Learning from Sewing Disasters.

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I recently made up a “time out box” that lives on the corner my sewing table for THOSE projects. It is extremely therapeutic to aggressively throw things in there and scold them for not behaving.

This is called impostor syndrome! It has a official name and everything and is extremely common. I've also been sewing for years and for me personally the most helpful things are: 1) You're always allowed to walk away from an unfinished project. Don't cut it up, just put it in a box somewhere and leave it! Stopping, taking a break and walking away from a project even if it is for months is perfectly fine. I have so many half-finished projects and i refuse to allow myself to feel guilty about not finishing them. Because sewing is a hobby! And a hobby means just for FUN! and when it's not fun, I don't do it! So if I find myself getting frustrated and annoyed and angry (and rushing things!), I ask myself: "Is this fun?". If it isn't, STOP! I stop until i feel like it again, even if that's 5 years from now. 2) Stick to the cold hard facts. The facts are that your (and my!) wordrobe are full of handmade things. And how did we get those things? From hours and hours of sewing. When we sew we make neural pathways for sewing in our brains, and it's like riding a bike, you can get rusty but if you've been sewing for years it's LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE for you to forget how to sew. Because your brain has made those paths so well travelled that there's no going back now. Another interesting thing is that our brains do need a break for maintenance! Your sewing roads in your brain need to be maintained and reinforced and that means you need to step away from the sewing for a while, to think about something else so you have have a break from the same old roads! So there actually is a neurological reason for needing a break. This frustration, the difficulty you're having, it's purely because your brain needs a chance to process what you've already done and maintain those roads for next time! So don't feel bad, think about how you are going to come back EVEN BETTER next time! (I see this same thing in my two year old daughter, she's learning to talk and learning new words every day and she needs the extra sleep because her brain is so active so she needs extra down time and sleeps more when she's developing neurologically. And then she wakes up the next day and I'm always so amazed how fast her speech is improving! ) 3) Also, burnout is real! Get enough sleep, get outside into nature, eat healthy and look after yourself! Those things can make a world of difference too :)

"Comparison is the thief of joy" is a motto they use on The Running Channel and I find it really helpful. Hope you're ok Annika 💜

Sweet Annika!!! You are a talented badass sewist who is very creative! I know it is so so so tired and repeated but comparison really is the root of ickiness and self-hate. In the world of fashion and sewing there are tens of ways to complete any given technique because SEWING is such a universal necessary craft that has been taught around the world every way imaginable. Going to a fashion school doesn’t make anyone better than anyone else. Home sewers are valid. Learn as you go! Experiment! Try new things! To make sewing this “exclusive” thing by shaming people that don’t have formal sewing education is gross and anyone doing that is Very Unfashionable 😤

I turned a dress I was making into stuffing for a tailor's ham 🤷‍♀️. It happens 😂

“All my seams are trash and all my clothes are just fabric glue sticked to my body.” But no. I have a talent and I’ve made some wonderful pieces and so have all of you.

One of the hardest things I had to learn as a hobby sewer. Learn to walk away. When it's 2 AM and you are on your 3rd wind and you totally could start that complicated bodice. Walk away. When you have sewn yourself in a corner and everything is ruined. Walk away. Walk away, have a cup of tea, don't look at the project again for a few hours/a few days. And then come back to it. I still fail to do it, but I am getting better at it.

Me, the professional archaeology tech who’s been doing this for nearly a decade, lost my freakin’ glasses this week in the middle of the woods. I can find a piece of glass the size of your thumbnail on the forest floor or sort through a pile of rocks and pick out every flake but I lost my glasses. In the woods. I say this to prove we all have those days, weeks, months, years where we just go “welp, guess I’m no good at this! I should just give it up!” But failure isn’t the end, it’s part of the journey.

I think you have really hit the nail on the head for most creative people. This is how it’s been for me my whole life. You just need to remember to go easy on yourself, remind yourself about the things you do love with your job, and don’t be afraid to try new things or new projects. You’ve got this, and you won’t feel like this forever. I think you’re amazing, and I have sewn for 20+ years and still feel beginner 🤣

I feel the exact same way every time I start one of my acrylic paintings. It always starts with meaningless color blobs and I'm left thinking "well I don't know what I'm doing, I can't paint!" Usually I have to walk away I get so frustrated. And then after my break and several hours of painting it starts to look like something and I go "oh ... maybe." My paintings usually turn out well, but I only see my old paintings in their finished state which makes me forget that they also started as meaningless color blobs. You articulated something that's so deeply linked with the creative process. Thanks so much for sharing so that we all feel a little less alone :)

This is so important. As a beginner casual sewer, this happens to me frequently. I've only completed a handful of projects and it is soooo easy to think it's all a fluke. Thank you Annika!

ive recently bought an overlocker n a upgrade for my sewing machine and while I'm waiting for that to deliver I've convinced myself I'm actually rubbish at sewing and should not invest in it. But I am good! And I am good mainly because of you and your videos as i genuinely would not know how to sew without you! So thank you, and thank you for putting something so honest out here :)

Dear Annika, A few years ago, just when you started your channel, I stumbled on your how to make a dress (the one with the teapot print on it) and it inspired me to learn how to sew :). Shortly after discovering that video, I dropped out of high school and had no idea what to do with my life anymore. I then got an opportunity to do a small internship in a studio and from there I landed onto my current apprenticeship as a tailor! I also struggle allot with sewing and I often had days, where I was stuck on the SAME seam because it was just so hard but in the end, I'm amazed by the craft, and I learn something new every single day and get a little better every time I sew something. You are an inspiration and I love your content just sooo much, thank you for sharing. <3

Yesss. Yess. Yes. I've been sewing for years. I went to college to learn sewing, design, art. Spent two years there. I'm skilled. Like really skilled. But I have months like this! I feel like lockdown definitly added to this. I've been designing a collection but have put off doing the final illustrations for months because I've convinced myself that I don't know how to draw anymore! I've actually had to start an online drawing course to get my confidence back. But yesterday I just said why not try who cares if I mess it up, I don't need to show anyone. And I did it. Its not the highest quality but guess what. It wasn't impossible!! Its so easy to get yourself in that mindset and so difficult to get out of it!!

If you're feeling like this, I would highly recommend listening to or reading the books "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" or "The Imposter Cure" both books cover feelings of being a fraud, or not being good enough, and help you reassess your priorities. They're normal feelings that everyone experiences, and you just need to shift your perspective

This video is so important. I feel like that so many times and it's not only on social media where you don't usually see this but also in real life. Everything we say to people is always filtered. We filter our own thoughts and leave out the parts that we don't feel comfortable saying or that we feel are not relevant to the conversation. Which is just natural and how communication and interacting with people works. But too often we forget that other people filter their thoughts, too, just like we do. And I think it's important to remember that. But also: nobody will ever understand you fully and grasp all the aspects of your soul like you can. Which is also natural. Relationships should be based on harmony and cooperating and liking each other. I feel like so many people think, when they have a partner or "soulmate" they are supposed to fuse somehow. To stop being individuals. And this is so wrong and probably leads to them separating further. Anyway, what I wanted to say, is that we all want to be happy and to be loved and we should start by befriending ourselves and to be gratefull that in all this confusion and with nobody really knowing what they are doing, we have ourselves. Our mind and our body are made of fricking atoms interacting with each other that somehow managed to create a conscience. This all is such a miracle and THANK YOU SO MUCH, ANNIKA, for reminding me.

I think this was a really good video to make and that it's good to acknowledge those feelings. I think it'll help a lot of people

That's how I feel about finding work in my field. And about sewing sometimes too when I'm in full "can't find work because I'm a fraud and I have no real skills to do that work" mode. It's hard reminding yourself that it is not true. Your skills are real, you can in fact do the thing you claim you can do. I struggle with it so bad.

As someone that's had their most intense sewing week since they started, doing something bad is how you get good, and you've helped me so much over the years. Enjoy your break!