6 Surefire Ways to Get Your Sewjo Back!
Have you ever wandered listlessly into your sewing room and wondered what happened to your sewjo? Or maybe you’ve wanted to sew, but just couldn’t seem to get started, couldn’t even see your cutting surface, or just didn’t have the materials you needed? If that’s ever described you, I have some tips for how to get your sewjo back!
Webster’s Dictionary describes “sewjo” as — just kidding, sewjo isn’t in the dictionary. But it means a lot to us in the sewing world! Basically, we talk about losing our sewjo when the desire to sew has flown the coop. You just can’t get started, or can’t figure out what to make, or maybe you’ve sewn several things in a row that just didn’t work out.
I’ve complied 6 surefire ways to get that desire to sew back, which I’ve recorded in a video AND written here for you, so whether you’re a reader or a watcher, you can get some ideas on how to get yourself back on the sewing saddle!
6 Ways to Get Your Sewjo Back
1. Clean your sewing space!
Nothing inspires creativity like a clean, calm space. This is true of your home in general. Have you ever cleaned and organized the play room, or bedroom of young children, and then they immediately are inspired to play in there and you buy yourself hours of play time? The same goes for your sewing space, I promise! Put on some good music and get started. Nothing is as uninspiring as having to unbury your supplies before you can even get started, so before you do anything else, clean up that space.
Clean OUT while you’re at it. If you have piles of stuff to dig through and can’t find anything, including a bare surface big enough to cut anything out, of course you’re not going to feel inspired to sew. there is a common tactic for helping yourself with procrastination and avoidance and that is to identify the obstacles and remove them. For example, if I always procrastinate doing school assignments because first I have to print a bunch of articles and I don’t have a home printer, so I have to go to the print shop. It feels like too many steps before I can even start, so I just put off starting. All of this avoidance would be cured by simply purchasing a home printer. Remove the obstacles, clean up and clean out.
SO,
Maybe your obstacle is that you don’t have a sewing space.
If you don’t have a sewing space, try to find a way to keep your machine accessible and ready. Use a corner of the living room or dining room, or even your bedroom. You can use your kitchen table for cutting out projects, but try to have a desk set up somewhere for your sewing machine so that you don’t have to move it on and off the dining room table. You may have to get past the ideal image of an Instagram worthy living room, but really your home should be functional for you and your family, so if you want to store fabric in the powder room like my sister did in one place she lived, who cares?
2. Work on something different.
For me, when I feel uninspired, I first clean my sewing room and then I start pondering new projects. Usually my go-to for getting my sewjo back is a scrap quilt project, or paper piecing quilt project. There’s something about the process that relaxes me and renews my sewing energy. I don’t mean a big, preplanned quilt project, where I have to follow a pattern and cut 200 pieces from several yards of fabric I had to buy just for that — I mean deciding on a simple block and pulling out fabrics that I love and making blocks one by one. My favorite quilt is one of those projects.
Other times, if I’ve been sewing gifts, where there’s some pressure and time element, or if I’ve been sewing projects or for my pattern shop, and I feel kind of worn out from those things, I clean my sewing room and get out fabrics for some simple clothing projects.
Or maybe it’s been awhile since I’ve really gotten into a big project and I decide to dig in and start a coat, or a more complicated project for my pattern shop that I can get lost in for hours and not worry about finishing it by a deadline, that can help too.
The key is to just switch it up, try something new, or something different and find out what rejuvenates your excitement for sewing.
3. Take a break.
This one seem obvious, but I know that a lot of people need to be reminded that sewing is a hobby (for most of you), you don’t have to do it whenever you have free time, you can have other hobbies, and sewing doesn’t have to be your main thing all the time. A break can be helpful. There was a time a few years ago when I thought photography was going to overtake my love for sewing. I love photography, it’s a very portable and creatively fulfilling thing for me. There’s room for both and seasons for both. And in some seasons, I don’t do either and just read a lot because it can get overwhelming to constantly feel like I should be producing something, ya know?
My middle daughter has struggled over the years (she’s 15) with her identity sort of being wrapped up in being “the dancer” or “the quirky dresser”, “the theater kid”, or whatever it is she was into at the time. But she likes to try a lot of different things and she was feeling like if she moved on from something, part of what people knew her as would be lost, like her identity would flounder. This is a symptom of the social media age, where everyone is niched down on Instagram into some specific thing they’re known for. Obviously, we’ve had a lot of conversations with my daughter that her identity actually has nothing to do with those external things, but maybe adults need to be reminded too. It’s cool to take a sewing break, especially if you’re on social media and find yourself sewing for content more than because you actually want to make a thing.
When my kids were little, I had to take a self imposed break from sewing because I realized it was becoming a priority over everything else and it was all I wanted to do and I was idolizing it. So I made myself take a month off of sewing, sort of like people not do with Facebook, ha!
Life changes happen, seasons of life come and go, things change, you might have to take a break for some reason. A new season will come around again. If parenting has taught me anything, it’s that phases actually pass by pretty quickly. They feel long and slow in the moment, but life is really just constantly changing.
Whew, I had more to say about that one than I thought I did!
4. Plan some projects.
On to a less philosophically heavy idea, here is your permission to go shopping, woot! After you’ve cleaned out your sewing room, of course! I’ve said before, I’m not a keeper of a huge fabric stash and I stand by that concept. I have plenty on hand for my needs in most regards, though, except for garment fabrics. I sew quite a bit of my own wardrobe, but garment fabrics are harder to obtain than quilting cottons, so it just takes more planning. When I’m wanting to sew some clothes, but can’t really find anything in my drawer suitable and I feel frustrated, I do some online shopping.
BUT, I first pull out some patterns I’d like to make, take them with me to my laptop, and find some fabrics specifically for those. This way, I don’t end up with fabrics I don’t have plans for, or too little fabric for what I decide to make with it, or things like that. I can also fill holes in my wardrobe and I just find that when I shop this way, having patterns in mind first, I make every single thing and nothing gets tossed into the drawer to languish for a few years until I’m not in love with that fabric any more. And all because I just didn’t plan ahead.
So, this works for non garment sewing too. Find a project you can get excited about and if the thing holding your sewjo back is that you don’t have the right materials, or materials you LOVE to make it with, do some shopping and remedy that.
5. STOP Gathering Inspiration
Get off Pinterest, Instagram, or wherever else you think you get your “inspiration”. I recently had a conversation with my kids about Instagram and Pinterest and how overwhelming it can feel. And I said it’s because when everything is inspiring, nothing is inspiring. It’s all just SO MUCH. There’s amazing creativity on the internet! But as consumers of content, we can be wise. We can realize how the content is making us feel and adjust our social media habits for a time accordingly.
So when you see all of the amazing things your Instagram feed has made, assess your feelings. Is it inspiring, or is it frustrating? Are you comparing yourself and your life to them? Are you jealous? Or, in a different vein, is it all just starting to look the same, like it’s just boring? If yes, you can get off for awhile. Or unfollow some people. Or find a niche on Instagram that is outside of the sewing world (or whatever category is making you feel this way, this goes for more than just sewing) — find the photographers, or the bookstagrammers, or the history feeds (they’re fascinating), or whatever other interests you have, so that your feed isn’t saturated with so much of the same content.
This goes for Facebook groups too, or Reddit, or wherever you’re a part of groups. Groups can be helpful, but they’re also such a time suck. Sometimes I find myself reading the comments of a question someone asked in a group that I could literally care less about, like where in their area they can buy such and such, and I’m like, “why do I care, why am I reading the comments about this??”
Ugh, social media, it’s a gift and a curse, right?
6. Sew for Others
My last tip is more light hearted! And it’s to sew something for someone else. Not with a deadline, or under pressure and maybe don’t tell them about it, so you can just enjoy the process without stressing over their input. Sewing for another person (or doing anything for another person, actually), gets your mind off of yourself and can allow you to play with designs and fabrics that someone else would love that you haven’t thought to experiment with before because it’s doesn’t match your own look or decor or whatever.
If you need some ideas, my shop has several gifty sewing patterns for all ages, from kitchen items, to cute rag dolls with clothes, and my newest flower pillow pattern. Almost all of my patterns have video sew-alongs on my youtube channel, so make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss my next ones!
I hope this has been helpful if you’ve been looking for your sewjo! If you have conquered this problem in a way I didn’t mention here, I’d love to hear about it.
Cheers!
Nikki
