The Unconventional Way

The Spring Giveaway Tote bag of the Greatest Kind is finished.
Shouldn't there be some grand 'TA DA!!' or some such excitement??
Shouldn't I be placing asterisks and exclamation points all around this blog.

You'd think.
However.
This bag was a pickle.
It sounded so fun in my mind.
It felt so perfect on my cutting board.
I would get a bit giddy heading to my Work Room, awash with new ideas to implement.....Cutting the lovely linen and the cool tropically print, I started to regret that I had announced it as the Giveaway Bag...Must admit some coveting was going on to a yet unknown recipient.  Strange huh?

Then it happened.
EVERY SINGLE TIME I worked on the previously Wonder Bag (now Thorn In My Side Bag), something went wrong.  I lost track of how many times I have ripped apart each element of The TIMS Bag.  My seam ripper is tired and the amount of used thread on my floor lies in testimony of the whole irritating process.

Now, let's us review this situation:  Wherever did I go wrong?  Material? No, good quality, prewashed; good thread, interlinings approved by Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.  And lots of it.  Magnetic clasps; zippered pocket; 5 other pockets; a pen/pencil pocket for goodness sakes.  Two narrow but sturdy handles reinforced hardily.  Side panel pockets for water/baby bottles...Yep...covered a bit of everything, even a dandy polished stone on the zipper pull....

Guess I really know the problem:
It's Me.
Me and my unconventional way of doing things.  Me and My Desire to sew/design on my own with a Fly By the Seat of My Pants mentality.  Could I even begin to tell you how the TIMS Bag was created?  But no, but no.  It really just happens.  I have a long history of sewing with patterns and learning from errors...many errors....The mind hearkens back to my first big doozy....I was sewing a summer nightgown, determined for it to be done correctly (unlike my other sloppy, impatient attempts) and it was going well...The fabric was a dream, an open weave leno weave with the fairest of flowers in the palest of blues..I got relaxed just sewing on it.  But then came the fateful blow: Whilst cutting an errant thread, I inadvertently cut in half, one of the narrowest of narrow spaghetti straps that I had labored on with great patience..Cut it in Half!  It took quite awhile for the destruction to sink in, it was that bad.  I remember silently crunching up the nightgown, turning off my sewing machine and swearing specifically at my own stupidity and rash behavior.

That's how I learn.  That's how I sew.  I took no lessons.  Have no idea how to measure properly. (just what are all those little lines on a measuring tape?) I barely can even take advice.  I just get an idea and make it work.  In silence and privacy since if anyone actually SAW how I do it, they would be aghast and appalled.  I can't explain it but it works.  Or it don't.  I rejoice when it does and when it doesn't, I just learn from the errors and go to the next project. 

Doesn't really make sense does it?
But it's very much the way I do about everything. Forging forward without much sense and accepting the outcome, knowing that if I didn't at least try, I would always wonder....

So what do you take from my interesting Sewing Tale?
Take risks, sewistically.
I can still remember when I needed a costume for my dance class in high school.  A red circle skirt.  Simple.  But having a mother that had a hard time sewing hems and buttons, I knew I was on my own.  Grabbed an old wool coat, that was the needed red, and began whacking away at it till I thought it resembled what was needed.  Did it work?  Heaven's no!  And I probably destroyed a perfectly wonderful vintage coat.  But I tried it.  I made the first cut.  And saw what DIDN'T work.  And then I let my best friend's mama sew a sweet little can can skirt with lots of tulle, for me. 

So play with fabric.  Follow easy patterns. Let me help you with some handy tips on making pockets, handles, lining.  Study what all those weird words mean, like bias, interlinings and facings and play with them.  Get over the Fear of the Project.  Just do it. (did i just quote Nike?)  Then throw it away if it fails.  There is plenty of material out there for you to play with , destroy or make the most amazing thing in the world to you or someone else.  Take the risk.

SO ONCE AGAIN!  TA DA AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!
HERE IS THE SPRING/SUMMER GIVEAWAY BAG OF THE GREATEST KIND!!!!!
GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE ENTERED THE CONTEST!! AND THERE IS STILL TIME TO DO SO!!
JUST LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS BLOG OR ON MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE AND YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY ENTERING THIS CONTEST!!  THE MORE COMMENTS, THE MORE ENTRIES!!!
DRAWING ON MAY DAY!  MAY FIRST!!!!!!!!!
Yay!!!!!!