6 Tips for Sewing with Limited Time and Energy

Podcast Transcript

Sarai

I'm Sarai.

Haley

And I'm Haley.

Sarai

And this is Seamwork Radio. Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and Joy. And today, we're talking about how to keep sewing when you have limited time and energy. So, we're going to cover six strategies that will help you to feel creative, from the types of projects to sew to a few methods you can use to build motivation. I'm really excited about this topic today because I feel like this comes up for me quite a bit, and I know it does for our listeners, too. All right, Haley, our icebreaker for today. If you could invent a sewing gadget to make life easier, what would it do?

Haley

Definitely some kind of cutting robot. It's well documented that I am not super fond of the cutting phase of sewing. I don't mind cutting the pattern or making the alterations to the pattern or the sewing, obviously. I love that part. But cutting just feels like such a slog. So if I could have some kind of fairy or robot that could do all of the cutting. Or maybe it's more of an elf type, like a keeper elf type of job. That would be my pie in the sky kind of sewing wish gadget that I could have.

Sarai

Yeah

Haley

Gadget/ mythical creature.

Sarai

It's a It's a robot, it's an elf. Maybe it's a robot elf.

Haley

Yeah, it could be both for all I care, as long as they get the job done.

Sarai

I'm picturing those robot dogs, you know? Something like that. All right. Well, I think for me, it would be, well, kind of similar, but it would be something that would get my pattern from its digital format onto the fabric without going through all the paper and piecing together if you have to do that, all that stuff. I know projector sewing is a thing, and so that is one solution, but I find it a little bit too cumbersome. So some kind of miracle solution where it would just be on the fabric somehow.

Haley

So also a robot elf is what I'm hearing.

Sarai

It could be possibly a robot elf, possibly a, I don't know, some kind of magic fabric that just instantly has your pattern on it.

Haley

That'd be amazing.

Sarai

With whatever alterations you needed to, because that would be an issue, obviously. Because I guess you could print a pattern onto fabric as boon flour or something like that, but not if you wanted to make any changes to it. So that would be my solution

Haley

I wonder how many people get stuck on this cut. I feel like the cutting stage is a real speed bump for a lot of people.

Sarai

Yeah. I don't know. I actually kind of like cutting.

Haley

Boo.

Sarai

I'm different from you because I just find it really mindless, and sometimes I just want to zone out. So I know I've said this on the podcast before. I'm not usually in the sewing mood and the cutting mood at the same time. So it provides a nice alternative, which is why I typically cut out more than one project at a time.

Haley

And having the pattern printed on the fabric would make it like that much more mindless.

Sarai

Yeah, that's true.

Haley

Because that is the part that requires the most energy is the layout, especially if you're working with a print or something like that, and you have to pay attention to direction and pattern placement.

Sarai

Yeah. I just don't like all the garbage it generates. I mean, it's recyclable, but still it's messy, and I don't know. It's not my favorite. Plus, if you have to piece the pattern together, if you don't have access to a printer or a coffee shop, a large printer or coffee shop, then... I mean, it's not the worst thing, but it's a little bit of a hassle.

Haley

Okay. Inventors take note, if you're listening.

Sarai

Well, if you have an icebreaker for us for a future episode. If you're a Seamwork member, you can go to seamwork.com/go/icebreakers, and that's going to take you to a thread on our community where you can leave an idea for a future icebreakers. So you have a question for us, leave it there. We'll probably read it out on a future episode. All right, well, let's get into the topic for today. So the number one thing we hear from people around this time of year is that they don't have enough time to sew. We actually hear that year round, I would say.

Haley

Yeah, particularly this time of year, but it is a year-round problem.

Sarai

It is a year-round problem. I think it's something that a lot of us face. It can also be hard to find the motivation to sew when you have a lot of other commitments, and also when the daytime hours are short. As our days start shortening at this time of year, it can feel like you just don't have as much time. I know I feel that way. I feel like I finish up work and then it's dark already. It feels like the days are over. And, I think the darkness also kind of lowers my energy level. I don't have as much energy in the evenings as I do during the daylight hours, and there are fewer of them. So, how do you allow yourself to be in a low energy season but keep doing the things that are going to fuel you creatively and give you that extra energy? So, do you find this to be an inspiring time of year for your sewing creativity, personally, Haley?

Haley

As we kind of move from fall into the winter season, I would definitely say that my Sojo slows down. Usually, I start to sew more gifts this time of year, and that gives me a momentary boost in my creative energy. But then, afterwards, I find that I can kind of stall out with my sewing plans a bit. What about you?

Sarai

Yeah, I mentioned this on the last episode that we recorded, but I do find winter to be the time where I feel the most low in terms of energy, and that translates into my sewing. There is more indoor time, so that helps than in summer, for example. But, overall, everything is so busy with the holidays and all of that, and I always find other projects I want to work on, and so it just sort of, a little bit of a difficult time for creativity for me, a lot of years.

Haley

How do you stay creative when your motivation is really low?

Sarai

So, for me, I think the key, for me, is to set aside specific times. One of the things that I've done recently, so, we're recording this in October, and I like to do a refresh on my daily routines every season because things change, the weather changes. I've noticed things that are working and are not working. In so, in fall, I made a change to my daily schedule and move things around so that I would have 60 to 90 minutes after work at the end of the day for whatever creative projects I'm working on. And, for me, having daily time set aside for creativity is really, really helpful so that when I do feel kind of unmotivated, I can do a creative project that maybe is not that taxing, maybe something that's kind of easy to do, even if it's just listening to a podcast and knitting a sweater for an hour, something that you know uses my hands and not a lot of brainpower necessarily, that unwinds me at the end of the day rather than something that is, for example, like writing that really takes a lot of brainpower. So just setting aside that time really, really helps me. What about you?

Haley

Setting aside specific time for creativity is a big tool that I take out when I feel like my motivation is really low. The other thing that I would add to that that I allow extra time for when my motivation is low is I allow time for just dreaming and ideating, where I'm not necessarily trying to create something with my hands. I think as makers, we get really caught up sometimes in the productivity of creation. But to stay really like tapped into your creativity, coming from someone who has creative hobbies and has a creative job. One of the most important things I do to keep inspiration flowing and keep fresh ideas is just setting aside time to just like think and sketch and look at pretty things. And that is super motivating for me when I'm feeling really low.

Sarai

That's a really good point. That’s actually I set aside some time tomorrow, for example, to finish up my winter sewing plans. I've got, my projects mapped out, and I want to put everything together and kind of organize it. So, I set aside some time for that tomorrow. It feels really good. It's really nice. It makes me feel like I have less pressure to actually produce, like you're saying. It’s…it’s just feels more relaxing when I have that time set aside.

Haley

Yeah. And if you have, like let's say, daily or weekly time that you have set aside, it can be nice to, if you're feeling kind of like low energy, to kind of switch gears into that kind of mode, I find.

Sarai

Yeah.

Haley

So, do you find that you prefer to slowly work through a big project this time of year or when you're low sewing energy or focus on smaller projects?

Sarai

Throughout the year, I think my approach is to do a little bit of both. But I do think at this time of year, I move into some of those bigger projects a lot of the time. I like to have some things in there that are challenging, and that helps me to stay motivated because I like learning new things or trying new things or getting some kind of unique idea and seeing if I can carry it out. I do think that this time of year is a big project time for me. I also like to make little gifts and things which tend to be the faster projects, so like I can make a few of them. And it I also always get into the idea of quilting at this time of year. I did make a quilt last year. I would love to make another quilt this year. I don't know that I'm going to be able to do it, but I really want to, or maybe even just some quilted, some smaller quilts, like a wall quilt or some pillows or something. But that's another thing, is just home projects, quilting, things like that. I always feel like they're good things to work on at this time of year, and they tend to be bigger projects, too. What about you?

Haley

I'm with you. I tend to focus on some larger projects this time of year, but when I feel my motivation starting to wane a little bit, I will take a break to sew some smaller things if I feel like that's going to help, you know. Sometimes just completing something is what you need to get your energy back. So that's the tactic that I use this time of year, usually.

Sarai

Yeah. One of the projects I really have had on my back burner for a long time. I don't know if I've mentioned this. I probably mentioned this on the podcast already, but Duke, my other cat, he chewed through the cords on our blinds. He's actually done this more than once. So he destroyed our blinds, basically, in our bedroom, and they're just hanging there looking really wonky, and they've been like that for a long time. So I have the fabric, and I want to make Roman shades for a couple of rooms now, but it's a big project. I've made Roman Shades before. It's a big project.

Haley

Yeah, it's tedious.

Sarai

It's very tedious, and you need a lot of stuff to do it, a lot of supplies. So I've been putting it off and putting it off. So that's another one that I really like to do this season. But I don't know. It'll look great once it's up, but I'm just not excited about doing it. I kind of hated making them the last time I did it.

Haley

Yeah, you probably will feel more motivated when it's sunny and you need your blinds more.

Sarai

That's true. I just sleep with the eye mask on. Don't think about it.

Haley

Problem solved.

Sarai

Yeah, I don't know if I told this story already in the podcast, but he chewed through another set of our blinds, and we brought them into the repair shop, and they had a wall of shame for all the pets that had destroyed blinds. And they said, What's your cat's name? And we said, Duke. And they said, Oh, Duke the destroyer. There's a picture, a wall of pictures of dogs and cats looking guilty.

Haley

And do they all have cute nicknames? Like Duke the destroyer?Or so it's special.

Sarai

I don't remember if they did, but I'm sure at least some of them did.

Haley

That's amazing. Well, let's get into some tips. Maybe this first tip will help you with your Roman shade debacle. So the first tip we have is to create teeny tiny goals for yourself and really break it down. I think something that can be really demotivating is when you feel like you're failing. And I think we set ourselves up for feeling like a failure when we create goals that are too big. So that doesn't mean avoiding big projects. On the contrary, I I think having larger projects and breaking them down into teeny tiny steps or even treating your small projects that same way, can be really helpful. For instance, my time for sewing is really limited, and I like to have one chunk of sewing time that's a bit larger on the weekends. But during the week, sometimes I set aside just 30 minutes where I can construct a collar or mark the button holes. Like the smallest steps. And I find that that can be really motivating to just feel like I'm not stalled out. I'm still making progress.

Sarai

Yeah. Sometimes for me, it'll help to just kind of write down what these little steps are. So I feel like I'm checking things off a list. It feels a little bit more, I know. It just feels a little bit more addicting that way because I keep thinking about for these Roman shades, we'll just use that as an example. I keep thinking, okay, so I have the fabric. Next step, I need to buy some blackout fabric for lining them, and then I need to buy all the notions for it. But I just keep putting it off and putting it off because I'm like, I don't know when I'm going to start working on this. But if I actually wrote down the steps and put them somewhere prominent where I could see myself checking them off and feel like I'm making progress on a plan, then I would probably feel a little bit more motivated to do it.

Haley

Do you ever, when you're making a checklist, write down the first step as something you've already done?

Sarai

Yes, of course.

Haley

So you can check.

Sarai

I do that every day.

Haley

So you have the main fabric, so you can check that one-off already.

Sarai

I do that every day. All right, well, the next tip is to embrace dopamine sewing. So by that, I mean, do something that gets you really excited. Use a fabric that gets you really excited. So something that's maybe totally impractical or so something that's for a special occasion. I think this is a great time of year to start thinking about special occasions. Most of us have some kind of either a holiday party to go to or maybe even just celebrating at home. Even if you're celebrating at home by yourself, it can be nice to get dressed up for the winter and just you know, kind of feel your best. So no matter what you have going on, there's probably some reason to celebrate. So maybe that's a good chance to sew something a little bit special. And you can also…We've been talking a lot about sewing for your home, so, you can also switch from sewing garments to doing home decor for a little while or vice versa. If you usually do a lot of home decor, you could do more garments, and that can help you to kind of get yourself out of a rut and perk yourself up just by doing something that's a little bit different. I personally love making a holiday dress. Are you going to make a holiday dress this year, Haley?

Haley

I'm thinking about it.

Sarai

Yeah.

Haley

I love sewing special occasion dresses, but I also have a lot of really decent ones in my closet already. So it's a real internal battle every year.

Sarai

Yeah. I had the same conundrum as I was planning out my winter projects. At first I thought, Yeah, I'm going to sew a holiday dress. It's going to be so fun. I even have some really nice fabrics that just scream. I have this gold lamee fabric that I've been wanting to make something out of it for a long time. I have this gold brocade from the fabric store, the fabric store, the store of the fabric store that I really I have always wanted to make like a little mini-skirt out of it or something. But like you said, I already have some really nice holiday dress that I only wear for special occasions.

Haley

Right.

Sarai

So, I don't know if I really need another one.

Haley

I've always wanted to make a velvet shift dress, like a really mini one. I was wondering if this is the year that I finally make that because that's reasonably something I would wear for like decades to come for the holiday season. And it could really be dressed up or down. So it's a maybe on my list.

Sarai

Yeah. And pretty simple to sew, too.

Haley

Yeah. Not the velvet, but the shift dress, yeah.

Sarai

The shape of it, at least. Yeah, I was also thinking about making a velvet top for the holidays because then I could wear it to our holiday party. I could wear it for any events, but then I could also probably wear it with jeans every day during the winter. So I was kind of thinking about that, and I love silk velvet, the feel of it. It's so luxurious.

Haley

I know, but then I just stand there and pet myself.

Sarai

Yeah.

Haley

Which is sometimes frowned upon, I guess. I don't know.

Sarai

You do you.

Haley

All right. So our next tip is to embrace small projects. I touched on this a little bit earlier, but if you're feeling low energy and maybe you're in the midst of a larger project that you feel a little stalled out on, nothing hits quite like a scrunchy or a tote bag. I'm here to tell you.

Sarai

Yeah.

Haley

Last week on my daughter was home, my older daughter was home sick all week long, and I had set aside some scraps and told her I was going to make her a scrunchy, but she was home, and I was in my sewing room working for actual work. She came in, she's like, When are you going to make my scrunchy? I was like, You know what? I have 10 minutes, so I could make a scrunchy right now. So I did. I made us matching scrunchies before our 10:00 AM kind of check-in meeting we do every day. And it made my whole day just feel better because we were wearing matching scrunchies. And I made something like it was one of those dopamine hits, you know. To start the was great. I found it just highly motivating. If you're feeling a little stuck, maybe try an itty-bitty project.

Sarai

What I love about those, both scrunchies and tote bags, I use every single day, every day. I sleep with a scrunchy in my hair. I use a tote bag constantly for hauling stuff back and forth to work or back and forth to my sewing shed. I'm constantly using both of those things. So the return on the amount of time you spend making these things. And I love it because it's like my tote bags are all just really cute prints. They're, you know, all these cute ditzy florals, and they just make me happy to have something cute to tote back and forth every day.

Haley

And then I always get compliments at the grocery store from people. They're like, Oh, this is a cute tote bag. And then I'm going to be like, Oh, well, I made it.

Sarai

And they're great gifts, too.

Haley

They are.

Sarai

One thing I want to do this year is use some more unusual fabrics to make scrunchies. I think that would be really fun. I have a silk scrunchie that I made from some fabric scraps from my Desi skirt, and I wear that to bed all the time because it doesn't pull on my hair. But I want to try maybe an organza or a velvet scrunchie, something fancy.

Haley

I love organza scrunchies. I think they're so cute. I did this thing recently. I was cleaning out like my bathroom stuff, and I made a little box of scrunchies to put in my bedside table. So at night, when I put my hair up before I go to sleep, I can choose like a fun scrunchie that matches my pajamas.

Sarai

Oh my God, that's so cute. I love that.

Haley

And I..it's just a cute little girly thing that I've been doing I really like.

Sarai

I got to try that. I just grab whatever scrunchie is around that I can find.

Haley

I find I have such little time now that I have a second kid that I have to do little tiny things like that that just make me feel cute and girly.

Sarai

Yeah, I love that idea. And by the way, we have a tutorial about making scrunchies in a really, really fast way that Haley taught us. So, if you want to go check out our YouTube channel, it's one of our most popular videos, so highly recommend that. We also have a video, I think on making tote bags as well.

Haley

Probably. And if we don't, we should.

Sarai

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we do. We have a lot of gift videos that we do this time of year around the holidays. So go ahead and look for those because the other thing... Okay, I'll get off the topic of scrunchies real fast, but I just want to say another idea I have for scrunchies for this year. I might put this in our GIF roundup video pretty soon, but I saw this scrunchy that had like a big fabric rosette on it, and it was so pretty.

Haley

I love that.

Sarai

My silk one has a big bow on it, but I think a rosette would just be so pretty,so, especially in silk. Okay, no more scrunchies. Let's move on. So, the next tip is instead of those little projects, another thing you could try is making one large project, but doing it in smaller sessions. So, it can be something that is just something you want to make for a long time and large projects can tend to feel really motivating because it's something that you can be really proud of at the end of it. So I think sometimes with large projects, you don't put as much of a hard deadline on yourself as you do with lots of small projects. You want to get kind of a lot of things done when you're focusing on small projects. But with larger projects, I don't know, maybe is this true for you, Haley, but I feel like I don't necessarily try to have it done by a certain time if I know it's going to be a multi-step, multi-day project.

Haley

Yeah, I'm actually experiencing this right now. I'm making a parker jacket. And last week, my goal was to just print and cut the pattern and order the fabric that I needed. And this week, while I'm waiting for fabric to arrive, I'm just doing the pattern adjustments. And breaking it down like that into these kind of weekly goals has been so motivating for me.

Sarai

Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think it can just help you to embrace that slow sewing philosophy, personally.

Haley

Okay, kind of related to what I was talking about with the parker jacket, another technique that I've been using is the Pomodoro method. So, if you're not familiar with this technique, it's a time management strategy that involves breaking your work into little chunks and then taking short breaks in between. I think that typically it's a 25 minute work and then five minute break. But I've done this in like all sorts of different lengths of time. Sometimes if I'm feeling like really unmotivated, I'll do a 15 minute work, five minute off. And this has been really helpful to help me get little chunks of projects done, especially those larger projects that I've broken up into little tiny chunks. So for instance, with my Parker jacket, I was like, I'm going to do 25-minute timer and I'm just going to work on the length adjustment because there are buttons and it's like you know it’s not super cut and dry and so motivating.

Sarai

Yeah. I use the Pomodoro method all the time. Actually, there's a writer named David Cain. He writes blog called Raptitude. It's great. I love this blog. But anyway, he has a method that he calls the block method, and it's basically a Pomodoro method. It's really similar. There's a couple of small differences, but I think the big difference is that he encourages you to view these as blocks for building something larger. And so, that 25-minute chunk is like one block, and you're creating blocks with every chunk that you do in order to build something bigger. And some people even use like Legos on their desk to count out their blocks and physically build something. And I find that strategy really helpful, especially for things that you have trouble getting motivated to do in the first place. Even if it's something you enjoy, I find that certain tasks that might take a lot of either mental preparation or physical preparation, they tend to fall to the back burner. And so having this method of... If you can tell yourself, Well, I'm just going to work for 25 minutes, and then set a timer and it'll be done. Same thing for cleaning. I think you've given that advice so far, setting a timer for cleaning, and it helps a lot.

Haley

Yeah, and it helps me to be fast.

Sarai

Yeah.

Haley

Because I know that timer is going.

Sarai

Yeah. It creates a little bit of urgency, which is not too much urgency, but just a little bit.

Haley

Yeah, it's nice to have that small amount of tension.

Sarai

Yeah. It creates a little bit of urgency, which is not too much urgency, but just a little bit.

Haley

Yeah, it's nice to have that small amount of tension.

Sarai

Yeah. So the next tip is to set up a sewing or crafting station. So, what I like about this is that when you have a certain area kind of set up as your sewing station, it gives you some permission to leave your projects out, which that helps me quite a bit. You can kind of just hop over and sew for a few minutes whenever you have the time, instead of feeling like you have to pack everything and in at the end, you have to take it all out again every time. That can be a real barrier. I know it is for me. And so, I'm lucky because I have a whole my backyard sewing shed. If you haven't seen it, definitely go to YouTube and take a look at my sewing shed. I did a tour of it, a year ago or so, but I'm doing an update tour that's coming out probably around the time that this podcast comes out. So, you can check it out, but it really helps me to be able to just kind of leave everything a little bit of a mess when I'm in the midst of a project and then clean it all up at the end when I'm done and reset everything. And it's a really, really cozy space, which helps me a lot. So, that's something that you can, no matter how much space you have, even if it's just a little corner, you could add some string lights or some festive decorations and give it a little bit of a holiday glow and just make it feel like your special holiday crafting corner.

Haley

Yeah. I, as lots of people know who listen to this podcast, I'm a little neurotic about cleaning up and keeping things tidy. But something I've been doing is I give myself permission to leave things out on my ironing board. My sewing space is also my working space. And so, when I'm done sewing, I do a light tidy and keep the things that I'm going to need my next sewing session out on my ironing board, and it's been really helpful.

Sarai

Yeah, that's another really great tip. If you do need to clean everything up each time is to have just even a tiny, tiny little space.

Haley

Like a little landing space.

Sarai

Yeah. A little staging area.

Haley

Aha.

Sarai

All right. Well, I'm going to recap the tips that we shared in this episode. So, tip one is to set teeny tiny sewing goals. Tip two is to embrace dopamine sewing. Tip three is to try making smaller projects, or tip four is to try making one bigger project but do it in smaller chunks. Tip five is to try the Pomodoro technique to break up your time, and tip six is to set up a festive sewing or crafting station. All right, what's your big takeaway from today's episode, Haley?

Haley

I think that my big takeaway, this isn't necessarily something we really touched on directly, but it got me thinking about when I shift my focus away from my output and more towards just taking time, then I feel so much more motivated to keep going. Even if I'm sewing less quantity, I'm more likely to sew or make time for my creativity more frequently if I make kind of that mindset shift.

Sarai

Yeah, that's true. I think for me, this phrase comes to mind that I read recently. I don't know who said it or where it came from, but the phrase was, Fear comes free, hope takes work. And, I feel like that can apply to a lot of things. I think with creative projects, with sewing, I mean, that could apply to creative projects as well. But I also think that inertia also comes free, and motivation takes work. So, I think sometimes you have to do a little bit more than you might realize in order to keep motivated and stay motivated. And so, taking a little bit of time to think about what makes you feel personally motivated can be time well spent because it can really keep you going, keep you inspired in a way that you might not even anticipate. So, that's just something that came to mind while we were talking. Well, if you want a weekly boost of creativity delivered to your inbox each week, you can sign up for my Snippets newsletter. It's free, and we send out five ideas for your sewing each week, along with some free videos and lots of other fun stuff from the Seamwork world. And we have over 200,000 subscribers, so you can get it for free at getsnippets.com. And if you like this episode, please consider leaving us a review. You can also follow us on YouTube at Seamwork Video. You can follow us on Instagram at Seamwork. If you'd like to join Seamwork and become part of our private community, plus get access to hundreds of sewing patterns and dozens of sew-along classes, podcast listeners get a 50% off lifetime discount when you join at seamwork.com/go/podcast50. That's seamwork.com/go/podcast50. I'm Sarai.

Haley

And I'm Haley.

Sarai

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