How I Find My Sewing Inspiration

How I Find My Sewing Inspiration

Inspiration can be elusive. Sometimes it is hard to see the wood for the trees when we are constantly bombarded on social media, and with the internet at our fingertips, it can be overwhelming to know where to start with a new design for a tattoo or choose a colour scheme for your home. I am particularly bad for wanting to do everything and ending up doing nothing but spending hours online looking at all the things and never getting round to doing them.

I have found stepping away from my screens can be just the thing for working out what I want. I used to love cutting pics out of magazines, and I miss making real scrapbooks of images I like. So I have started to print them out and use them to plan out what I want to make, customise or purchase over the next few months for my wardrobe and my home too.

I have a Polaroid zip mini printer that I can print out images from my phone, but I also print them out on my computer on to standard A4 paper and cut them up sometimes too because the photo paper for the zip can be pricey.

Keeping up with trends is great, but using them in a way that suits me and my style is important, so by looking at what has caught my eye I can work out what colours and styles will fit with my current pieces. I have been very lazy at planning with my sewing this over the last year or so but last month I sat down and planned out some fun projects to have a go at over the festive break and through to the new year. I figure that if I have a list, my mind will be less likely to vegetate in front of Netflix for the whole time (that will, of course, happen at some point)

I took all my favourite images, laid them out on my desk and arrange into colour groups and then by style or texture before deciding what it is about each image I want to use as a starting point. Then I add those images to my workbook. Obviously, I have been using my Sew Crafty Dressmaking journal to plan out my projects because that's why I designed it and how I like to work, but if you wanted to do the same an ordinary notebook, sketchbook or scrapbook would also work. I love that I have sections to prompt me from the planning stage through the project to the end.

How do you keep your inspiration in check? do you make loads of notes? or are you a bullet journal fan? do you love Pinterest or keeping pics on your phone. I would love to know how you get from inspiration to project to finished product.

Sammy xx

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