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Sewing, sometimes
Feb. 11th, 2006 11:18 amMy long-term plan for a while has been to shift my sewing hobby into a sewing business. In pursuit of that goal, I attended a terrific apparel design program at Seattle Central Community College. I learned a lot of practical stuff about patternmaking, commercial and couture sewing techniques, design, and how to see (I have a theory that all education is really about how to see. Some of it tries to be about how to think, but seeing comes first).
I also sprained my ribs sewing too long, with too few breaks, on too many lawyers of tough fabric, at a machine that was the wrong height for me.
You know that job interview question where you're supposed to tell the interviewer your worst fault, and you try to answer it in such a way that the fault seems like something that will work to the employer's benefit? Well, if you can get so absorbed in a task that you don't notice that you're injuring yourself, that isn't really a benefit to the employer, and it sure isn't a benefit to you. That kind of absorbtion is one of my worst faults.
So I dropped out of the program with one quarter left to go and have worked on healing the damn ribs. Soft tissue injuries take forever to heal, and it's difficult to avoid re-injuring ribs. There they are, right in the middle of the chest, with the arms connected to them, ready to be strained whenever I walk, write, cook, carry groceries, hug a grandchild, wash dishes, drive a car, or sew. Hell, they can be re-strained when I turn the page of a book too quickly. I haven't stopped doing any of those things, at least not for very long, but I have developed very careful ways of doing all of them.
I've also spent a lot of time and money on massage and chiropractic care and exercise classes, and I've mostly healed now. I still twinge at unexpected moments. I'm still not consistent about setting a timer when I start sewing, and I still pay for it for days if I forget.
But I'm back to sewing. I've been back to sewing several times over the past year, and each time I've relearned some damn easy lesson that I had no excuse for forgetting in the first place. It's embarrassing to be so smart and yet so dumb.
Maybe this time I'll have the right combination of concentration and ease to make it work, to let it work for me.
Addendum: Based on the comments I've received, I've written this in way too self-pitying a tone. Really, it's not that bad. It doesn't hurt that much most of the time. My life is not ruined. I'm not sitting alone in the dark, nobly bearing my sufferings. I still race my granddaughter across the parking lot, and if I'm sneaky enough, I can still beat her.
I also sprained my ribs sewing too long, with too few breaks, on too many lawyers of tough fabric, at a machine that was the wrong height for me.
You know that job interview question where you're supposed to tell the interviewer your worst fault, and you try to answer it in such a way that the fault seems like something that will work to the employer's benefit? Well, if you can get so absorbed in a task that you don't notice that you're injuring yourself, that isn't really a benefit to the employer, and it sure isn't a benefit to you. That kind of absorbtion is one of my worst faults.
So I dropped out of the program with one quarter left to go and have worked on healing the damn ribs. Soft tissue injuries take forever to heal, and it's difficult to avoid re-injuring ribs. There they are, right in the middle of the chest, with the arms connected to them, ready to be strained whenever I walk, write, cook, carry groceries, hug a grandchild, wash dishes, drive a car, or sew. Hell, they can be re-strained when I turn the page of a book too quickly. I haven't stopped doing any of those things, at least not for very long, but I have developed very careful ways of doing all of them.
I've also spent a lot of time and money on massage and chiropractic care and exercise classes, and I've mostly healed now. I still twinge at unexpected moments. I'm still not consistent about setting a timer when I start sewing, and I still pay for it for days if I forget.
But I'm back to sewing. I've been back to sewing several times over the past year, and each time I've relearned some damn easy lesson that I had no excuse for forgetting in the first place. It's embarrassing to be so smart and yet so dumb.
Maybe this time I'll have the right combination of concentration and ease to make it work, to let it work for me.
Addendum: Based on the comments I've received, I've written this in way too self-pitying a tone. Really, it's not that bad. It doesn't hurt that much most of the time. My life is not ruined. I'm not sitting alone in the dark, nobly bearing my sufferings. I still race my granddaughter across the parking lot, and if I'm sneaky enough, I can still beat her.
