Sewing guilt, or finishing unfinished projects

Does anyone else do this... not let yourself begin any new projects if you have a couple of unfinished projects hanging over your head?  Especially if those unfinished projects involved an outlay of money?  I do this all the time.  Part of my reactionary nature involves never wanting to do the things I have to do, even if they are self-imposed 'have to's'.  I love beginning things, but have never been so good at finishing them.  But then I feel guilty about not finishing them so I can't enjoy my new project, and so on, and so on. 

Well, this week, I alleviated some sewing guilt.  First, I finished a dress I had been working on for P.  I didn't mean for this to turn into a long term project, but it was a far fussier pattern than I had anticipated and took twice as long.  I love the way it turned out, and better yet, P. likes it.  But since it has taken me so long to finish she will have to layer a turtleneck underneath to wear it.

The front (the blue fabric is some I picked up on sale at IKEA):


And the back:


The other project I tackled was to cut into the fabric I bought to make a new futon cover for the schoolroom.  It was not inexpensive fabric, even though I found it on sale, and it has sat in my bedroom for over a month waiting for me to get up the nerve to cut out the pieces.  Having made that first cut, I'm zipping along putting it together.  Well, until I ran out of thread this afternoon, that is.  I should be able to finish it this weekend.  Can you hear my deep sigh of relief?  I'd much rather sew clothes than home dec projects, so I will be happy when it's done.

Because what I want to tackle next is making a skirt pattern from scratch for A.  She and I have picked out the fabric from my stash and found a style that she likes.  All I have to do is follow the instructions and draft the pattern.  I'm excited to try.  Plus, I learned (finally) how to put in zippers and not have them look like a 9th grade home ec project and I want to try out my new skills.

I see much sewing in my future now that I have cleared the mental decks from unfinished project guilt.

Comments

Lucy said…
The unfinished projects that bother me the most are the ones my family starts (mom, sis etc) for my kids, and go ahead an give me with the instructions 'oh, it just needs a zipper', or some button holes, or hemmed or something minor. But in my house it just sits in the bag until the children outgrow it and I think perhaps I can refashion it into doll clothes, someday.

Those are the worst kind of guilt trip projects, because you've let the kids down (they never got those pajamas grandma promised) and you've let grandma down (the kids didn't get her pajamas) but at the same time it is completely pointless guilt which you never asked for.

Anyways, do share you zipper knowledge sometime! That is something I can certainly get better at too!
Ann said…
Girl you make me laugh! having fabric sit for one month? Try one decade! LOL! I do understand the guilt thing tho :-)
Linda said…
If anyone has sewn for any amount of time it seems a collection or stash of fabric begins. I have been sewing since the 1960s and probably have fabric dating back that far. Like you the guilt does surface its ugly head every now and than. but there is just so much time to sew and there are so many choices of beautiful fabric that we just can't pass them all up now can we?

Busy hands are happy hands.
Thanks for your post about finishing unfinished projects. It does seem like there's never enough time in one day, doesn't it?

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