It’s not every day that someone suggests that to get better at something, you should start skipping steps and taking shortcuts. But that’s exactly what I’m about to do, my friend.
I was working on some curtains for my aunt Diane this weekend (hi, Diane!). She just moved to a beautiful house in South Carolina, and asked me to make a set of curtains to match her newly painted yellow kitchen. She wanted vintage fabric, and she wanted floral…and I told her she came to the right place.
We picked out some adorable vintage floral sheets from my stash and I got to work. The last step was to turn over the fabric at the bottom and sew on some lace trim.
The first two pieces took forever. I folded and ironed the hem, and meticulously pinned it just so, to line up with the edge of the lace with just enough overlap.
As I began pinning the third piece out of six, I started to think….this is a huge waste of time.
So I decided to try one without pinning–just line up the fabric a few inches at a time.
HUGE difference! I got the last four pieces done in the time it took to pin and sew the first two.
The tip here is to remember that pinning fabric in place can be really helpful for some projects…but sometimes it holds you back. When you learn to sew, most teachers will tell you to pin your fabric before sewing (and rightly so!) because that’s a great way to learn.
But later on, when you find yourself frustrated with getting the pins in just the right place on a particularly small hem or detailed section of your project, just skip it. You might end up feeling much better about the whole thing.
Oh, and Bob helped.
