{"id":275,"date":"2015-05-08T11:08:18","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T16:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/?p=275"},"modified":"2015-05-08T11:08:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T16:08:18","slug":"the-power-of-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/?p=275","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

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O<\/span>h man, just the idea of practicing things gives me cold sweats. I\u00a0remember as a kid taking piano lessons and procrastinating on practicing and then I\u2019d go into my next lesson embarrassed because I still sucked at playing Fr\u00e8re Jacques. I think there\u2019s two parts to that equation: 1) I had no desire to play Fr\u00e8re Jacques (rock and roll, please) and 2) practicing is scary because you screw up. A lot. And that can take a toll on your self esteem.<\/p>\n

I mean, this is true of everything we have to practice. It\u2019s not like I understood the quadratic equation the first time I tried it, but because my homework sheet had 20 problems I had to answer using it, I
\neventually figured it out. But when it comes to hobbies or extracurriculars, it\u2019s up to us to tell ourselves its something we want to learn. And that\u2019s hard. For one thing, it\u2019s really sucks not understanding it the first time. I think we all have grand dreams of being perfect the first time around. We are just SO awesome, and that can\u2019t be THAT hard. We\u2019re bound to be prodigies. And for some people, they are. And for the rest of us, well we have to work for it. Which means you have to motivate yourself to get there. And we can all get there with one simple attribute:<\/p>\n

Blind stubbornness.<\/p>\n

Seriously.<\/p>\n

You have to pump yourself up, play \u201cEye of the Tiger\u201d or \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believing,\u201d or \u201cI Believe I Can Fly.\u201d Whatever your poison (Hey, if \u201cTalk Dirty to Me” is your thing, go for it!). If you need to pin up a piece of paper entering your crafting space and jump through it, do it! I do this:<\/p>\n

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\nAnd then you tackle your project. And screw up, rip it out, re-cut it, re-glue it, and probably cry a few time along the way. But you can\u2019t give up, because you are gonna own it (literally and figuratively) when you\u2019re done!<\/p>\n

You all know I\u2019m a huge fan of sewing. It\u2019s my favorite. I\u2019m comfortable with it, I\u2019ve been doing it for years, and I\u2019m always trying to get better\u00a0by\u00a0trying new things. Once you learn the basics, you have to try new things. It gets really boring if you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

My one word of advice here, take baby steps. Don\u2019t try and make a ball gown your first time out if you haven\u2019t sewn before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u00a0nonsense is tricky. There\u2019s usually a lot of technique that goes into a fancy gown. I mean you can\u00a0<\/em>do it, but it\u2019s real easy to get frustrated and drop everything. Lots of tears, anger, \u201cI sucks\u201d and a crushed crafting self esteem. And that\u2019s no fun. This stuff should be fun!<\/p>\n

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\"Tip<\/a>Now in respect to cosplay, man, we are swimming in some uncharted\u00a0waters (unless you\u00a0went to school for it). So I\u2019m gonna drop some SeamsGeeky\u2122 Wisdom on you: practice on something smaller first.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Shocking, I know. But that\u2019s a hard pill to swallow sometimes. I mean, we want that sweet, sweet movie accurate Black Widow catsuit NOW! But from experience, cosplay isn\u2019t cheap and the last thing you want to mess something up half way with your $25 (or more!) a yard fabric because you jumped into the deep end before you knew how to kick.<\/p>\n

Sewing breaks down into levels of techniques and skills which add up to the knowledge of making something. You kinda have to build up your own mental toolbox before taking on something crazy.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sewing a straight seam
\n\u2022 Knowing what are the best tools for the job
\n\u2022 Understanding how patterns look and how they go together
\n\u2022 Pattern alterations
\n\u2022 Understanding textiles and textile best practices
\n\u2022 Fabric grain
\n\u2022 When to machine stitch, when to hand stitch
\n\u2022 The right interfacing for the job
\n\u2022 Fit (this is the hardest, I think)
\n\u2022 Tailoring
\n\u2022 Draping
\n\u2026<\/p>\n

I could go on for days. And there is, like, a billion variations on\u00a0themes. It seems overwhelming, I know.<\/p>\n

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So when I want to learn something, I break down what exactly I want to\u00a0learn. I HATE learning with \u201csamples.\u201d I don\u2019t want to insert\u00a0a zipper into a square of fabric, I want something usable at the end,\u00a0not just a zipper randomly floating around my sewing room. I don\u2019t\u00a0have the time or space for that. So I figure out a project where I can\u00a0use a new skill and try it hands-on then complete that project. And I\u00a0try not to make it too hard on myself.<\/p>\n

Need to learn how to put in a zipper? Sew up a simple, unlined skirt\u00a0(from a\u00a0 sewing pattern. Online sewing tutorials when your learning\u00a0can suck, and having an instruction sheet really helps) out of a basic\u00a0cotton. Seriously. You get something usable you can be proud of (Self\u00a0Esteem Booster!) And you\u2019ll have learned how to put in a zipper, and\u00a0gotten better at cutting out patterns, understanding pattern shapes,\u00a0sewing a straight seam, seam finishing, probably interfacing, hemming,\u00a0and most importantly, putting in that zipper. (the cotton helps you\u00a0hide those holes if you have to rip it out and redo it).<\/p>\n

Rinse. Repeat. You\u2019re going to get better and better every time. I had\u00a0an art teacher who told me, \u201cDraw it 3 times, and you\u2019ll be amazed how\u00a0much better the last one looks. Then do it 3 more.\u201d But drawing an\u00a0apple 6 times is boring. 3 skirts and 3 dresses to add to my closet? Plus with all the amazing licensed fabric there is now, you can fill out your geek wardrobe and have much more fun.<\/p>\n

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\nAnytime I try something new, I try to do it in a small scale on a\u00a0wearable project first. And I\u2019m probably going to repeat this over and\u00a0over. In every post<\/span>. From here to eternity. The main reason I like\u00a0doing things this way is because it boosts your self esteem, which is\u00a0hard to keep up sometimes. That way when you\u2019re ready tackle that\u00a0costume, you feel armed with the skills to figure it out! Scared to work with spandex? Make some leggings or a swimsuit. Unsure of leather? Make a bag, or add some leather accents to a jacket.\u00a0When you\u00a0spend 3 months on a costume, you want to be proud of it, so you need\u00a0that firm foundation. I mean, every costume is it\u2019s own adventure, and\u00a0it can feel\u00a0like you are running full steam in one direction, and hoping that\u00a0it\u2019s the right way.<\/p>\n

We are all students in the classroom of life (<\u2014\u2014cheesy, but I don\u2019t\u00a0care). And new things always seem scary, but you have to face it\u00a0sometimes. You might need to amp yourself to start, but you don\u2019t have\u00a0to run if you just learned to crawl.<\/p>\n

You totally have this under control. You got this! You can do anything!<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll collectively help as much as I can!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Oh man, just the idea of practicing things gives me cold sweats. I\u00a0remember as a kid taking piano lessons and procrastinating on practicing and then I\u2019d go into my next lesson embarrassed because I still sucked at playing Fr\u00e8re Jacques. I think there\u2019s two parts to that equation: 1) I had no … Continue reading The Power of Practice<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[70,18,44],"tags":[75,74,72,73,71,9,76],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-cosplay","category-fashion-2","tag-clothing","tag-confidence","tag-costumes","tag-crafting","tag-practice","tag-sewing","tag-skill-building"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2eZ2R-4r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296,"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seamsgeeky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}