A short Sunday note.
I've had a very busy week in the studio doing lots of computer work and I haven't had a spare moment to write up my thoughts about the denim Darcy Coat I made last week (you might have seen a few snaps on instagram). I've been wearing the jacket over the last few days and I have a few things I want to amend and revisit before sharing it.
This got me thinking about the journey I often have after finishing a piece of clothing - one that I don't think I'm alone in.
Immediately after finishing a brand new garment I will quite often hate it and not want to look at it for a few days. It will sit on the mannequin and receive the odd look of disgust. If someone asks me about it I'll tell them everything that's wrong with it and dismiss it as a bad make. Then slowly after a day or two I'll try it on and think 'ok, maybe it's not too bad'. Then I'll eventually wear it out of the house and at that point it will probably become my new favourite thing.
Perfectionism is risky business and when you sew your own clothes you can get fixated on the flaws (of which there are always a few, no matter how neatly we sew). I think this is something a lot of is battle with. It was especially confirmed to me when my Mum made her first pair of beautiful trousers and was considering throwing them in the bin..?! I think we can all be so self critical and it's the same for me, even though it's my full time job.
If you have a garment 'full of imperfections' sitting in a corner somewhere, maybe take it out and give it a chance. I think our sewing disasters are much less tragic than we like to believe.
I always emphasise upskilling yourself and trying to use high quality finishing techniques with your sewing. But this doesn't mean they have to be perfect, it took me a lot of goes to sew a good placket or fly opening and there were a lot of wobbly attempts.
I do think important to try and sew to a high standard to make our clothes last longer but it's just something to aim towards. We shouldn't berate ourselves for not achieving perfection on the first go.
All this lovely topstitching..? I had to unpick all of it to make a collar amendment...
I will hopefully have time next week to finish the jacket and be able to share the make details. I'm allowing myself a little bit of perfectionism so that you guys can have a smooth ride of making this coat for yourselves! I'll document the things that went wrong as well as what I changed to amend it as it could be useful to learn from.
I hope you're all having a lovely weekend and I'll be back with more Darcy details very soon!
Hetty
x
