Episode 47: The Myth of “Advanced” Sewing

Who Gets to Decide Your Sewing Level?

What does “advanced sewing” actually mean?

Is it mastering difficult techniques? Sewing with tricky fabrics? Pattern drafting? Perfect topstitching? Or is it simply having the confidence to try something new?

In this episode of The Sewcial Hour Podcast, Bethany dives into the complicated world of sewing skill labels — beginner, intermediate, advanced, confident beginner — and unpacks why those labels are far more subjective than most sewists realize.

Because the truth is: there’s no universal standard for sewing difficulty. One designer’s “easy weekend project” might leave another sewist crying over a seam ripper at 2am. And sometimes the projects we fear most end up teaching us the most.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Where sewing skill labels actually come from
• Why pattern difficulty is often subjective
• What “advanced sewing” really means
• Why troubleshooting is one of the most important sewing skills
• The forgotten “intermediate beginner” phase
• Why sewing skill is NOT linear
• Comparison culture and social media perfectionism
• Letting go of the idea that you need permission to sew certain projects
• Redefining success in sewing beyond perfection

Bethany also shares a more realistic sewing skill progression and reminds listeners that you can be advanced in one sewing niche and a total beginner in another — and that’s completely normal.

Plus, in this week’s “You Love To See It” segment, we’re celebrating beginner wins, imperfect projects, cutting into “the good fabric,” and sewists realizing they already belong in the creative space exactly as they are.

Whether you’re sewing your very first garment or tackling your tenth ambitious project, this episode is a reminder that sewing isn’t about earning a label — it’s about curiosity, creativity, and learning as you go.

Listener Question:

What sewing level do YOU identify with right now?
And what project made you feel more confident as a sewist?

Join the conversation in our Facebook group, The Sewcial Sewists!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Social Hour Podcast, a podcast for Sewis by Sewis. I'm your host, Bethany, and today we're going to talk about sewing labels. And no, I'm not talking about those cute little labels that we put on our projects that say fun little things. I'm talking about the labels that we give patterns and projects, like beginner, confident beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and all the little terminology in between. What do those actually mean? Who decided them? And why do so many sewists feel like they need permission to try certain projects based on these labels? Because honestly, let's be real. One designer's confident beginner is another designer's this made me cry at 2 a.m. And we'd really like to avoid that. Okay. So today we're going to deconstruct the myth of advanced sewing and redefine what skill progression can actually look like. And we kind of talked about this in a previous episode when we were talking about building your confidence as a sewist. So this is just kind of continuing that conversation, and you get to decide what skill level level you're at. Okay, so let's kick off before we dive into this topic, because I may ruffle some feathers with this conversation today. So let's strap in for that. But let's kick off with our icebreaker question. And the question is, and I'd love for you to answer this to yourself, maybe to a sewing friend, maybe online, or really in our social sewist Facebook group. I'd love to hear your answer. What was the first project that made you feel advanced? Think about that for a second. What was the first project that made you feel like an advanced sewist? Okay. Now that is you and only you can decide that. Now I'm gonna share a project that I have immense pride in. And to me, this was uh advanced in some ways, but simple in others, because I was making it up as I went, which is typically how my projects go. But that don't let my example define advance for you. So that's I want to say that before I share this. So years ago, when I was going to a work convention where we were launching a new machine, we used to do these things where um the educators, the full-time and freelance educators within the organization, including myself, would participate in a challenge and we would bring those projects to the convention, and all of the attendees of the convention would vote on these projects. Now, the attendees were mostly quilt shop owners, they were uh retailers of our sewing machine brands, multiple brands, and so they were there for the convention to learn about and see the new machine we were launching. But we have all other things that we have going on while we have them there for a few days, and this was part of that. So it's a fun little challenge, and this was my first time participating in the challenge, and I was really encouraged to do so, and I did it's optional, but most people do, and it's a fun way to really see the talent and creativity that is in our education team and really show off who we are as individuals because a lot of times we're making projects that we have to make or projects that feature certain things on the machines or the new designs that just came out, so we don't always get to be fully creative when you know doing our day-to-day job. So, this was an opportunity to really show off things that we love and get to experiment. So, as a garment sewist, and I didn't really do a lot of garment sewing when I worked there because my projects were more like beginner-friendly projects. I you chose to make a garment. Now the challenge was that you had to make your own fabric and then turn it into something, whatever you wanted it to be. So I, long story short, uh I made my own fabric by using water-soluble mesh and layering scraps of quilting cotton in a fun ombre of white to darker pink. It was like ombres of pink, uh, and it was very scrappy, like I just cut them willy-nilly pieces, and they were not big pieces. So I layered them all out on top of all this water-soluble mesh and sandwiched it between two layers of that, and then I stitched it like crazy with this shiny sparkly pink thread that literally looked like Christmas tinsel. It was so hard to do because it kept wanting to break, it was so fragile, and I sewed it all and then I washed it and just prayed that it stayed together in one piece, it didn't like fall apart, and miraculously it didn't. And that was just the front half of the dress I was gonna turn this in, and then I had to repeat that process for the back half. And so I took a knit pattern, turned it into a woven, made my own fabric, bound it, and made an ombre dress out of quilting cotton scraps. And I was so proud of it, it actually fits me, and I could wear it. It's been ages since I've posted about it. Maybe I should revisit that and post it because I'm so proud of it. I'm sure you can hear how proud I am of it in my voice, but I literally made the entire thing up the day before I had to fly out for this convention, and it took me 13 hours. And it was a very stressful 13 hours, but it was also the most fun 13 hours I've had in a really long time because I just had a vision in my head and I was just gonna figure it out. And if it didn't work, then I wasn't participating in the challenge, it wasn't a requirement, but it was my way of showing that I really loved garment sewing. I still do, but back then it was mostly what I did in my spare time. So I go to the show, I didn't I had this beautiful dress hanging, I didn't win anything, I didn't even place, and that's fine. I think hindsight, I should have probably thought about my audience. Most of them are quilters, so making a garment in front of a bunch of quilters probably isn't gonna land, and that's fine, but I I was so proud of it. I still have it in my closet, I love it dearly, and I call it the Barbie dress because it's like ombres of pink, and I think this was around the year that like the Barbie movie came out. So, anyways, that was my first project that I would say made me feel advanced because I didn't really use a pattern. I made my own fabric and then turned it, and I'd never done it before, and then of course I did it the day before. So, like, you know, I just I work well under pressure, I guess. But for me, what made it feel advanced was me taking all of my knowledge that I had learned up to that point and creating something truly authentic and and original to me that I had never done before, and I wasn't following anybody's instructions. There was no YouTube video on this, and I was just making it up as I went based on the knowledge that I had built for myself. So to me, that felt really advanced. Even if other people didn't think it was great, that's fine. I loved it, um, and I still love it, and I still look at it, and I actually took it to my April retreat in Indiana as part of my little trunk show show and tell of things I've made that I'm really proud of, and that was one of the things I took, and uh it was really fun to have people get to see it up close and personal. And if you ever want to see it up close and personal, then you need to come to one of my retreats. But, anyways, that's the icebreaker question. I'd love to know your answer. What was the first project that made you feel advanced? I know that was kind of a long-winded answer, but I just get so excited about talking about it. I really should do it again. But that was a bit of an undertaking, so we'll see. We'll see how that how that goes. All right, let's dive into our topic today about sewing labels, and let's start about where they came from or where they come from. So, a couple things I want to point out right off the bat. Sewing labels are incredibly subjective, like incredibly subjective. They are personal opinion of those who create the pattern or the project that you are looking at making. There is absolutely no universal industry standard for pattern difficulty. Just kind of like there's really no universal sizing for garment patterns, and also no universal sizing for ready-to-wear clothes in the store. There's no universal standard for this deciding how difficult a pattern is. Skill levels are assigned by the designer or the pattern company, and that is it. Um, and every designer teaches differently so and assumes different levels of knowledge. And I've learned that a lot as I've gone through my years of teaching is people getting frustrated with patterns that assume knowledge, even when they say beginner or confident beginner. And I try in my patterns to never assume. I try to uh without having to make the pattern too lengthy, try to include links or QR codes to uh other tutorials that talk about that step specifically. Like if we're putting in um a zipper, and I'm just using this for an example off the top of my head, but if we're putting in a zipper and it's a very basic zipper and this is a short, quick project, then or it's just one short part of a bigger project, then I may say if you've never put in, like we'll go over how to do it, but if you've never used a zipper foot before and you need to know how to use a zipper, then you might want to watch this video over here or this you know tutorial over here. Um, but anyways, I try not to assume people's knowledge, I try to meet everyone where they're at, and sometimes I feel like I give more information than I need to, but those who don't need all that information and kind of skim right through it, those who need it, it's there. Um, but not everybody, like I said, teaches or you know, writes their patterns the same way. Um, like I said, some designers are very extremely detailed with their tutorials and photos, and others leave things to the imagination, and that can be very frustrating as a begin as a true beginner, or if this is a new technique you've never tried before. Um, some labels are based on number of pattern pieces, techniques involved, uh, fabric difficulty, how difficult it is to work with that material. So for me, I don't find sewing with satin difficult because I've learned the tips, the tips, and the techniques to make it very manageable. But when anytime I make a project or write a project using satin, I include all those tips so that you feel like you can learn how to work with that difficult fabric. Um, fitting complexity complexity, if it's a pattern that's challenging to fit in the bust or the hips or the seat or whatever, those are things that can make it more advanced. Um, time commitment. How involved is this project? How long is it really going to take someone to finish? And then the construction order. All of these things are things that can really play into how someone decides the sewing difficulty level of that pattern. Um, so like I said, pattern labels are guidance, but they are absolutely not a measure of your worth or capability, and it is a personal opinion that should not be passed on to how you feel about your skills and ability. Okay? So now my next question to you is have you ever avoided a pattern because the label intimidated you? Have you ever ignored the label completely and succeeded anyway? Think about that. How are these labels hindering you? Or are you just kind of going, meh, and just keep going? That's two different types of people right there, okay? And there's no right or wrong, but just know that this is part of the conversation of do we even pay attention to those labels? So, what does advanced even mean? Let's let's kind of break down this myth of advanced. Now, if you can't see me, if you're not watching the YouTube version, I think I've used air quotes a dozen times already. Um, this is, if you can't tell, like a bit of a topic that has kind of always bugged me, but I've never really talked about it before. So I'm glad that we're having this conversation now. Um, what is advanced? Is it about the technique, the precision, the patience, which we all know I don't have enough of, the fit, the creativity, the problem solving, the confidence, the risk taking, maybe the additional tools and resources you need to be able to complete it. There's so many things that can make a pattern feel advanced to those who are writing it. So let me give you an example a simple dress in a silk Charmuse may be harder to sew up than a tailored jacket in cotton. Primarily because of the material used. There are fewer seams and details in that simple dress, but the material can be really challenging. However, that tailored jacket, you're working with crisp lines, easy to work with fabric, and clear steps, right? So both can be very challenging, but it's based on who's sewing it. Jeans might feel real easy to one sewist and like absolutely terrifying to another. Fun fact, I've never made myself a pair of jeans ever from scratch. Mainly because I have a brand that I really like and it's just easier to buy them. And denim fabric is now harder to get uh in stock than it used to be. But I've always wanted to make a pair of jeans, but I've never been great at getting the waist to hip because of the way that my body is built. I don't have the curve like most uh female shapes do, and so I get a lot of gapping, and that's the biggest reason I haven't made it is because not because jeans intimidate me, it's because getting the fit right, and I don't want to go through all that work and spend all the money on that denim and not be able to get the fit right. And I've had this happen with other tailored pants and even skirts, and so it's one of those things where I'm just like it's not for me, and that's okay. There's a lot of other sewing I can do. Um, a quilted coat may just require a little more patience than advanced skill, and I would believe that, especially if you're using a pre-made quilt. Um, sometimes advanced just means more steps, unfamiliar techniques, or just a little more room for error, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it. I want to remind you that a huge part of becoming an experienced sewist is simply learning how to troubleshoot. So when you do run into an error, if you do run into an issue with your machine, you do run into a point in the pattern where you're not understanding that you know how to troubleshoot, that you can problem solve, and that takes time as you learn different types of sewing. That's why I find that a lot of people kind of niche down into one area and get real comfortable with that because they don't have to troubleshoot as much and they can just sit down and start a project and work through it gracefully. And I love those projects too, but it's also good to for us to challenge ourselves sometimes sometimes. It's also really helpful to build our skill set and our confidence and our knowledge so that when we do come into another more difficult pattern in our area of niche and we we want to try those new techniques, we've we've practiced some other things and some other feet and some other techniques that help us troubleshoot. Because we all know that sewing is not perfect. Uh, owning expensive equipment does not make it any easier. Uh, knowing every technique is not realistic. I don't know every technique, and that's okay. Um, but you just need to learn. Say, okay, this went wrong, how do I fix it? And we're gonna figure it out. Also, know that you if you build a bit of a sewing community, whether it's at your local shop or friends online or someone you follow on on social media or YouTube that has great tutorials, reach out to those people, that community to help you troubleshoot when you get stuck. So now I want to take a minute to redefine sewing skill levels, as we like to call it, a more realistic sewing scale. So this is just me sharing my opinion again. Uh, this is just where I feel like beginner, confident beginner, and so forth all kind of lie, like what falls under those tiers. And then maybe hearing my perspective on it will maybe make you find that you're not as beginner as you thought, or you are, and that's fine. Maybe you're more advanced. Great, let's break it down. So, to me, a beginner is learning the machine basics. Maybe it's their first time you know, sewing on the machine ever, or it's the first time in a long time that they've pulled it out of the closet. That's okay. Understanding sewing terminology. I think everyone should know what all the different features on the machine are called based on what it's referenced to in your manual so that when you do need help, you can reference it and not feel even more overwhelmed because you don't know what things are called. Um, following your first patterns, you're following them to a T step by step. You're hanging on every word to make sure you're doing it right. You're not exploring yet. Learning seam allowances and construction basics. What does back stitching mean? What's the difference between a straight stitch, a triple straight stitch? What's the difference between different zigzag stitches? What's a stretch stitch? There's so many different basic things that you need to practice as a beginner, and that's why I always tell people just feed fabric through your machine and push all the different buttons or change all the different dials, whatever you need to do to play and learn and learn the sounds of your machine. This is what's going to build confidence as a beginner. Once we start becoming more confident with our machine, we can become a confident beginner. You can complete projects independently. Um, you're not having to ask for help or follow along a guided teacher. You're more comfortable reading patterns, you're starting to pick up on that terminology. It at first can feel like a foreign language, but now we're really starting to understand some of these abbreviations, like HST is half square triangle. Little things like that. Willing to try new techniques. Now we're starting to branch out from some simple beginner-friendly projects to maybe we're adding a zipper. You know, maybe we're putting in a pocket. Those little things are really where the confident beginner is starting to start exploring and figure out how they can take those skills into those some of those beginner projects they've already accomplished. And then now they're starting to understand fit and fabric. So as a garment sewist, you're starting to figure out what you like. Uh do you like sewing with knits, sewing with wovens? Do you like more fitted things or more loosy things flowy things or vice versa? Like it's it's kind of all over the place. And when you're a beginner, you're just trying to make the simple things to build those skills, and then then you can hone in to things that are what you really want to wear. Whereas fabric, that's learning the different types of fabric. And there are so many different types of fabric. And this is one of the reasons I kind of miss having Joann's available to people, um, especially beginners, because it gave them an opportunity to go into a store that carried more than just quilt and cotton. It carried upholstery, um, home deck, uh, knits, wovens, uh, satins and laces and and leathers and vinyls, and there were so many different types of materials there that you could touch and feel, you could stretch and pull, you could read at the top of the bolt what that material was called, and it really helped you put a physical, tangible interaction with that material to oh, I want to order online. Is this material really gonna drape like I want it to in this dress? Well, I know it will because it's the same type of material I've used before, and it's called the same thing, and and that translates pretty well. Um, but I'm just using that as an example, is uh, you know, even when I started getting into like bag making, and I'm learning all the different types of materials there as well, and there's a lot, there's a lot, and they can start to look the same, but they can also feel very different and have different weights, and based on the weight and and thickness of the material determines if my machine can even sew it. So there's a lot of things that come from just building your knowledge of fabrics, even as a quilter. Okay, there's different battings, there's so many different battings. I think it's one of the questions I get asked a lot. Almost every week, I get DMs going, what type of batting do you use? or um what batting should I use for my first quilt? I don't I don't know anything about batting or stabilizers, you know, for embroidery. There's just so many options. So, as a confident beginner, this is where you're starting to explore different types of fabrics or materials that you need to do your projects. Now, as we advance into an immediate intermediate beginner, this is um kind of I feel like a category that gets looked over. It kind of goes from confident beginner to intermediate, but I would say that there is a place for intermediate beginner because completed multiple projects, uh start to finish, whether it's garments, whether Whether it's quilts, whether it's bags, they have completed multiple, can troubleshoot basic issues with their machine or understanding the pattern, beginning pattern modifications. So maybe they learned applique over here and now they're gonna apply it to their quilt or their bag. For example, um, more intentional fabric choices. Now that they've built some confidence, they're exploring different materials, but they're also sourcing it differently. Maybe buying some of the more uh expensive fabrics or materials that they've wanted to sew with but didn't feel comfortable cutting into yet. Now they are. Um, and they're just learning construction logic. Like they are it is starting the light bulb is going off and it's really starting to make sense. Maybe even they're helping a neighbor in a classroom when they get stuck, right? Um, so that's to me an intermittent, intermediate beginner. Now, an intermediate person, and again, these are all my opinions here, someone comfortable with a wide variety of projects, okay? They are not just in one niche, they have kind of explored and done multiple things. Maybe they've just done quilting, but now they're taking that quilting and turning it into a coat, or they're taking that quilting and turning it into a bag or a tote. Something along those lines. They're they're taking what they've learned and trying new things. They're understanding maybe if their garments so as fit adjustments like the bust adjustment, the hip adjustment, the seat adjustment, those kind of things to help those garments fit their body better. They can adapt techniques. Um, they're less dependent on tutorials. Now they're kind of skimming through the tutorial, they're maybe just looking at the pictures. That's kind of where they're at. Um, or they just kind of listen to the video tutorial if there is one and follow along and they can keep up. Um, can recover from mistakes more independently. It's not uh the end of the world, it's kind of more of like a okay, like maybe I need to take a break, but like I know what I did wrong and I can fix this. It's not, it doesn't feel as hard to overcome. Now we're gonna jump into advanced. These are strong troubleshooting skills. They understand garment construction deeply. Um, maybe they understand bag construction deeply, quilt construction. Maybe they're designing these types of patterns. Um, maybe they're designing quilts or bags or you know, garments or embroidery patterns, whatever. They can draft or heavily modify patterns. As I said, they could be designing them or modifying them. Um, very comfortable with experimenting. As I kind of mentioned before in my icebreaker question, I am very comfortable with experimenting. Uh when someone messaged me one day and they were like watching one of my videos, and they were like, I feel like you don't really go into your videos with a plan, you just kind of turn on the camera and go, we're gonna figure this out together. And she's like, Do you really just do it for the first time when you hit record? I'm like, a lot of times, yeah. A lot of times, yes. When them when the mood strikes and the energy is right and the vibes are good, I just turn on the camera and go, I want to make this today, and I'm just gonna take you along. But that becomes that confidence comes from many, many years of sewing. Um, confident decision maker. So someone who's like, I I can look at a pattern and easily tell, you know, what I'm gonna need to be able to finish it. I can look at the pattern without just the cover photo and know everything, kind of break it down how it's constructed, and know if it's something I want to make. Um, so that to me are the different categories of sewing scale, the more realistic sewing scale. We said beginner, confident beginner, intermediate beginner, intermediate, and advanced. To me, there's five. Now let's take another little curveball here because sewing skills are not linear, they are not linear at all. So that means that an advanced someone who's advanced at quilting may be a beginner at garment sewing. Someone who's great at knit fabrics could be absolutely terrified of zippers, incredible at fitting a garment, but completely confused by bras or swimwear. You know that those are all variables that can happen, right? And that that to me is totally normal, and I think that's where some people get confused as to where they're at in their skill level because it isn't linear. I could say that I am an advanced sewist, but I would say I'm more of an intermediate bag maker, I'm not designing bags, okay. Um, but I can make them, I can make pretty advanced bags confidently, but I'm not designing bags, okay? That's me. Um, same with garment sewing. I've designed garments, I've had the help of a team to help me design a garment. I did a lot of it myself, but like the thing, the only thing I didn't really do in the the design process was the grading. That's a lot of math, and that was not my cup of tea. And a lot of people outsource the grading for that very reason. But I could still design a garment, but I wouldn't say I'm designing a tailored suit, and to me that's more advanced. And so I feel like even though I can design a pattern for garments doesn't mean that I'm designing a difficult pattern for garments. Same with my quilting. I'm not designing advanced quilting patterns, I'm designing more beginner-friendly patterns because that's my audience and those are who I like to teach. So, again, there's different skill levels to me based on the type of sewing as well. Skill does not transfer across every sewing niche, is what I'm trying to say. Um, no one magically graduates into being advanced forever. I'm always learning, you know. I I would say I'm an advanced sewist, but you if you follow me on social media, you know that I just got a long arm uh earlier at the end of last year, and I'm still learning a lot, and I would say that I'm a pretty confident beginner. Okay. I also just from all my years of sewing, I'm not scared of just going for it. And maybe that's just because I've worked with so many different machines over the years that I'm not scared to break them. I think a lot of people get scared that they're gonna break a machine. Mine was buzzing at me the other day because I hit the wrong button and I just had to reset the whole thing, and it's fine. It's frustrating, but it happens, and that's part of learning. And so, you know, I am not scared of saying that I'm a confident beginner in long arming because I'm not over here doing ruler work and custom work yet, full free motion yet. I'm just trying to still learn my machine. Um, but I would say I'm an advanced sewist in many other areas. So that to me is a very fair thing to say, and you need to decide for yourself where you kind of fall. I would also like to mention that even experienced sewists still Google techniques, they still use that seam ripper. I make some wild mistakes, let's be honest. Uh, there are definitely materials that I will avoid, and I can say a lot of people probably feel the same way. There's materials that they would avoid, and they start, they don't always start their projects fully prepared for what they're diving into. Um, so don't feel like you have to either. Now there is an emotional side to sewing labels. Let's talk about that. I do not want you waiting until you feel good enough to try a pattern or try a technique. Maybe you just need to find one that is geared towards really teaching you the foundations of that technique before you do a more advanced pattern. But don't wait till you feel good enough. It's okay to try because if we fail, we're failing forward and we're always learning from it. There's this huge fear of wasting fabric. And I think what we talked about in a previous episode with Quilt with Miss Kate, she's like, there's always gonna be more fabric. If you're worried about wasting fabric, that's where you pull out scraps. That's where you go to the discount section, the clearance section, the scrap bin. Um, that's where you use that old set of sheets that you're never gonna put on your bed again, and you cut those up and use those as your test, right? Scraps from previous projects, use those as your test before you cut into the good stuff if you truly have a fear of wasting the good stuff, okay? Um, we've talked about the comparison culture online so many times, and I don't want to dive into it too much in this conversation, but that is true. That is a real feeling. It's okay to feel that way, but please do not compare someone's, you know, 10 years into this craft to your first month, okay, or wherever you fall in that. One of the reasons why I wanted to start to learn how to longarm and share it so publicly is because I wanted to see people learning it from a true beginner who's never done it before. Um, I watch and follow so many long armers that are brilliantly talented, but I can recognize that what they're doing is many years of practice and honing in their skills, right? Whereas I know I'm not gonna start there, but someone who's new to it or maybe doesn't understand that, it can intimidate them and make them not even want to start. So I'm trying to show them what it really looks like to start from scratch because I don't want people to compare themselves to people who have been doing it for a long time. Um, I think it's good to admire it's inspire have them inspire you and aspire to get to that level, but you have to be realistic. It's not where you're starting out when you first take that long arm out of the box or whatever you're doing. Um, don't want you to feel behind. Everybody starts at a different point in life. If you've ever listened to any of our guest episodes, you know that there's people that have been sewing just as long or longer than me, but there's people that have been sewing for since the pandemic hit and they found the craft then. Maybe they just started recently because they had kids and that's a big motivator. Um, whatever it may be, there's people that are are just started a year ago and they're doing some amazing things because they really dedicated head first dove into this craft without fear. Um, so just because they've been sewing for a shorter amount of time than you, don't feel like you're behind in learning. Everybody's path looks different. I do not want anyone to feel embarrassed to call yourself a sewist. Just because you're a beginner, just because your project in a classroom didn't doesn't look as good as your neighbor's, that's your personal opinion, nobody else's. Um, I just because your top stitching isn't the same as someone else's, I get questions every single week. When I share a quilt, everybody's like, Do you only machine bind your quilts? And every single time I confidently say yes. Yes, for two reasons. I don't have the time or the patience. Hand sewing does not interest me. I know that about myself as a human being. I my ADHD is too strong to sit still that long. I cannot do it. And for me, it's just not my cup of tea. That's why I don't do really any hand sewing of any type, not just binding. But man, do I appreciate those who do? And my mom is one of those who loves doing it. She's even offered to bind my machines, and I don't know if that's because she just really wants to do it or because she's tired of watching me top stitch my binding. I don't care. I really like top stitching my binding because I'm really good at top stitching, and I think it looks really nice. And if we're gonna see all the quilting on the quilt, why can't I see this the stitching on my binding? To me, it just blends right in and it doesn't matter. But there's all these different um opinions about it, and that's fine. But I every time someone asks me that, I confidently say, no, I machine bind the whole thing, and that's just for me. That's just how I like to do it, and that's okay. You can decide how you like to do it, you can hand sew it all day, and I love that for you. Um, but that's just not for me, and that does not make me any more embarrassed to share my quilts because I machine bind them, I think they look nice, and that's how I like to do it. But if you like to hand sew it, I think that's fantastic too. Again, personal preference. And then the last thing I want to mention is perfectionism. This can really hold some people up. This is where people feel like on the first time they're trying something new, they don't give themselves grace for it to not be perfect. For that eighth of an inch or that quarter of an inch seam to not be perfect, for those points to not line up perfectly, um, for that seam allowance to not be perfect. Whatever it may be, when you're first learning a new technique or a new skill or a new project and you're trying something different, it will not be perfect. I mean, it's sewing, it's material, it's never gonna be 100% perfect. That's unrealistic, so just go ahead and get that out of your head right now. But perfectionism is something that can really slow people down, and sometimes I just want to just take that cape of perfectionism that feels so heavy. Whenever I'm teaching in person, there's always one or two of you in my class or in my retreat, and I just want to come over and take that cape off so you can just relax and breathe and enjoy the process. It's great for wanting to do those fine-tuning things, but it's also really important to just go for it. Just willingly without holding back, just go for it. And you might be amazed at how freeing that can feel. So, with that all being said, you do not need permission to sew something. Do not need permission. You can try the coat, you can attempt the jeans, you can make the fancy dress, you can make the quilt, you can make that bag with all that hardware and extra pockets and zippers, you can do it. You just gotta start. You gotta be willing to try. Even if it turns out absolutely terrible the first time we've all had those projects. That's how we build skills. And at the end of the day, one thing I tell my students, whether it's at a retreat or in a class or anywhere, it's not that serious. It's supposed to be fun. Okay, so don't take it so seriously and have all the fun. Now we kind of talked a little bit about the comparison trap. We're gonna dive in just a little bit here for this topic. And and what I want to point out is that social media and advanced sewing like kind of skips the struggle, right? Like when we see what people make on social media, we don't see all the failures, we don't see all the missed stitches, we don't see all the mess ups or the late nights or the frustration or the seam ripping, we don't see the struggle of what how they got to that finished project. Like I said, we see the finished project in all its glory, and maybe the highlight reel for them to get there, but we don't see the meltdowns. And sometimes there's some meltdowns, especially with some of these bigger projects. When we definitely don't see the abandoned UFO pile, those are unfinished projects. We don't see that giant pile in the corner. We don't usually share that. I'm looking at one over here that's been sitting there for about a year and a half. Cut out, ready to sew, and I have lost interest in it. And that's okay. It's not serving me, I should probably just gift it to someone else. But at the end of the day, we we don't always see the reality on social media. So when you're living in your reality in your sewing room and you're looking at someone's purely clean, curated content on social media or YouTube that you're following along to make this project, and they make it look so easy, you're not seeing all the times that they've practiced that, all the times that they had to start over, all the times that they had to rewrite that project or that pattern, because you're seeing the finished piece of all their hard work, and you're now just starting the hard work. Those are two different ends of the spectrum. So let's real quick redefine success in sewing. Success does not have to mean perfect finishing, flawless top stitching, sewing quickly, which we all know that I love to sew very fast. I do find that it helps my straight stitch be a little straighter. Uh, never making mistakes or looking quote unquote professional. Success can actually mean learning something new, finishing a project, trying again after failure, wearing something proudly anyways, or simply just enjoying the process. It's supposed to be fun and it's not that serious. Let's dive into the you love to see it. So I want to share my you love to see it, and I'm gonna throw it back a little bit. My you love to see it is when I was at my March retreat here in Tennessee, and I had a room full of wonderful sewists. And as you know, anybody can come. It could be your first time at a sewing machine or you could be sewing longer than me. We all, like I said, come with different levels of experience. But I always try to challenge my students, and one thing I like to do is write projects that introduce maybe a type of sewing or a pro a foot that came with your machine or a feature on your machine that you may have never been willing to try or thought you would ever need. So the project, the bonus project for my retreats this year is a sewing organizer roll-up. The project as itself is not complicated, but what I make it, how I make it more complicated is by we use different, like five different feet on this project. Um, zipper foot, quarter inch foot, open toe foot, because we do decorative stitching and stabilizer, um, rolled hem foot, an all-purpose foot, and there may be one other I can't remember off the top of my head, but we use quite a few different feet. And this is because it's a project that isn't so much challenging, but just an opportunity to explore your machine more that we don't usually take the time to do. And the one foot that really threw people for a loop is the rolled hem foot. Most of them have never tried it before. I had people that have been sewing longer than me and have never used their rolled hem foot, couldn't even identify it in a lineup, and that's fine. So we went around and everybody got to play with their rolled hem foot. I had some scrap fabric, they got to practice, and I just told them I said, if you use it on your good fabric for this project and it doesn't look fine, one, you can take it out, two, you could leave it and go, I tried, and that's fine, it's gonna look fine. Um, and everybody got to play with the rolled hem foot, and then they started talking about other ways that they could use it or other projects or other opportunities. And for me, that's my you love to see it, is when they let go of their inhibitions and just try something, and sometimes it takes being in that setting to kind of give them the push to do so. But I love rolled hem foot, and I personally love a rolled hem foot on satin fabric, and that might make some of y'all just cringe, and that's okay. But if you've never tried it, you really should. It's quite satisfying. So I encourage you to go get your rolled hem foot that came with your machine and play with it and have some fun with it and give it a try. Watch a couple YouTube videos on how to use it, how to set it up on your machine and how to use it. It's really not hard. It just takes some practice, just like anything else we do in this sewing world. Um, I honestly I just you love, I love, I love to see sewers realizing that they don't have to earn creativity, they're already belong here. You belong here. No matter where you're at in your sewing label, I'm doing air quotes again. No matter where you are at and however you define yourself or however the pattern defines itself, does does not define you, it defines itself. You belong here. And I welcome you to stay. Maybe the goal really at the end of the day isn't becoming an advanced sewist. And that's absolutely okay. Nobody says we have to climb to the top of the ladder. Maybe the goal is just becoming more curious, more confident, and a little resilient uh in in our process of learning. Maybe the only label that really matters is I'm someone who sews. I'm someone who sews. I want everyone to say that with me. If you're listening right now, I want you to say, I'm someone who sews. Just like me, just like everybody else listening, just like everyone I follow on social media that sews, I'm someone who sews. That's all that matters. Alright, so my little call to action for you all this week is what sewing label do you identify with right now? I gave you five earlier in the podcast if you want to go back and re-listen to those. Just to kind of know, like, man, I I it's an opportunity to acknowledge how far you've come in your process, okay? I want to know have sewing labels ever held you back from trying something? What project made you feel more confident as a sewist? I have a few, not just that dress that I mentioned earlier, but I have a few bags that I've made, and I'm like, man, this looks like I could buy this in a store, and I made that. That's the kind of confidence that I'm that just really makes me really proud of even me trying new things, even still. Um, I hope that this episode has given you some new insight on maybe not taking those sewing labels so seriously and not allowing them to define who you are based on someone else's perspective or opinion. Uh, and I hope you let this be an opportunity to let your guard down and try something new. Um, if you haven't already, please join the Social Sewist Facebook group. I'd love to have you over there. Maybe we can talk about this a little more after you're done listening to the podcast. Uh, be sure you know you follow us on Instagram, Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and those reviews really do help us go a long way, no matter where you're listening to on the podcast. And until next time, it's not that serious. It's supposed to be fun. Happy selling. Bye.