Welcome to Week Three, Day 15 of the sewing space declutter challenge. This week is all about your projects, fabric and batting.
Today our challenge is to find all the projects that you have started. It doesn’t matter if you call them WIP’s (Works In Progress) or UFO’s (UnFinished Objects) or WOMBAT's (Waste of Money, Batting And Time), let's get them all out in the light of day. And when I say started, that means that there is some cut fabric or half sewn blocks, or partially constructed rows.
Any fabric that you find that you have pulled and not cut, we’ll classify as a kit. Just put those aside and we will be dealing with kits tomorrow.
Now you might have a fabric pull that you have made for a BOM or other project. If you have not cut the fabric, we’ll classify it as a kit. Just put those aside and we will be dealing with kits tomorrow.Â
We stop projects for many reasons. Work, family, sickness, distraction, mistakes, difficulty and more. And like all marathons, once you stop it’s really mentally challenging to get back back on track. But here is the million dollar question. If you had a day of uninterrupted sewing, is this a project that you want to finish? Not can you finish but do you want to finish it. This is one reason why decluttering a craft or sewing space is so hard. And it’s worth writing or printing this question out and having it front and centre.
The problem is when the answer is sort of. We kind of do, we kind of don’t. But If you can’t see yourself making it today, when will you want to make it?Â
I went through this process with many of my UFO’s last year. And I asked myself the following questions.Â
Do you love it?
What purpose does it serve?
Who are you making it for?
Will it challenge you?
How much more time do you need to invest?
How much more money do you need to invest?
This is not a three of out of six means you keep it. It’s about focusing on you and how you like to sew. With the few hours you have available for your hobby, is this project going to fill your bucket, or drain it all away?
When I am stuck, I usually challenge myself to put on the timer for 30 minutes and make a block or two and see how I feel afterwards. And I am often surprised at what works and what doesn’t. Â
I look forward to this day because I love playing with my fabrics. not only brings a smile to my face but triggers new ideas and possibilities. Since 2020 I have tried hard not to carry too much into the next year. So Between now and the end of February, I will try to finish off this as many projects as I can so for the remainder of the year I can work on new ideas.
What I am doing differently this year is looking at my UFO's by priority. Some I want to finish and some I'll just doodle around with during the year. And the ones I want to finish I figure out what the next step its and I add to a white board list. The remainder I put on another board just so they are not forgotten.
So how is your UFO pile? Share your finds online in the Facebook group or Instagram with the hashtags #declutterchallenge2024.
Take care and you tomorrow for day 16
If you need to catch-up or missed one of the previous days click here and you will find the library at the bottom of the page