The Slapdash Sewist makes one fabulous garment a week, from what I can tell. As does Amanda. And Dawn. And Peter. The Selfish Seamstress just made a pair of jeans.
Aargh.
So, I stop to ask, how do you find time to sew? Because I can't seem to.
I'm looking for serious insight. Please don't tell me you neglect housework. My tiny 1-bedroom apartment hasn't been mopped in weeks. I already neglect housework.
Here's what I want to know:
- What time do you get out of work?
- How do you structure your weeknights? (1 hour to cook; 2 hours to sew; 3 hours to watch TV, that kind of thing.)
- How much sleep do you get?
- Do you go out on weeknights?
In my world:
- I get out of work at about 6.30.
- I get home almost instantly (I live 10 minutes away, door-to-door.)
- Playing with the cat; watching TV; eating dinner; browsing the Internet (evil, evil Internet) all take up 2-3 hours.
- So, best case scenario, I have about 2 hours to sew. Assuming I don't (a) go out, (b) clean the apartment, or (c) cook.
- On average, I go out 2 weeknights a week. I also go out on Friday and Saturday.
- I also cook at-least 2 weeknights. (Madhur Jaffrey project.)
- I wake up late. During the week, just enough time to get to work. On weekends, if I wake up before 10.30am, I consider this a win.
- I do get a lot of sleep. 8 hours is both common and necessary.
I look at my life, and I feel like I should be significantly more productive than I actually am.
Help me, please?
5 comments:
I am a single parent and work fulltime. I may not be a good example for you ad I have little to no social life. I don't want to pay for babysitters and am trying to save money. I too live very close to my work now. So I get home at 5:45pm and make dinner for me and my son. He's usually in bed by 7:30 or 8pm so I have the rest of the evening for sewing or tv. At least in theory. A lot of my time gets sucked up by the interwebs and procrastinating. :). I think you just have to prioritize your time. What's more important to you? And then allocate more time to that. Be careful it doesn't become a chore though!
I try to get things done by 8pm. Then I can sew from 8 til 10ish. That's when I'm home, and when I don't get distracted by tv or the internet. I get home from work about 6pm. I've got two kids, and a cat and a garden. I like to plan sewing days for the weekend, and then I try to start sewing around 9am, while the teenagers are still in bed. My goal for 2010 is one garment a month that I love!
I'm afraid I can't be of any help here. I seem to have the same problem as you. Somehow I'm loosing time which I should use for sewing.
I come home at about 18.30u. I cook and eat and most of the days, I don't get out of the couch any more. Or, as is lately the case, I open my laptop after dinner and just continue with workstuff that I didn't get round to during the day. Or I start reading sewingblogs (and can't stop that). Indeed: evil internet! Most weeks I have 4 nights to sew up a storm. But I'm just way too tired to do anything. It's really annoying and I feel I should change this but I can't find the courage or energy to do so.
I'm free from work every monday and that seems to be my most productive day of the week.
I find time to sew by not watching tv or spending time with my husband, I have my priorities LOL! Seriously, I don't get any time to myself before 7.30pm on any day but I do try to do a bit of sewing each evening, anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours. All the little bits count. Plus I find when you are very excited about a project you can turn it out more quickly than something you're a bit blah about
Great topic! This should be one of those blog chain letters/tags for sewists. Fascinating.
IMO, external and internal situations come into play. It's a self-motivating habit. After sewing interest has died down, for whatever reason, once you make a sucessful project (again) you're eager for the next one. There are external realities though that interfere: lack of discretionary time, or just needing to recharge your batteries when you have free time. I've made several consecutive UFOs/wadders since my daughter was born. I think I need to rachet down my project ideas to very simple, beginner-level ones so I get motivated to sew more. That's a third part: what motivates you. Is it doing the project? Wearing it? Giving it as a gift? I'd suggest choosing projects along the lines of what motivates you to sew.
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