The Fabric Alchemist

I am breathing easier. The weight that I was dragging around my sewing room has fallen away. And the fear of failure that hovered over me like a specter has dissipated.

#MeMakingMarch reinvigorated my creativity and restored my sewing soul. I completed two garments during the month (one sewn, one thrifted), I worked on four more, and identified at least half a dozen other projects that will make use of patterns and fabrics I already own.

Even though I did not adhere to the “creating every day” rule of the month-long challenge —at least not by the time I reached Week 3—I did succeed in breaking down the mental barriers that were keeping me out of the sewing room.

This effort taught me mindfulness, patience, and self-kindness.

• Breaking my sewing into smaller chunks required awareness of the project steps in advance and an intention to complete certain tasks each day.
• Being mindful of creativity and allowing for those thoughts to flow depended on trying to reduce social media distractions. (I started playing audio books through my phone to prevent me from constantly checking “likes” and comments.)
• Self-kindness goes hand in hand with being patient, and allowing myself to make space and time to create. It also meant permitting space for mistakes and learning, without the threat of hard looming deadlines.
• Spreading a project across many days feels so different than trying to power through in one day, or over a weekend. It allowed more time to problem solve or ponder garment. It also encouraged me to engage with the other aspects of my life. I learned that getting “in the zone” was still possible in short bursts.

In the final days of #MeMakingMarch, I:

Assembled the main body of the Adelaide Dress by Seamwork Magazine.

 

Discovered a great way to prevent bias tape from falling into my cat’s claws and allow me to use BOTH of my hands to pin.

 

Identified a simpler way to alter my grandmother’s dress, meaning I can wear it sooner.

 

Went to a local American-Japanese Garden to photograph my Mulan costume with Seattle photographer, Lou Daprile.

In one week, Emerald City Comic Con will be in full swing. I think I’ll be cosplaying Mulan at least one of the days. Keep an eye on Instagram for updates from the convention floor, assuming I have a cell signal.

Thank you for joining me on my #MeMakingMarch adventure. I am looking forward to #MeMadeMay in a couple months! (Hmmm, there should be a sign up for that soon, right?) Will you be participating?