Persevere

Normally when I start a complicated project, I like to make a test out of Muslin fabric as it is cheap and if I mess something up and have to trash it I don’t have to worry about throwing away my “good” fabric. I recently did something I never do. I cut my good fabric out first and said to hell with a muslin test. Once I got all the fabric cut out it hit me, what the hell did I just do? 

If you scroll TikTok like I do more than likely you have come across the sound that goes something like “Girl, don't do it, it's not worth it. I'm not gonna do it girl, I was just thinking about it, I'm not gonna do it.... I did it.” Well, I sure did it this time. I found a pattern that I really liked on the ByAnnie.com website and couldn’t wait to make the bag with some of my favorite Tula Pink fabric. So, I dove into my fabric stash to find some fabrics that would coordinate with dripping roses and off I went to cutting everything out. I did want to make a few changes to the bag which included changing out the inside mesh pockets for just regular fabric pockets. I also wanted to use some of the Tula Pink webbing which is thicker than the webbing and handle material the instructions included. It honestly took me way longer than it should have to cut out the fabric because I changed what kind of fabric the instructions told me to use in different places. Such as changing a coordinating fabric to a lining fabric. I honestly didn’t even finish cutting out all the fabrics because I wanted to wait and see as I went along what kind of fabric it needed to be with the changes that I made. As I started working on the actual sewing, I stopped and though maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I should abandon this project and work on something else. If this was the Muslin fabric, I might have done that, but this was the good fabric. There was no turning back now. So off I went. 

This project was not without issues. I found I had cut some of my fabric too short and in a few places where I made modifications, I realized my original idea wasn’t going to work. Even with these setbacks I figured out ways around it and how to keep pushing forward. I cussed, I stabbed myself on pins, my machine made bird nest after bird nest but I kept pushing forward. I knew how amazing this bag would be when it was all said and done. 

I had finished most of the bag and attached one end at this point and all I had left was to attach the other end. After work one day and close to bedtime I thought I would just attach the final side and then put it away for the night without finishing the binding which covers the raw edges inside. However, once I got the end attached, I said screw sleep and persevere to the end. I may have lost a little sleep that night, but it was well worth it to finish out the project. Sometimes we do dumb things, like cutting the good fabric before we test, and we have to persevere to the finish line. To me though, this builds character and shows me I am capable of more than what I think I am able to do. Is this bag perfect? Not by a long shot. Did I learn a lot along the way? You bet I did! Was it all worth it in the end? 100%! I was able to take my bag on a little photo shoot and I could not be happier with how it turned out. As Miss. Frizzle says sometimes, we have to “Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”