Hand sewing has always brought pleasure to me. Whether I am replacing a popped button, sewing an opening on a project or mending a discrete area, I enjoy hand sewing. One reason I enjoy this small pleasure is because of the delicacy of the stitches. I love to see hand work that has tiny, deliberate stitches whether a slip stitch, a regular straight stitch or embroidery. Believe it or not, I even enjoy the fact that I have to slow down to do the sewing. You can't be in a hurry to hand stitch although you do pick up speed with practice. I would venture a guess that my heart rate decreases when I hand stitch because I'm forced to sit down, put my feet up (of course), wait for my cat, Niner to settle in, gather my sewing basket up to my lap and begin the art.
I love to slip stitch an opening of a project such as a purse or pillow. Often, I will slip stitch in a bold, contrasting color to the fabric in the project. I think this adds a quirky sense of character to the finished product.
My tip for hand sewing is to have all your sewing ditties in one place. You can see in the photo that my threads are in a rescued hot dog basket and my pins and needles are poked down into a cushion that is easy to find. I use small scissors called 'nippers' to cut threads and the nippers fit nicely in my hot dog basket. When finished, I put all the ditties on a shelf in my sewing area.
Another tip; don't watch the clock. Enjoy the time you are being productive and relaxing at the same time.
8 comments:
Do you like to embroider as well? I love embroidering and the end result but it takes so dang long!
Yes, Pretty Fun, I love to embroider! I can remember as a young girl embroidering all my jeans. It was the early 1970's and thankfully that was in style because I loved the look. Now, I'm not as concerned about style as I am about what I like...and I live embroidery! It is time consuming but so beautiful and always one of a kind. Send me photos of your work.
I love sitting down with some tea, and hand sewing as well. I feel like the entire world is flying by my eyes, and sometimes it feels so good to just sit down and relax, just as you said jennifer!
I think being organized in your craft is great time saver! I love to be able to sit down for a bit and quilt. I do all my quilting by hand, it is relaxing!
Threadbeaur - Funny you should mention quilting...I am sitting at my computer pinning a baby quilt for quilting right now.
I'd love to see photos of some of your quilts!
I'm new to sewing, I just gt a machine for Mother's Day and it doesn't give me same pleasure as mixed media or jewelry making. Perhaps I'll try a few handstitching projects. Thanks for sharing. You had me at the lowering of my heart rate, I could certainly use that.
You asked in the forums for a critique for your blog...one word...GREAT!!! Very enjoyable to read.
I too love the time when I am sitting and hand sewinfg something up, very relaxing (well most of the time)
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