for all the beginners...

I have a soft spot for learners. Hey, I'm a teacher! Comes with the territory! But especially beginning seamstresses, because I've been there.

One of the reasons I wanted to begin sharing my projects from the beginning of my sewing journey, was to encourage those of you who are also getting your feet wet. Because we were ALL beginners at some point! Heck, I still feel like a beginner most of the time. And I actually AM a beginner for some techniques. (I'd wager most seamstresses have a technique or skill they're afraid to do!)

For example, I've never made a welt pocket that I can remember. So I'd be a beginner if I tried one. I've made lots of lapped, center, and fly zippers. But I hate invisible zips, and rarely do them. So I'd consider myself a beginner for those. I consider myself intermediate to advanced for most of the construction basics, and ditto for some specialty techniques like French sewing by machine or smocking.

But once I was a beginner in all of these.

One thing I really don't care for, but I see more and more of, is a list of "rules" for new seamstresses. Don't do this. Don't do that. If you do this you'll look frumpy or dowdy or "becky home-ecky". These lists don't really add anything to the sewing community. They're judgmental, as a rule, and tend to make beginners (the very people they're aspiring to "help") feel inadequate and ill prepared.

And I just don't like them.

I think they're detrimental for a very real and very important reason: they make you afraid. They make you afraid to take risks, take chances, try new things. They make you afraid to go with your gut, choose a fabric you've never sewn with before, or try a new technique, for fear it will look bad. They make you afraid people are judging your skills every time you walk out the door wearing something you've created.

I also find it ironic that many times I see these lists perpetuated by seamstresses with less than a few years experience. I am also developing a dislike for the "humor" injected into these type of lists. Is this an attempt to soften the blow? I'm not sure.

I enjoy a spot of humor. Very much! I'm sure if you've read my blog very long, you already know this. I don't enjoy sarcasm for sarcasm's sake. I don't enjoy snide. I don't enjoy the snark that overstays its welcome. Even if its funny. Maybe I'm just a Pollyanna...but I find myself preferring sweet, genuine people in my blog-reading.

I think I might be in the minority in this.

Although, I think Conan O'brien knows what I mean. I'm pasting a quote from his last appearance on the Tonight Show below, because it really spoke to me and is a good match with how I've been feeling about this great big, yet snidely funny world of late:

"All I ask is one thing,
and I’m asking this particularly of young people:
please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record,
it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.
Nobody in life gets exactly
what they thought they were going to get.
But if you work really hard and you’re kind,
amazing things will happen."

I've been sewing for almost 12 years. Most people would not consider me a beginner. But I once was. And if you are now, I hope you take heart with this words-only post. I have felt all the discouragement, nervousness, frustration and excitement you feel when you begin a new project.

Here's a secret for you...I still mostly feel that way, whenever I begin a new project today. When I don't feel excitement and nervousness and the thrill of my heart beating a little faster at the smell of freshly prewashed cotton, I'll probably hang up my needle and thread.

And I think about that young mother, who dove in and tried to make a 1930s reproduction lace baby dress as her first project, because she had no fear. And how she chose the wrong fabric and wore it blissfully unaware. And how she fell in love so hard with sewing, even today, 12 years later, her heart sings when she sits at the machine.

Because she had no list of "rules."

This post is for all the beginners.