Despite having mountains of fabric and piles of pdf patterns I haven’t been getting much sewing done recently. There are three reasons that I have identified for why I often struggle with getting started on projects.

• My sewing space is less than ideal. I cut, iron, and sew on the table in our living room/dining room. Things can’t stay set up indefinitely because it’s also the space where we eat and do schoolwork. And the cat has a death wish and likes to eat just about everything, so fabric and thread really have to be put away. This means that every sewing session I have to set up both machines and the ironing board. All of the little tools and the cutting mat need to be unpacked. Then everything gets packed away at the end. It’s hard to take advantage of small bits of time to sew because I end up spending so much of it preparing to or cleaning up from sewing.
• I get nervous about whether my sewing abilities will do justice to a pattern or fabric I really like. I know the only way to get past this stumbling block is to keep sewing and to do a better job of making muslins particularly when a pattern has techniques I haven’t practiced much.
• The biggest problem though is that I just have so many ideas that I often can’t decide what to work on first. I know that not starting any projects because I have so many is clearly not the way to get all of them done, but it’s a stumbling block.

The first point I can’t do much about, the plan is to find a place with a permanent sewing area for me when we move in the next eighteen months or so. Other than that I just need to keep making it work. I know what I need to do to solve the second point: practice, patience, more practice, more patience. The third point is the one I can do the most about. And I have a plan.

-Hannah