Let’s Play!

Do you remember when you were a child and you were given a bunch of craft supplies and you just went crazy? Glue and glitter went everywhere, including your face. You mixed all the colours of clay together and found out it makes brown, not rainbow. How many of those “art” pieces do you have today? If your Mother is like my Mother-In-Law you may have a few, but most of the pieces are long gone. What you do have to show from it is a whole bunch of knowledge that probably carried over into a surprising number of areas of your life. 

Janome M7 Continental Professional

My real sewing journey started as a quilter. To me. quilting is very straight forward. You almost always use a straight stitch. Everything is orderly and there aren’t a lot of surprises. As my sewing interests started to spread, I was often trapped by fear. 

When I thought about making a garment or embroidering something it was overwhelming. There were new, unfamiliar terms and techniques and different materials that I didn’t understand. I would just throw up my arms and say “I can’t do it!”. I had lost sight of my inner child. I had lost the bravery to just dive into a project, try all the things and end up with maybe a disaster, but most certainly a lot of new knowledge in the process.

Mistakes and failure aren’t a bad thing if you learn from them! They are often the best way to learn.

Janome AirThread 2000D Professional

This year I’m tacking a whole bunch of garment sewing. I want to be able to not only make my own clothes, but alter the ones I do have. Mistakes will be made, including sewing things together backwards, choosing the wrong fabric and getting the fit all wrong. I know by the end of the year I will have learned a whole lot and will have some beautiful new pieces in my wardrobe.

I challenge you to do something similar this year. Let your inner child play! Be bold, make the mistakes and have a good laugh over your failed creation. Then take those lessons, learn from them and watch magic happen! 

Janome CoverPro 3000 Professional

I’ll be popping in here throughout the year to share some of the lessons I’ve learned and show you how my journey is going. Even the fails. Let me know in the comments if there are garment making topics you would like me to explore. We’ll learn together!

In this article, I’ve included some of the machines that I will be using this year. I’m really lucky that Janome Canada has given me access to some amazing machines. Do you need all these machines to make garments? Absolutely not, you can make garments with our entry level sewing machines, too! I’ll make sure to include all levels of machines in my posts this year so no one will be left behind. 

A recent favourite make, The Matcha Top by Sew Liberated

I can’t wait to get started!

AmandaBee