PIVOT! Sewing is a Hobby!

 

Writing this blog just helps me process my thoughts.  I like a good brain dump.

 

Do give up the Day Job!

I retired from the day job 2 months before my 60^th birthday so I’ve now been retired for nearly 18 months. It was a very good decision.

My life has been very full.  We now have Wilf, our black Labrador who came into
our lives a couple of months after I retired.  He’s an absolute joy and has enriched our lives immensely.

I’ve also ‘part trained’ for another marathon, but had to stop because of a situation requiring some surgery (nothing life threatening – but an essential repair) so didn’t take part in said marathon.  I don’t know if I’ll do another marathon. I don’t think I will; I was finding the long distances hard even before having to stop.  But I plan to start running again in the new year (starting with C25K) and just run for fitness and socialising.

I enjoy having more time for gardening when the weather suits me – and for sewing when the weather is not to my liking.  I love having the best of both worlds.  Freedom from the day job means I don’t have to get the weeding done around work regardless of the weather and whether I feel like it or not. Now it can wait until another day, without that meaning I have to wait for the next non-working day.

Proud Paws – is it a business or a hobby?

That’s the question Luke* posed when I was engaging with life coaching.  It was difficult to answer and looking back, I think I forced an answer out of myself – see previous post.  I treated it as a business and I’ve enjoyed a degree of success in terms of online sales and sales at Craft Fairs, Christmas Markets and the like.  I’ve also met some lovely dogs and chatted to their owners. 

However, I almost feel like running it as a business was something I just needed to ‘get out of my system’.

Maybe there was an element of justifying my retirement and living up to values around being productive and earning money. 

I enjoy creating, but not the promotion! I don’t get excited by the prospect of spending hours and hours on social media promoting the business and I find the subject of search engine optimisation complicated and tedious. 

Also, when I say I enjoy creating, I’ve found I don’t like making lots of the same thing over and over again. This is what I have done with lead sleeves in order to offer many different permutations of colours and wording and yet still finding I’ve never got quite the right wording in the colour someone prefers!  I just worked out that to make one of each colour that I’ve been asked for with each of the different wording (“Reactive”, “Nervous”, “Newly Adopted” and so on) I’d have to make over 200 lead sleeves in order to have each one available.  That does not sound like fun!  Made to order is probably a better way to go with those.

I feel that in an attempt to force a niche for myself, I’ve restricted myself to ‘dog stuff’ and then only made ‘other stuff’ when I haven’t got an event coming up that I’m trying to ‘make’ for.  And that, in a way is going back to the day job situation….doing the fun stuff around work.

I must take responsibility here too and admit that I’ve persisted in making things that only very few people really want (bandanas), just because I fall in love with the next exciting fabric!

I love making one-off items.

What I’ve found I enjoy most is to make a one-off item as a gift for someone or where someone has given me free rein to be creative within a set budget.  I like taking an idea out of my head and making it a reality.  When I do that, whether it is as a gift of something that someone has asked me to make, I really get into my happy place.  I can spend a whole day making something, slowly, deliberately and without pressure.

 

What now?

I’m fortunate to be in a position where I’ve been able to retire and I don’t actually need to make money from my hobby.  I’m feeling less need to constantly be productive! 

I want to continue to enjoy Wilf, walking, running, gardening, sewing and anything else that takes my fancy. 

Sewing is my hobby, whether it’s Proud Paws or any other kind of sewing. I’ll keep the Proud Paws Facebook page going but remove the online shop and after the current stock has gone, I’ll be happy to make items to order if asked, agreeing a price individually (whether that is cash or a bottle of wine, a skills swap or a favour for a favour).

I’ll keep my public liability and product insurance up to date in case I fancy doing the odd Craft Fair. Who knows what I’ll make and whether anyone will want to buy it?  I just fancy being free to make anything.  If I sell the odd bit here and there,  it will help sustain my fabric buying habit!

I like making gifts for family and friends; I probably just need to make sure I’m making something they actually want!  I can make stuff for myself too.  What if I want to have a go at making something just for the experience of making it, but I don’t want or need it myself an have no one to give it to?  Well then, I could donate it to a school, church or charity shop for fundraising.  I do make nice stuff that someone somewhere will want!

 

Dress a girl around the world.

I like to try to do some good when I can.  I’m not altruistic. I won't get into a debate here about whether altruism exists, but I can only speak for myself when I say that doing some good for someone else makes me feel good too.  As far as I can, I sponsor friends when they are raising funds by doing a race and I donate here and there to worthy causes.

Recently I came across the charity, Dress a Girl Around the World UK.  Their mission is to send clothes to children in countries such as Zimbabwe, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Gambia and Syria. However, instead of collecting used items, their aim is  to provide the very best new dresses and shorts made especially for children living in poverty around the world.  There is a UK coordinator who takes / sends the items periodically to where they are needed. 

There are a variety of pattern styles and there are various criteria for the clothes.  For example, they need to be long enough to preserve modesty, the fabric needs to be sturdy as it may be washed in a river, no buttons or zips as they would have no facility to repair them if they broke

These dresses and shorts are made by volunteers in this country who make as many or as few items as they wish.

This is RIGHT UP MY STREET!  A perfect fit!  I can be creative, work with different lovely fabrics, have no time pressure, not worry about whether I’ll sell anything and I’ll be doing some good and getting a warm fuzzy feeling. Win-Win

You can check out the Dress a Girl Around the World Facebook page here.

 

So this is my plan for sewing.

• Do some good – “Dress a girl around the world.”
• Do a few alterations for family and friends – I forgot to mention that I’ve been doing this already.  I’m choosy about what I do though because my skills in this area are limited.  I won’t work on anything very expensive!
• Make things for family and friends – but check it’s something they want!
• Make clothes for myself – to this end I’ve signed up for a pattern blocking course to learn how to fit myself well and to design my own clothes.
• Have a go at making anything I feel like having a go at.  
• New Facebook page called “Fran Made It” just to post photos of what I've made. I'm not sure how this will evolve, but I'm happy for it to be organic.
• Do the odd craft fair if I fancy it.
• Donate any ‘unallocated’ items  to schools / church / charity shop for fundraising.

Could you benefit from Life Coaching?

A quick note for anyone wrestling with change and decisions in life.  If you feel a bit stuck, it can often help  to chew the fat with someone you don't know.  A Life Coach can fit the bill for this.  I've written in a previous post about my experience of Life Coaching so I won't repeat this here.  If you want to check out my life coach for yourself, here are the links.

*  Luke can be contacted on the links below.

#mylifecoachluke

https://www.lifecoachluke.com/

https://www.facebook.com/mylifecoachluke

https://www.instagram.com/mylifecoachluke/