Trash Talking My Sewing Projects as Path to Success
I have written before about my almost entirely stubbornness-based personality. I even tried to make the case that I can use my stubbornness in place of patience. I think this is true in a manner of speaking, but a more accurate way to put it might be that I use my stubbornness as persistence, which is a little different.
The reason I am splitting hairs here is that there is an aspect of patience that I definitely lack, and that I am always trying to get a hold on both in my work projects–which involve web design and web programming–and my home projects, which, of course, have involved a lot of sewing lately.
Persistence is important. I mean, persistence as in the “try, try again,” “get back up on that horse,” “practice makes perfect,”, etc. kind of thing. When you’re trying anything new or different, you won’t get very far if you give up at the first sign of difficulty, if you don’t do it perfectly right away.
That is where my stubbornness/persistence serves me well. I take it as a personal affront when I run into obstacles, when I can’t get something right. “Oh yeah, sewing project? That’s how it is, huh? I don’t think so. It’s on, baby.” (I don’t literally trash talk my sewing projects. Well…maybe a little bit. But it’s best that I restrict my trash talk to inanimate objects and concepts, since I am not very good at it.)
But my stubbornness can also do me a disservice, can fail to substitute properly for patience.
There’s another kind of patience, perhaps a purer blend. I think it is aptly summed up in a phrase that feels tailor-made for sewing (See what I did there? Ha.): “Measure twice, cut once.”
The problem with my dogged persistence is that it is not easily balanced by patient preparation. I usually start out pretty eager and bold when it comes to starting something new, like sewing, and after what is clearly not enough preparation, I dive right in. I do spot research here and there, especially at the beginning, but as time goes by, and I run into trouble, I become more and more likely to take a “beat my head against the wall,” “do the same thing over and over again expecting different results” approach.
I can freely admit that this ill-advised manner of doing things is the dark side of stubbornness, an odd permutation of the stereotypical “man won’t stop and ask for directions” gene. (It is a stereotype, but it sums me up pretty well, and doesn’t go well with my horrible sense of direction. Thank goodness I have my GF around to enable me by always knowing which way to go, and my GPS when she’s not around.)
But the thing is, I can’t afford to take that approach with sewing for too long. And when I say that I “can’t afford it,” I mean that literally. Fabric and thread cost money! And Lycra Spandex is among the more expensive fabrics, in addition to being unique enough in nature that I can’t get the practice I need with stuff from the discount table. I can only afford so many “practice mistakes.”
Upping the Ante
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have begun the ordering process for the professionally screen printed costume fabric. By sometime around the end of the month, I will receive in the mail a 58″ X 85″ (ish) hunk o’ 4 way stretch Lycra Spandex with my Ditko Spidey costume design printed on it. Non-returnable even at that point, much less after I start cutting into it.
I will need to cut out the pieces–main body/front of mask, sides of neck/mask, arms, palms, thumbs–and sew it all together into a single bodysuit with invisible zippers on the back of the neck (for being able to pull the hood forward off my head) along the sides of the torso and the bottom of the back of the “belt.” And possibly invisible zippers on the undersides of the wrists as well, so I can free my hands when needed.
I cannot afford to make any mistakes (well, any that I can’t undo with a seam ripper).
Enforced Patience
When I bought my first car years ago, I had the most powerful tool in my pocket that I could have: a lack of funds. I was willing to walk away from the initial deals offered by the good cop/bad cop team of salesman and mysterious back office manager because I literally and truly could not afford more than a certain amount.
I am similarly being forced to be patient–to not dive in head-first–at this juncture in my Costume Quest. I can’t really even do hands-on practice a the moment. I will be returning my borrowed machine soon, and really need to do my practice on the new machine anyway, which my GF and I cannot afford to get until the second half of the month.
And, of course, the ordering and processing of the pro printed costume fabric is taking long enough that I will have to wait to jump into that for a week or two after getting the new machine.
This was supposed to be about a work payday, but then I saw this. Mmm. Payday. I used to love these…
So, what I’m saying is, thank goodness for enforced waiting, for time on my hands in which I am being forced to not only practice while I wait, but wait before I practice.
Why is that a good thing? Because this is forcing me to do the sort of preparation that I am horrible at unless forced. I need to research, to read about invisible zippers and watch videos of people doing them, view tutorials, figure out what the likely mistakes and missteps are so that I can avoid them. I need to get back to the basics of measuring and cutting and pinning and basting.
Those are the things I am horrible at doing while I am in the thick of a project. If I had everything on hand right now–suit fabric, new machine, invisible zippers, time (almost as rare a commodity as money sometimes!)–there’s a really good chance I would spend 5 or 10 minutes preparing before diving right in and regretting it within half an hour.
So, bring on the delays! They will do me a world of good!
The Practice of Waiting to Practice Begins
I have already reviewed a couple of tutorials on Invisible Zippers. They are by the same person/site, but one is a video and one is a picture/text tutorial, both by Coletterie. And I already understand way more than I did about invisible zippers! (A good sign. If you ever understand less about something after a tutorial, it probably wasn’t a good tutorial. )
In conclusion: I like to think that I am capable of being very patient when I have absolutely no other choice.
Next: You’ll have to be patient to find out (which is just me trying to cleverly (and thematically) cover up the fact that I don’t know what’s next).
Spider-Man Mashup Cosplay Costume: 