5 Common Sewing Goals (and How I’d Rewrite Them)

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5 Common Sewing New Year’s Resolutions (and How I’d Rewrite Them)

Over the years of my sewing life, I’ve spent an age thinking about what sewing goals I wanted to achieve each year. During the earlier years of my sewing life, my resolutions were almost always excessive in hope over practicality. The practice of resolving to make positive changes for one’s life can be beneficial, however, setting yourself up for success is also quite important as we can easily mix up failure with poorly constructed goals. The effect of which leads to defeatism and falling back into previously dissatisfying habits (which frankly speaking if we were happy with those old habits we wouldn’t have wanted to create new goals around them in the first place). January is the traditional month for this practice commonly called new year resolutions. In this post, I share 5 common sewing resolutions and how I would rewrite them.

The beauty of the new year feeling is that I never get tired of that clean slate feeling. So many worthwhile goals just begging to be included on the list that will “change everything”.

Who doesn’t want to buy less fabric, use the patterns you already have, watch the online classes you bought, sew more for others, start that sewing blog, master tailoring or bra making or activewear, participate in sewing challenges, and sew things outside your comfort zone?

This time of year, our brains get drunk swimming in an intoxicating ocean of ‘new year, new me’ possibilities.

Here’s the problem.

We get swept up in this annual ‘new year, new me’ mania, we unwittingly set ourselves up to drown in disappointment.

So do we just ditch making resolutions altogether?

As I said earlier the practice of resolving to make positive changes is a beneficial force, but it is the wording that makes all the difference.

Before you get to the wording you may want to check out my podcast episode on how I do “resewlutions” but use a 2 step process to plan my year ahead.

But once you know what you want to do then your words have all the power for setting you up for the best chances of following through on your resolutions.

With some slight modifications and by being more specific then you can have a powerful framework to support you along the way towards achieving your actual desires.

How would I rewrite 5 common sewing resolutions?

I’m going to stop buying fabric/ Buy less fabric

This might be the most common goal. Many seamstresses have a stash problem and intrinsically realise that something needs to be done about it.

But simply saying “I won’t buy more fabric” doesn’t provide a road map. It doesn’t even give a specific destination. Are you going to not buy any fabric that you have always wanted but is now on sale? Are you not going to buy notions?

Our minds respond negatively to deprivation, and the self-denial that is required is usually is a recipe for failure. This sort of restriction is pitting willpower against a basic psychological need and when willpower fades (which it always does eventually), you revert to type and risk bingeing.

Instead of just “buying less fabric”, plumb the depths of your soul to determine the true cause of your overindulgence. Figure that out, come to peace with it and find ways to address it.

This is better – “I’m going to figure out and overcome the reasons I’m drawn to buying more fabric and/or patterns than I need”
or
“I am going to reduce the net yardage in my stash by operating a ‘one in one out’ policy“.

Common Sewing New Year’s Resolutions (and How I’d Rewrite Them) — Photo by Eva Blue on Unsplash

I will be mindful in my sewing

This one always confuses me because mindfulness is a way of approaching life not just one thing. Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.

Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment.

When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than being lost in our minds rehashing the past or imagining the future.

This isn’t something that you can only apply to only one section of your life – if you are not practicing mindfulness in your life in general, then just applying it to sewing is superficial at best.

Mindfulness is cultivated as a way of living and hence flows into everything that you do. There are many great and wonderful benefits to cultivating a mindfulness practice.

Better – “I will begin learning how to cultivate mindfulness. I will try out different types of mindfulness practices and experiment to find what is right for me“.

If you’re looking for broad benefits, any of the many types of meditation could help you cultivate positivity, energy, and focus. Whichever meditation you’re likely to stick with is probably the best choice.

I will finally sew something from all the Pinterest sewing inspiration boards.

Too often this translates as “I will stay up late surfing the internet to find just the perfect fabrics and perfect pattern to recreate this look. I also need just the perfect trims, the perfect zip, etc.”

The problem is that it doesn’t take “resolve” to do this. It is the opposite of what a good resolution looks like.

Perfectionism is the enemy of progress.

Aiming to copy the exact look of an airbrushed and heavily photoshopped Gucci gown will only set you up for disappointment.

Better – “I will embrace looking stupid and try sewing new things that I’ve always wanted to but have felt nervous about wearing.”
or:
“I will pick something new and novel to sew at least once every 3 months.”

I will watch all the Craftsy/CreativeBug/online classes I own.

Often this translates as “I am feeling guilty that I bought these classes to learn something but the only work I did was to click ‘buy’ and now it is been 18 months and I have yet to learn how to sew a zippered wallet”.

This is a popular one and for at least a couple of weeks, people stick with it despite honestly wanting to use those online classes.

What goes wrong?

This is the sewing world equivalent of joining the gym at the beginning of the year and realising you don’t have the time/ motivation/willpower.

The problem is that it is not specific, without a concrete plan or schedule.

Better – “I am going to set aside time to watch a class on the phone app for 20 minutes every week” (with an allowance for more is it sticks)
or
“I’m going to browse through a course and watch what I want without worrying about doing the whole thing”
or
“I am going to refresh my knowledge of zipper insertion by watching the section on zippers when I sew the next zipper”.

I will sew more for my family/others

This is a noble resolution but can be ineffective by itself. I love sewing and I get the frustration of the end of the year coming around and realising that I haven’t sewn anywhere near as much I had wanted.

There is so much to sew and so little time and time is squandered starting projects that you fall out of love with.

Sewing more (for yourself or for others) is so general it can be almost useless.

Get more specific about what kind of projects you actually want to sew.

Choose fabrics and patterns that you truly enjoy if possible.

Don’t feel guilty about stopping a project that you have fallen out of love with – and I don’t mean just the frustration because of a sewing technique you are struggling to get right, but sometimes you find yourself realising that this fabric just isn’t what you thought it would be.

As for sewing more for kids – that requires a whole series of posts – the most basic tenet being that you need to be time-specific when it comes to kids.

You can’t let kids sewing projects marinate – you need to conceive (no pun intended), cut fabric and sew within a week – having a time limit forces your hand. Kids grow really fast.

Better – “I’m going to sew projects I enjoy and quit projects I don’t without feeling guilty”
or
“I am going to sew a simple t-shirt for my kids/partner/other because knit jersey fabric is forgiving in fit and everybody could use a spare T-shirt).

Looking ahead to 2022

No matter what, don’t wind up a sad ‘new year new me’ statistic, overwhelmed with “to do” lists and failed New Year’s resolutions. It’s a shame to miss out on using the endless optimism that the new year feeling endows us with – rather let us add the dimension of specific wording to make the most of that energy and get started. What are your resolutions this year – if you could rewrite them what would they be? Remember share as much detail as you can in your reply to help you eliminate burnout before it happens and get laser-focused on what’s truly most important this year — and actually get it done.

I hope you found this post on the 5 common sewing resolutions useful. Please share and save on Pinterest. And if you have a blog I’d love to know which of these resolutions do you like best? Which ones will you write on your blog? Let me know and, while you’re at it, post a link to your blog so we can all take a peek at how you implement these ideas.

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