confidence and balance restored

For the last two weeks, I was knocked out with a cold.  That meant no sewing for me; I could barely concentrate to read short, fluffy magazine articles, let alone patterns.  Between the unintended sewing break and the hot mess of a Halloween costume sitting in a heap on my work table, I began to doubt my sewing abilities.  Add to that a pile of sewing-relating birthday gifts from my husband that were staring at me (an issue of Ottobre, Cal Patch's "Design-It-Yourself Clothes" and a cork "inspiration" board) and I had completely lost confidence.  Was all that sewing I did just a dream?

There's something about being sick that really throws me off balance.  I felt like I couldn't remember being healthy.  Not only was I not sewing, but I wasn't cooking, cleaning (well, to be honest, that's always at the bottom of my list), reading, meeting up with friends, etc.  I just didn't feel like me.

Until yesterday.  Thanks to my husband taking a day off work, I got to work on this project:

In progress, before sleeves:

Sewing nearly all day yesterday (8 hours with only a short break to eat a cupcake - another gift from my husband) and an hour today, the project is almost done, save for the cuffs and buttons.  All those buttons to sew on this shirt!  My machine has a one-step button function but I've never used it.  Needless to say, I'll be practicing on some scraps.

Working on this shirt completely restored my confidence in my sewing abilities.  It's not quite perfect and there were definitely some scratching-my-head moments with the pattern but I'm pleased with it.  Working on a new project has also helped to restore my sense of balance.  I no longer feel sick.  In fact, I can't quite remember what it felt like to be sick.  Yet, I'm still slowly finding my way back to the normal routine around the house.

As far as the Halloween costume, after throwing it aside, we took a trip to Target.  The selection was terrible -- I guess we were a little late in the game.  I decided to make the best of what I started and honestly, it doesn't look terrible.  It definitely looks home-sewn, but that's okay.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist (in general, if I'm not good at something, I stop doing it) so learning to live with the imperfections of my sewing isn't easy.  But, I'm glad that years from now, Dagim will look at pictures from this Halloween and remember that I made his costume.  That's the kind of mama I always wanted to be.  And now it's the kind of mama that I am.

So, what's next?  I've got plans to begin my biggest project yet.  Details coming soon!