I’ve been thinking about the notion of perseverance lately. This “life skill” came to mind as I started creating my “How to Teach Your Children to Sew” online program (details will follow but I am getting totally excited about merging my educational psychology/teacher/child development knowledge with my passion for sewing–my target launch date is mid-June…stay tuned…especially if you home school…it is going to be totally awesome!). In addition to teaching parents/grandparents how to teach children to sew, many of the lessons will include life skill lessons that the adult can incorporate into the sewing lesson.
When I was preparing my lesson notes about how sewing teaching us perseverance, I needed to stop and help My Honey take some boxes to the basement. I walked in the door of that unfriendly space and was met by a big box in the middle of the floor. It was my box of UnFinished Objects (UFO’s). I had dragged it off of a shelf to rifle through it in my search for the missing Cowboy Shirt pattern pieces. But this box is so big and heavy that I couldn’t lift it back up. My Honey asked me what was in the box. I had to confess that there were unfinished and abandoned projects in the box. For whatever reason, I had given up on my project, my dream, my creativity, my skills, and myself. I had lacked the perseverance to see it through to the end (even if I decided that it wasn’t a keeper).
And so it goes that sewing teaches me another lesson about life.
Question: If one buys fabric, a pattern, the notions, etc. for a project but never starts it, is that also considered an unfinished project?
oh don’t even ask that question! I have enough UFOs that I actually started and never finished without counting those that didn’t get beyond the purchasing….