You know you ought to be working on it, but there it still sits, in a bag/on a shelf/in the corner, looking at you.
You know the deadline is approaching. Your project keeps whispering to you about it. You know it’s going to be a last minute nightmare, or worse, a missed opportunity.
So how do you break the standoff?
I thought I was over this sort of thing, but I’ve been procrastinating with the best of them lately.
A friend pulled out a precious item of clothing in front of me last October, and was horrified to find that three huge holes had been gnawed in it by rats. I’ll spare you the backstory for now, but suffice it to say, he declared it ruined.
After a brief historical sewing soapbox moment – the value of mending, the way it adds to the garment’s story and prolongs its life, you know the script – I had myself a project, of course.
And you’ll recognise the next part too – it turned out to be a bigger undertaking than I had in mind. Of course it did.
What started out as a simple mending project became an intricate labour of reweaving love. And there it sat in a bag, waiting for me to summon up the courage to tackle it.
Multiple issues built up. It is a precious garment to my friend. (No pressure then.) It involves a new technique that I’m not familiar with. A key piece of equipment I needed for the project – namely, an exceedingly useful magnifying lamp – broke as I began work. It required a very specific kind of yarn that I had no idea how to source (yarn is not my wheelhouse). And I thought I might as well film the process and produce a video with it (see above re: no pressure then.)
All of these factors became parameters that fenced me off from continuing, one by one.
I think we both know you have a project like this. (Maybe more than one.) I suspect that your project has a similar fence around it, made of requirements, obstacles, and points of pressure. And that constellation of factors is held together with a tangled web of shame, guilt, embarassment, or just plain resistance.
So how do you break the deadlock?
Try listing the pain points. Bring them out into the light, and figure out how to tackle one of them. Because I think that what got me was not the fact that there was a Problem; it was that multiple problems piled up.
By itemising the problems, you can pick one and fix it. And then the others will start to give, one by one, until there’s enough momentum to begin work again. Here’s how it worked for me:
This project will continue to be precious to my friend; I couldn’t fix that feeling of pressure on myself easily. So I moved on to the next issue.
I can practise the unfamiliar technique on a small area.
I can find another lamp, fix this one, or take the darn project outdoors in summer daylight.
I can ask someone who knows yarn for help to source what I need.
And the big knot that loosened the whole thing and got it moving again: I just stopped filming. I took that pressure off until I was feeling confident again.
Yesterday I was outdoors in the garden, using the best light in the Universe and some beautiful yarn, filming again and sending progress photos to my friend. His excitement released the pressure on me to make it perfect. We’re off and running again, and I expect to have the project finished in time for my visit to him in September.
A project that’s suffering from serious procrastination is just a tangled mass of fairy lights. Just sit with it, identify the individual issues and release one at a time, and you’ll soon be off and running again.
What’s your stalled project – and what are the issues holding it back? And more importantly, which issue can you release first to get it moving again?
Thank you. Thank you for your blog. Thank you for your honesty. Thank you for the inspiration you provide.
I am quick to find excuses to put things off. This advice applies not only to sewing projects, but all the little things I put off. I needed this. Thank you!
Stalled project! Which one? I hate to admit how many I’ve abandoned but saved. I think I need accountability….that might help.
Good for you. I will try to use you as my example. You have my undying admiration.
Sew many pretty things to start ….
Sew many pretty things started but not finished !!??
The struggle is real !
Good job, ms Hay. I applaud you!
I have been procrastinating a victorian chemise for a while. I was gifted some old sheets (they go back three generations) from a friend – you know the sturdy lovely dense quality of cotton plain weave. Fabric you cannot find nowadays. <3 She gave them to me for "if you can use them for something". I took them, petting the fabric, trying not to drool on them. LOL 😀
I decided to definitely use them for "something" and then gift the "something" back to my friend. I wanted to go with some victorian underwear she can use for museum work, or just for nighties.
Took a while to gather the courage to cut the thing out – you know, old irreplaceable materials. Needs a little creative cutting to fit within the fabric too. No room for mistakes = first excuse to procrastinate.
I made it through cutting. And then I had the idea to use the beautiful embroidered initials right below the neckline – took another round of creativity inthe cutting – and a load of unpicking existing seams, which made a couple of holes in the precious fabric, nooo…) – and then some more creative cutting, because basically patchwork was needed to place the embroidery in the right spot and still have fabric covering the whole pattern piece = second reason to procrastinate.
Then I had the idea to hide the need to "patchwork" with some tucks and some insertion lace. More thinking = more procrastination.
Also I wanted to go kinda close to historically acurate (why make it simple when you can keep it complicated!) and use historical tools and techniques. Took a while to get out the hand cranked machine and search for a youtube video on period insertion lace how-to = even more dragging out the proces…
BUT I am proud to announce that today I have done the "let's go do it" – I have finished the front piece, embroidery, tucks, insertion lace and ALL!
Now theres only one reason left to make me procrastine again: Something about the finishing of the neckline. But I can think about that while I am sewing up the rest of the "something".
Oh, and besides the "woohooo, I beat the procrastination", which is a victory in itself, I dare also say that the "something" looks really good. Sooo pretty. <3 I'm actually excited to see it finished (no pressure to not screw it up later on, hahaha. 😀
I have a budding YouTube channel. I find that I’ve become boxed into serial work. I can’t start a new project until I finish the old one, and now finishing means also editing a YouTube video. It’s making it hard to keep going, especially when life gets in the way. It’s been a hard summer for our family, with loss, distance, work and physical injury sucking the joy out of our hobbies. We are all in a funk. I’d like to break free but I feel like I don’t have the mental energy to finish the next video so I can start again. I don’t know how YouTubers juggle so many things at once.
Thank you for this blog post. I find that stress derails me faster than anything else. It then takes so much effort to get back to a project. (looking at my repair pile) Your post gives me hope, as I was working on untangling that mess of “fairy lights” too.
Glad your blog is back, and I needed this regarding a stalled project. Thank you
My project, my tangled fairy-light project is…my thesis. My PhD thesis that I so desperately (there’s a telling word) want to finish, but am horridly (another telling word) afraid of confronting head-on. I am not a fabulous scholar, I am at best a mediocre writer, and at age 49 am not exactly, you know…spry. How I ever got this far (two years in) I’ll never know, but I have kept myself going by doing exactly what you advise: breaking it down. Itemising. Taking it one step at a time, or as Anne Lamott calls it: Bird by Bird. I will echo Jessica Reinschmidt in saying Thank you!! For the honesty, the inspiration, the you.
I have this one vest, made of beautiful bottle green kashmir. I collected some lovely golden buttons to go with it. And it is the first item that i made that is completely to my size
Now i need to create the buttonholes…. In order to do that i need to cut holes in my precious project, for which i have only one chance. If i mess up it is “ruined” and meticulous measuring and spacing is something that has always been one of my weaknesses 😬
I have been in need of sorting out my craft room so I have a place to work on my projects. It became the cause/excuse for many stalled projects and started to become the dumping ground for general household items. I finally bit the bullet so to speak and started in the area by the door last weekend. I have been pottering off and on since, doing “just this shelf” or “just this drawer” . I now have everything organized and labeled so my biggest excuse is now gone. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I even found a few old projects that had been packed away for reasons I cannot remember. Time to work on one I think.
What a relief. I thought it was just me! Thank you for also providing a starting point for making my way back from the land of procrastination.
This is great advice, thank you. I have hundreds of projects staring me down, its difficult not to be overwhelmed.
The biggest project I have staring me down is not a sewing project, but organizing my crafting/sewing area! It has been a massive mess and practically a dumping ground for…well…YEARS! Every time I begin to work on it, I get side tracked by, “Oh! I should just take care of this; it will only take a few minutes.” And hours later, I’m still working on said project and no further on the task I started with! Sigh.
But there is some helpful insight here that can be applied even to my “hopeless” case! I really like the idea of listing the obstacles in my way and figuring them out one by one rather than facing them all at once. It’s rather common sense – and there’s a part of me feeling a bit foolish for not seeing this before – but it makes complete sense, foolish or not! Haha!
First obstacle to overcome: getting back home from vacation. In progress. 😁
Currently on the procrastinated projects list.. actually started but sooooo dificult to work up the oomph to get excited about doing them..
1. An Etsy commission for a 6 foot x 3 foot peg loom rug.. It’s just Hoooooj!!
2. A felted rug from the fleece of a friend’s favourite sheep.. no pressure, other than I’ve never done felted fleece this big before, it’s a fleece from a favourite pet and it’s a thank you for giving me the fleeces from all her other sheep to work and sell..
3. A handstitched heirlooom economy patchwork quilt.. it’s double bed sized and there are lots and lots of pouches to affix to a curtain lining… and I think I erred when I handstitched the disassemble silk Obi belt on as a border before I started to add the pouches..
4. A lined wool coat.. it’s just stopped at the ‘lets out the sleeves in before I start the lining’ stage…. so much to do so little time..
5. A light and airy chiffon ‘bog coat’ which I’m adding a braid edging to, for a wedding in a couple of weeks.. and I haven’t even started on the dress I want to make for said wedding…
Then on top of all this I have about 100 raw fleeces to wash and make up into rugs to add to my Etsy store, 2 tonnes (slight exaggeration there perhaps) of fabrics to make up and replace all the mass produced clothing I currently wear, boxes & boxes of yarn I’ve been making blankets, jumpers and baskets up with so as to be able to store the aforementioned washed fleeces..
And I haven’t got round yet to doing a few paintings and craft projects I’ve been wanting to do for what seems like years :'( (I’m drowning in toilet rolls and washed coffee jars LOL)
One step at a time though.. get this big commission out of the way.. then the felted fleece.. and then perhaps I can get going on the more time critical of my own projects..
Although, crawling back into bed and sleeping for a hundred years sounds really tempting right about now LOL
Thanks for sharing Cathy.. it’s reassuring to know that anyone can fall into stumbling blocks and procrastination.
Thank you so very much for your skill, insight , and talent. Hearing other’s input to their obstacles that stall projects also give insight to other people’s challenges.
Used to be on task, but the challenge of losing my husband of 43 yr. really set me back. Started feeling like, “What’s the use?” Quite a challenge! So thankful for grief support, but now you enrich my thoughts with the “maybe I can do this”. Life is a challenge, but the gratefulness of completing a project fills my heart. Your encouragement is so appreciated. Your gifts abound!
I have a Mariner’s Compass quilt I started in 2002. I think one of my hurdles is that it’s paper-pieced, and the sheer *waste* of fabric makes me gag a bit. I put it away for about 10 years, occasionally looking at it, and the bag of scraps to go with it… and landed on the idea of foundation-piecing the scraps on 6″ squares of jersey fleece, to create an all-in-one batt-n-back. Back in business! It’s still an enormous PITA to work on, though, since I realized I’d have to peel off all the freezer paper to which I’d fused all the fiddly little bits of fabric, and it was a queen-sized quilt, and I was really getting into the groove, randomly piecing the scraps to the fleece, but I needed to make more blocks in order to make more scraps…
And all the while, 20 years of life and death happened. I started and finished many other projects (some of them to channel my grief). I started and left unfinished many, many other projects.
I’ve got Project Gridlock in my creative space, and nowhere to spread out and I’m afraid if I put things thing back in their basket, I will actually die before I finish them. I’m still choreographing my mental gymnastics to work out how I’ll knock them down. It can’t be one-by-one, see, because “grinding” on sewing projects to power through them is what chased me out of my creative space.