I've started...but will I finish?

I’ve started…but will I finish?

Mum taught me how to use a sewing machine as a child and I’ve been making stuff with it, on and off, ever since. Every so often I set up the machine on the table in the window and, full of enthusiasm, I embark on creating something new in much the same way as I embark on writing a new story.

I don’t know where ideas for stories come from but sometimes it’s a something on the news or overheard in the street and plots and characters demand I do something about them right now. With sewing sometimes it’s some fabric, or a paper pattern that catches my imagination. Often it’s seeing something in a shop that’s way out of my budget and thinking: I could make something like that. But whatever the spark, the process of putting together a sewing project is very much like putting together a story.

Arranging all the pattern pieces on the fabric so that they fit is like pulling together a plot and as ! cut out each shape, I discard the scraps the same way I sift and select ideas. Beginning to stitch the pieces together is just as exciting as starting to write the first draft as slowly everything takes shape thanks to whatever skill I possess alongside the effort I put in.

Once I can try the half-finished garment on, I can see where adjustments need to be made – exactly like editing. When I reach a point where it looks like I’ll end up with something wearable, I trim the seams and snip away the loose threads, just as I cut all the unnecessary detail from a story.

Hopefully, I eventually reach the point where the garment or the story is finished, ready, good to go and the elation of wearing it for friends to see or sharing it with readers brings both happiness, and some anxiety that it’s actually OK. At this point I’m either itching to get started on the next project straightaway, full of enthusiasm and creativity, or else I’m exhausted and muttering ‘never again’ or ‘maybe in a while’.

Of course I’ve got just as many unfinished sewing projects as I have half-written stories stuffed into cupboards. And I realise I gave up on them for similar reasons too! They became too hard or suddenly lost their appeal or I grew out of them, or discovered I needed something to make them work that I didn’t have to hand and I lacked the time or the energy to go out and find whatever it was. However, whether it’s an incomplete sewing or writing project, I can’t bear to throw it away and I live in hope that one day I might get round to finishing.