I have realized that I have used the same method to complete both my upcycled shirts and my article. 

At first, for sewing, I tried to jump into sewing without paying much attention to pinning. Pinning is less satisfying and, well, much harder than sewing. However, I started to realize my sewing was sloppy if I didn’t spend a lot of time making sure the act of pinning was correct. This is like outlining my article: in order to stay organized and figure out if a concept works, I must outline it. This is the brains of the whole process. Ultimately, I ended up having to redo the parts I didn’t pin correctly, learning that although pinning is the hard part of sewing, it is essential. 

Here is a time-lapse video of me pinning one of my garments, paying attention to exact measurements (half an inch). IMG_2014

I also had to do a “leap of faith” when I had to transition from outline to writing or pinning to sewing. By this, I mean that for both, you cannot be certain you prepared correctly until you go through with the plan. I had to put aside my fears of not making sense or creating an ugly garment and just trust the process. 

I ended up writing around 20 pages on my topic (I will be editing it down this week). While outlining was mostly about the bigger picture, the writing was the details. This transition of focus is hard since when you write you can’t be constantly thinking of the bigger picture and when you outline you can’t constantly think about the details. In addition, I used footnotes in order to stay organized and cite my evidence fast and easy (by simply copy and pasting the link). If I hadn’t done this, my article would be a mess and it would take hours to figure out where I got what. 

At this point, I have learned how to use sewing to experiment with my own style and how to write an article explaining the importance of personal style. However, I don’t know my future personal style, or sewing projects for I usually have a spark of creativity and start cutting. However, I do know I will continue to use personal style to express myself in my everyday life and will continue to learn to sew after this project. I have fallen in love with sewing — although it is very hard — and can’t wait to learn more about it!