New shirts and learning

In some things I am so practiced that I don't think to much about how to do things. I can sew a seam, line a blouse, gather a skirt and not think twice. Embroidery is new to me and I am beginning to believe that no matter how long you have been doing it you never know it all.

This weekend was a learning experience for me, I thought I did it all the right way. I found my pattern, stitched it out on a sample piece of fabric and I believed I was ready to go. Centered and hooped my fabric and said a prayer. Started to stitch and the end result was awful. Now this was not just any shirt, it wasn't an order for a customer, NO, this was for my husband. My wonderful supportive (most of the time) husband who bought me this embroidery machine. The same husband for whom I have never successful made one item. I have made lots of beautiful items for others, but when it comes to my husband I cannot successfuly make one shirt.

It is very frustrating when your crafting projects don't pan out the way you had hoped. You can quickly become discouraged and give up. I urge you to take heart and use my new motto: Keep moving forward.

Whatever happens use it as a learning experience and see what you can do different next time, where did you make your mistake this time? Yes I said your mistake for no matter what you craft your item is inanimate, unless of course you use live materials and in that case, I really don't want to know about it. You are using papers, fabric, foam, clay, or whatever, It can't mess up. It was something you did, BUT IT IS OKAY. Treat it as you should treat life and look at every goof up to learn from it.

So here is my example. I tried to embroider on a 100% cotton polo style shirt. I have never embroidered on this fabric before, when I begin to stitch the stitches sunk into the fabric. It looked terrible. I thought back to tips that I had gotten from a fellow seamstress when I first started embroidering. She mentioned that sometimes you need to uses a water soluble stabalizer on the front to prevent your stitches from sinking down. Had I thought more about the fabric before I just slapped it on the machine I could have avoided a ruined shirt and a lot of aggravation. My over excited, overly aiming to please attitude caused me issues, it has done this in the past as well.

I have learned from this mistake and I am moving forward. The ruined shirt will be used to test pattern to make sure that I don't make this mistake again. I am moving forward. I made another shirt that turned out beautifully and the night ended on an up note with an order for 2 shirts.

Not to mention I was back in the Etsy chat rooms last night, and they are always a boost for my self esteem :)

Happy Crafting ....

Jenjie