and match colors. I’m not much of an illustrator so doing something like cards or paintings wasn’t going to be something I would sell. I like bags because they are useful but also just a wonderful display of color and style. They are like a preview of what you’re going to be like when I talk to you. Like a ten second calling card. I can tell a lot about a person by what bag they are carrying. I’ve also spent my life “collecting” bags so I’m a connoisseur.
So I’m just going to take this last week of the year to really pat myself on the back and tell myself how proud I am that I’ve been sticking it out and pushing through the fear. It’s been such a rewarding trip so far and I really love seeing people using my bags and seeing them “in the wild.” It makes me feel like a proud mama. I feel like there’s a niche for all of us out there if we just have the courage to explore. You really don’t know what you love if you don’t try things. It’s like dating. Maybe there’s a craft or skill out there that’s waiting for you to call them up and invite them out to coffee.
Maybe next year you’ll be in a totally wonderful relationship with your fabric/yarn/paper/embroidery/sheet music/clay/guitar/yourself.
