Friday 15 April 2011

Do you know Sewer's Block?

Do you? No, I don't mean the nasty clump of crud clogging the pipes. I mean Sewer's Block as in Writer's Block - only with sewing work instead of writing.

I think there must be something like it - because yesterday, I finally overcame the hesitation to work on my dress (that has to be finished for Freienfels, because I want to wear it there). Since my upper body has changed a bit during the last two years (damn you, more-or-less-regular gym visits!), combined with shrinkage of cloth in some of the garments, some of my old dresses do not fit so well anymore. That means it's high time for another of St. Elizabeth's dresses to fit me, and I have a gorgeously teal-coloured fabric for that. So I was looking forward to making a teal-coloured dress for a while, until I finally found the time to sit down and start working on it. And then, halfway into cutting... which I have done time and again before, with no problem... I stopped working on it for a while. Procrastination Wave hit me.

Admittedly, it hit me together with a stack of more urgent things (because you know the effect that season start is always soooo far away, right? until it's just, all of a sudden, like, next week?) so it was not a blatant ignoring of the half-cut dress. Not totally, at least; the more urgent things really were more urgent. And since there was no actual pressure, as would be in a time-critical situation (like season starts tomorrow) or similar, I could just put it aside for a while. But after the embroidery workshop in Vienna and finishing the spinning project, I really ran out of reasons not to work on the dress just now.

So I sat down with it yesterday, I cut the second sleeve (that was already marked out) and set it in, I cut the sleeve gores and set those in, I tried it on, and everything is as it should be. And now I'm wondering why I didn't do this oh, weeks ago? More importantly, I'm wondering whether that only happens to me occasionally, or if there are others out there.
Sewer's Block, anyone? And what do you do to get over it?

4 comments:

suse said...

Yes I know :-)
I told you last year about my new dress.....
I was waiting until your book was available, but then at least I did´nt do anything more than the sleeves because I´m not able to decide how to do it.
It´s such a wonderful madder coloured fabric and I´m totally blocked to cut it ;-)
And it´s so funny, I cut and sew gowns every day...
But now the cutting is on my to do list before easter... then I have to decide (I hope I do- but I´m already 80% sure how - wow) :-)
I don´t think that there is anything to do against this.... I always tell myself that it was just not the right moment before, HAHA

Heidi said...

Happens to me all the time, sometimes because of the cutting (ok, usually the cutting, cutting fabric I like can be scary sometime even when I've done the same pattern 100 times) but sometimes I cut something out and there it sits. Usually I've gotten bored with whatever it is and need to step away and then come back, hopefully I can do this without losing any of my cut-out pieces, or threads or whatever else. Sometimes there's a technical problem I'm frustrated by or needing to mull over for a bit, or I get mad at the project and refuse to look at it in hopes that this will shame it into behaving somehow. :)

Anonymous said...

Sewer's Block? Totally. I have fabric for a new dress (well Trägerrock, since my old one is... errr... not so good). But I still need to dye it, make a pattern, make a mock up (since it is _just_ enough fabric) and sew the thing. I wanted it done before easter.... And I haven't even checked if my pot is big enough to dye it. Well, maybe I will do it now. I could still take it along and sew it in camp.
Actually I'm really looking foreward to making it, just not to starting to make it. Can't I just skipp all steps that involve my brain and only sit down and do some nice handsewing?

Okay, I'm gonna search that fabric now, search mock up fabric, search the pot (lots of searching involved here) und at least start a little bit.

Susanne

Unknown said...

I get that all the time - often it will be around a question, like what lining to use here or something. I'll stop work on a project, often for weeks, until it will come to me at some odd time what the best approach for the next bit is. This is one of the reasons I always have many projects going on at the same time.