Pefection is Sew Boring
Social media loves organized, color coordinated, factory perfection. Kids' sewing, when it's fun, when it's creative, when it's good, is never perfect. The kids' work I share is rarely featured for it's technical perfection because technical perfection is for machines.
Sewing with kids encourages thinking in new dimensions, transforming an idea into something tangible. Sewing involves solving problems around shapes and space. Sometimes it's messy, frenetic, and technically "wrong." I've had seasoned seamstresses complain about seeing raw edges in my campers' work. I think it's important to know the rules and I do teach kids how to hide knots and how to sew seams to cover raw edges. We practice sewing straight lines, pressing, clipping corners, notching curves, hiding finishing seams, using small stitches and invisible stitches. But one of the powerful things that happens when perfection is not the goal is that kids relax, performance anxiety disappears, and they are empowered to break the rules. Rule breaking is necessary for innovation, invention, mistake-making, and growth. The pay-off is big.
As an experienced sewist, the rules are a rut in my brain and hard to ignore, so when a student shares their pattern idea, I have to resist the urge to tell them it won't work. Sometimes, I can't imagine how it will come together the way they've planned it but I don't stop them. Often it fails the first time but, Wow! The light bulbs that turn on when an attempt is made, puzzled out, revised, and tried again. Other times, it does work! And it works in a way that a rule-bound brain would never have tried. That's innovation! And it's so much more interesting than perfection.
I left my work as a psychotherapist in 2019 to begin laying the foundations for Sew My Goodness. I live and sew in Austin, Texas with my husband, three kids, a hamster (he doesn't sew), and a few dozen sewing machines. I come from a long line of seamstresses, embroiderers, quilters, darners, hemmers, scrap savers, upcyclers, artists, improvisors, and connection makers. For me, sewing is utilitarian, it is art, it is healing, and it is connection. In addition to private sewing camps and classes, Sew My Goodness offers "Sewcial" Clubs, camps, and enrichment classes throughout Round Rock ISD.
