10 Ways to Stop Burnout Before it Starts

Show Notes

• How to Use the Rule of Three Outfits


• 
  Creativity is Magic with Christi Johnson.


• Do I Really Need a Fabric Stash?


• Letting Go of Productivity Shame


• Upgrade Your Sewing Space Without Buying More Stuff


• 
  Design Your Wardrobe: Create your own personalized queue of projects for the next 3–6 months.


• 
  Style Workshop: In under 90 minutes, you’ll have exactly what you need to craft clothing you’ll love to wear every day.


• 
  Podcast listeners get half off an unlimited Seamwork membership when you use this link, plus you get to keep that price as long as you’re a member!


• Tell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!

Podcast Transcript

Sarai
I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio. Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy.

And today we're going to cover some of the reasons you might experience burnout when it comes to sewing, how to head it off, and our favorite tips for maintaining a healthy relationship with your sewing practice. All right, our icebreaker for today. Okay, this one is do you have a white whale fabric that you've been searching for for years, Haley?

Haley
Yes, absolutely. There are two fabrics, and both of them are coatings, and both of them are green. The thing is, I'm looking for two very specific shades of green. My first one is I want, like, a dark green that is warm but not too dark, and I feel like everything I find is, like, a cool green, or it's, like, almost black, and I want it to be, like, a melton wool kind of that wool coating. I'm okay if it has some synthetic, but I want it to be dominantly wool. I've been looking for that for a long time.

The other coating I've been looking for is I want some kind of, like, coating that has some kind of nap to it in a green leaning chartreuse color, and I have not been able to find it. I have maybe been searching for that one for at least seven years.

Sarai
Really? Wow.

Haley
And I have not been able it's like a fantasy coat of mine have something in that fabric, and I have not been able to find it. So if anyone listening finds it in the wild, let me know. Email us.

Sarai
It sounds like you might be able to find some—I would imagine you'd be able possibly to find some vintage options for color like that?

Haley
Possibly. I've looked, like on eBay and Etsy and the usual places. I'm not looking, like, every single week. But it's one of those things that anytime I go to a new fabric store, anytime I hear about a new online fabric store, that's what I'm looking. I always look for it.

Sarai
Oh, wow. You should do a saved search on eBay.

Haley
I should.

Sarai
If you haven't already. I found some good stuff that way.

Haley
Yeah, those are my white whales. What about you? I want to hear about yours.

Sarai
Okay. So, for me, the one that comes to mind, I haven't been looking at for it for that long, but I'm looking for a linen that has metallic threads not throughout the whole thing, but, like, in narrow stripes throughout it. That's what I'm looking for, like, a striped metallic linen, and I have not been able to find it. I found metallic linens that have metallic threads throughout the entire piece, and I've found lots of other really cool linens, but nothing that has exactly what I'm looking for.

Haley
Thanks, Lucy.

Sarai
Lucy just shook off here.

Haley
I've seen that kind of metallic stripe and gauzes before, but I don't know if I've seen a linen like that.

Sarai
That's what I've been looking for for quite a while, and there's so much linen out there, and I just haven't been able to find it, so that's mine.

All right, well, if you have an icebreaker question for us for a future episode, Seamwork members can leave it for us at seamwork.com/go/icebreakers. That'll take you to a thread on our community where you can share your icebreaker question, and we'll probably use it on a future episode. We love hearing your icebreakers.

Okay, so let's get into our topic for today. So we're talking about burnout today, specifically burnout when it comes to sewing. And when your favorite creative practice makes you feel burned out, that can be really upsetting and really frustrating. And I think often when we start to feel like we're not doing very much in regards to our creativity, our instinct can be to create a to-do list and start checking it off.

But sometimes scheduling your creativity burns you out on it even more. At least I feel that way. So I think a lot of this can be really tied up in our expectations of ourselves and of our projects.

And maybe we think that we should be sewing more often, or maybe our last few sewing projects just felt like big disappointments. But lots of times, feeling turned off by sewing can stem from “should-ing” ourselves, just telling ourselves we should be doing this or we should be doing that. I know I've experienced this myself, and I have some ideas about how you can tackle this just from my own experience, and we're going to talk about those today.

So there's the should-ing, all that internal pressure. Oh, boy, Lucy's really going to town over here. The pressure can also be external. So maybe you have circumstances in your life that make sewing just feel like the last thing that you want to do. Maybe you're just going through a really challenging period, or you're just really busy. There's lots of reasons why sewing might take a back burner, so we're going to discuss these things and talk about some strategies that you can implement if you're feeling that way. So let's start by just talking about this in general. Haley, how many projects would you say that you complete in a year?

Haley
I would say, like, in the ballpark of nine or ten. I don't really have a need for sewing much more than that.

Sarai
Yeah, I feel like mine are probably about the same. I'd say probably between somewhere between nine and 15. It just really depends.

Haley
It does, yeah.

Sarai
Some months I feel like I do a lot, and then some months I don't for quite a while.

Haley
Yeah, definitely. And then I feel like sometimes, for instance, I am in dire need of some new T-shirts, so I'm going to batch sew some T-shirts in the near future. And so that'll make my number a little higher for the year because I'm going to be batch sewing some stuff, and that's not something I need to do every year.

Sarai
Yeah, for sure. And I have gone through a few easy projects this summer, but then now I feel like going into fall, I've got some more difficult, challenging, longer term projects on my mind. So it just really depends for me.

Haley
So of your nine to 15 projects a year, how many do you feel like are a flop? On average?

Sarai
Boy, now she's crashing into things. Having a puppy, you guys, is not a quiet experience. She's in here causing all kinds of chaos.

How many do feel like a flop? I would say let's say if I do ten in a year, I'd probably say two feel like a complete flop. I probably am never going to wear them, and then maybe one or two that feel like they came out okay, but not exactly what I expected. Yeah, there's nothing technically wrong with them, but maybe it just wasn't exactly what I had in mind, or the fabric didn't perform the way I thought it would, or just something is a little bit maybe just a little bit off. That's about what I would expect. What about you?

Haley
Well, so far this year, I think I've sewn six things, and two of them have been those kind of like mid-grade flops where I'm like, I still wear them, but I'm not as jazzed about them as I thought they would be.

I would say by the end of the year, I will have one catastrophic flop.

Sarai
Yeah, that sounds about right. We're just like, nothing.

Haley
I'm going to have to reuse this fabric for something else or get really creative to redeem this somehow.

Sarai
Yeah, I mean, it's often about the fabric. I think that's usually, like, 90% of the time when I have a flop, the fabric didn't do what I expected it to do.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
Which I think is one of the hard parts about home sewing versus the world of ready to wear. You're using a different fabric every time you make it.

Haley
So how does it make you feel when you feel like you depart from that average, whether that's like, your average number of things you're sewing or your average number of sewing flops?

Sarai
Well, I think when I feel like I'm not doing as much sewing, I usually see that as a signal that maybe something is a little bit off, that I feel maybe a lot of busyness in my life, or I'm just maybe not feeling myself.

To me, I see it more as a signal, because I love sewing so much and it's so fun, and if I am not making time for it, I try to investigate the reasons why. So I think that I think in terms of having flops, if I have more flops than usual, I don't know. I mean, it feels bad in the moment, but I don't really chalk it up to anything. It just happens. We all have good moments and bad moments when it comes to making stuff, so I don't think it has any huge significance for me, but it doesn't feel great at the time. What about you?

Haley
I think that when I'm sewing less frequently, most of the time I can treat it kind of neutrally. And that comes from a place of sewing long enough that I know that I have seasons in my life where I sew more and some when I sew less. And that's fine and normal, but sometimes it could make me feel a little bit like an imposter. It makes my impostor syndrome rear up a bit. My job is like, I'm a designer. I work in the sewing industry. And so you're like, I think I should myself a little bit like, oh, I should be sewing more. But then when I check in with my values, it really suggests otherwise because I don't find a need for more clothing than what I actually am able to sew. That is comforting.

When I have a lot of failures in my sewing, I'm actually better at treating that neutrally because it just happens. It just kind of is what it is. And over the years, I've gotten like, a thick skin for actually failure in general. I'm like a really graceful failure.

Sarai
Yeah, you can't have the wins without the fails.

Haley
Yeah, right.

Sarai
It's not possible you can't get better if you're not failing. Yeah, that's what I try to tell myself anyway.

Haley
All right, so my next question is, when you go through a particularly stressful time in your life, when you have those external circumstances going on, do you find yourself leaning into sewing more in those times, or do you find yourself avoiding it?

Sarai
I would definitely say I avoid it in those times more. I think that's because usually when I'm going through a stressful time, I feel a lot of time pressure, and I have a lot of other things to attend to. So it feels like something that it just adds more stress.

And I think that's because sewing in particular, it's not a passive hobby. It's not like an easy passive hobby in the way even knitting can be. Because if you're doing it depending on what you're knitting, if you're doing an easy knitting pattern, it can be something portable where you're just using your hands, you're not really thinking that much. Sewing requires a lot of mental work most of the time. I think that's the difference between sewing and quilting, although I think quilting also requires a lot of mental work. But there are at least periods in quilting where you can just sew, just stitch. And I feel like less so with making clothing that's I think a big reason why.

There's also a lot of setup, a lot of different things to take care of when you're sewing. And to me, it just adds more to think about. It doesn't clear my mind.

Haley
It's very like high-involvement kind of hobby.

Sarai
Yeah, exactly. What about you?

Haley
It kind of depends on the source of the external pressure. I feel like when the source of it is like a lack of time, then I agree. I totally know lack of time or lack of energy. I definitely put sewing on the back burner. But when the source of the stress is something that makes me feel like I want more alone time, then I lean on sewing a lot more because sewing can be and often is quite solitary. So that is something about it that I relish in those moments where I feel like I need more opportunities to step away.

Sarai
That actually makes me wonder if, now that I have, so we're recording right now on my new sewing studio, which is a converted shed in my yard, and I've moved all my sewing stuff in here. And I do wonder if that'll change now that I have a private space away from the house that's not my office where I work, and having a space to come to that I'm going to make very peaceful and very cozy and feel like I can just step into it and get away from everything. I do wonder if that'll change my relationship with sewing.

Haley
Yeah, I would wager it will.

Sarai
Yeah, well, we'll see. We'll come back to that idea in a future episode and talk about it, I'm sure.

Haley
Okay, so let's dive in to these tips. So we have ten of them for you today. So we're going to power through these so you can take them all in.

So tip number one is to turn down the noise. So if you're finding that the thought of your next sewing project gives you nervous sweats, maybe it's time to turn down the volume a little bit. You're likely receiving a lot more information than you can process and you can express. So, lots of times when I start to feel overwhelmed, I like to turn down the noise. And what I mean by that is I take a break from reading sewing blogs, take a break from social media for a bit, and kind of turn inward, taking some time to sketch my dream outfits or pull some swatches and listen more to that internal creative voice and the input of everything around you.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely. I think I just took a sabbatical for the last month, for the month. We're recording this in August, and that was in July. I took off from work, so I had more time to be with my new puppy, for one thing. But anyway, the thing that I noticed when I came back and I wrote about this in my personal newsletter is that there's just so much stuff coming at you that you can really just ignore. You can just shut it all off and nothing's going to burn down. You're not going to miss anything.

Honestly, if you don't look at social media, if you don't check your email, if you don't do those things that you're used to doing, that provide all that input, your life will be better, most likely, and you won't even notice what you're missing.

That's just in my experience anyway. Maybe that's not true for everybody, but for me, that was definitely the case. So I fully endorse this tip.

All right, so our next tip is to embrace more sporadic sewing. So if you're feeling a lot of pressure to create at a consistent rate, or if you're going through one of those periods where you're just not creating—it’s okay, that's fine.
Creativity ebbs and flows, and if sporadic creativity works for you, then that's totally fine and that's totally acceptable. So creativity naturally ebbs and flows and forcing yourself to do things that you don't have to do, and it's not making you feel good. What's the point of that? Right?

So just embrace it. Embrace sporadic sewing and jump back to your machine when it feels right. And then be gentle with yourself and be gentle with your creativity when you aren't feeling inspired. Because one thing that I think can happen is if you force yourself to do creative things that you don't really want to do, then it can create an aversion to it, and it can feel like a chore. It can feel like work. And that's not something you want. Because once you start avoiding that thing or feeling negatively towards it, then it can be hard to recover from that.

Haley
Yeah, I would say that sporadic sewing is like, my secret for loving sewing, even though it's what I do for work and play, is I just kind of, like, do it when it feels good.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely.

Haley
All right, our next tip for you is to escape analysis paralysis. So a lot of times it's not the actual act of sewing that causes us to feel, like, burned out. It's all of the other aspects. Sarai was talking a little bit about this before that it's a high-involvement kind of activity. So there's the planning, the prepping, the cutting, making your muslin. And then on top of that, there's constantly new patterns that are being released, and you might find that your burnout is occurring before you even sit down to sew at your sewing machine.

So, some of the ways that you can escape analysis paralysis is to have some tried and true wardrobe planning methods. So it kind of eliminates some of that decision making for you. It at least gives you a script to go by when you're making those decisions. So we have a few that I am a big fan of. Obviously, Design Your Wardrobe is a huge part of what we do if you're not familiar. Design Your Wardrobe is a program that we offer twice a year as a group cohort experience, but is also something you can do independently, and it takes you through creative exercises to plan your wardrobe for the upcoming season.

If you want something that's like, a little bit lower time investment, another thing I love is the three outfit rule. We have a podcast episode about that that we can link in the show notes, and it's basically planning your sewing by if you can wear it with three different ways, then it makes the cut for your sewing cue.

Or if you're feeling just entirely aimless, I recommend our Style Workshop, which is a pre recorded but live workshop that Sarai hosts that helps you kind of identify what your personal style is. And I think having those tools makes that decision making process oh, my gosh, like, so much easier.

Sarai
Yeah, definitely. All right. Number four is to go fabric shopping in your stash. So if you're feeling a little bit burned out in sewing, you don't really feel like sewing right now. I think this is a really great way to either be involved in sewing without actually doing any sewing or to reignite your interest in it. I think depending on how you feel, it can do either. And if you go into it without any expectations, I think this can be something that's really helpful.

So, you could be just kind of shopping your stash. You can organize your fabric. You can find a new way to fold it or store it. I recommend listening to episode 26 of Seamwork Radio for some inspiration. It's called update your Sewing Room Without Buying More Stuff. Or you can catalog your swatches and your yardage. There are a lot of things you can do with your fabric just to kind of get back into it without really getting into it. So these are all sewing adjacent activities that keep you touching and thinking about fabric, because I think touching your materials and being with your materials can be the first step to getting excited about them again.

If you're feeling burned out about the size of your stash, you can read the article, Do I Need a Fabric Stash? It's from issue 56 to help you explore the joys and pitfalls of having a big stash. So that's something you can do. I think sorting through your stash, getting rid of stuff can also be a good thing to do, can make you feel really good about what you have, and can kind of reinvigorate your passion for what you're keeping as well. So those are all things you can do if you're feeling a little bit burned out.

Haley
I love a good stash clean out.

Sarai
Me too.

Haley
All right, our next tip is to give your garment a time out. This is for those cases where you just feel like maybe you're stuck on the same project on a loop of mistakes. I know I've been there before where you just feel like all you're doing is frustrating yourself every time you sit down to work on it. So if you're really struggling with it, maybe you're having some sewing fails. Maybe you're struggling with the fit. Just take a beat and gather yourself. Gather some support. I recommend putting your garment out of sight. Put it in a box, put it in a drawer, ball it up, and throw it into the depths of your closet.

And I think that you can kind of take two approaches here. You can either physically step away from it and take some time to regroup, to do a little bit of research, to maybe get to the root of what's going on. Maybe you don't have the right tool. Maybe you need a fitting resource that would be helpful to help you work through an issue you're having.

Or, maybe you just need to move on to a different project. But I think that there's not necessarily anything noble about pushing through pain. I think sometimes you just need to give yourself some grace and let the fail be a fail.

Sarai
Yeah, I think that's totally fine. Acceptance is a big part of what I'm hearing here. Yeah.

Number six. Don’t mimic fast fashion. Find your own pace. I think this is a really interesting thing to think about, because there's this whole movement towards slow sewing, and that's something that I really believe in. It really helps me to embrace that. And if you started sewing to escape fast fashion, then why would you want to replicate fast fashion in your sewing room?

You don't need to churn out garments at any pace other than the pace that works for your schedule and your own personal goals. I think there's a lot of pressure to always have new things and to keep accumulating stuff, keep accumulating clothing. Personally, I love clothing. I get a ton of ideas, and it makes me want to sew all the things. But at the same time, I know that there comes a point where you have enough, and finding the pace that works for you and not pressuring yourself to always come up with something new, I think can be really helpful.

There's so much in our world that tells us we need more, and it's not necessarily the case.

Haley
All right, so our next tip is to have some playtime. So we had this really great interview quite a ways back on the podcast with Christi Johnson, if you want to listen to that. The episode is called Creativity is Magic, and that is episode 24. And she said something that I thought was really powerful. What she said is that “through this play, I learn not to be too attached to the process of making. It becomes a natural part of my existence, and it's what I return to regularly when I'm feeling out of balance.”

I just think this is such, like, a powerful perspective. She takes a really playful approach to making, and I think that that could be a really useful tool to us when we feel like we're treating sewing like it's our job and not like the fun, playful thing that we want it to be in our life. You can definitely check out that podcast episode or read more about her on Seamwork.com. We will link that in the show notes as well.

Sarai
Yeah, that was a great episode. Really inspiring. And I think her work is really amazing, too. Definitely worth checking out.

All right, the next tip, tip number eight, is to declutter, mend, or take inventory. So if the idea of making something new stresses you out, then take some time to appreciate what you already have and repurpose what you already own.

I love this one because this just came up for me yesterday. So over my break, I dug out of my mending pile this dress that I'd had that is kind of like a little strappy dress that had spaghetti straps. And when we first moved into our new house two years ago, our dryer kept catching things. It had, like, this lip that was sticking out and it kept tearing up my clothes. I would say kept, but like, two loads. It tore up some of my clothes before we fixed it, and this dress got torn. I think I'd worn it one time, and then the strap got completely torn apart and I wasn't sure how to fix it. So I had it in a mending pile forever.

And then over my break, I finally sat down and mended it, and I've been wearing it all the time ever since.

It just feels so good to wear something, get use out of something that had just been sitting there collecting dust. So highly recommend this one. And it's something you can do. For me, it was something I could do while my puppy ran around. And I'm sure if you have little kids or just a busy life, things going on, it's something you can do, and it probably is not going to even take you that long.

Haley
Yeah. Or you could reach into that pile of unfinished projects, because I know I have those where it just needs elastic in the casing or a hem or something like that. It can be really gratifying to just finish up one of those.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely. So definitely I endorse this one wholeheartedly as well.

Haley
All right, our next tip is to phone a friend. So if you have a creative buddy, I think that I do this all the time. If I'm feeling a little burnt out, if I need some inspiration, if I just want to talk about what's bumming me out about sewing, I just send a text to one of my sewing buddies or plan, like, a little creative date with them.

Maybe. It's like a little crafting so not quite sewing, but something creative. You can go to a fabric store. I have a friend that we regularly do a brunch and fabric store Sunday, and I highly recommend it. And if you don't have the privilege of having friends near you who are into sewing, I definitely recommend checking out the Seamwork community. If you are a member to Seamwork, you have access to our amazing online community. And people are constantly making new friends on there. And lots of times they're making friends that are nearby to them and people do little meetups. And I think that it's just the coolest resource.

Sarai
Yeah, there's definitely groups forming and that's something we're going to be really focusing on more and more is trying to help facilitate that as much as we can. Because it's such a wonderful thing to have sewing buddies in your area, people that you can meet up with and talk about sewing, go fabric shopping, just have fun with. So I love that aspect of the Seamwork community and how that's growing really cool.

All right, the final tip I have for you today is to let go of productivity shame. So in the article we have called Letting Go of Productivity Shame from issue 67 of Seamwork, we encourage you to be gentle with yourself when you don't feel like sewing. So if you let go of this pressure that I think we all feel to always be productive, then that's when sewing can start to feel more like self care and less like just another to-do item. And I think this goes for things other than sewing. I think any pleasurable activity that you have in your life can start to feel like something you should or have to do. I know for me personally, I don't think there's a single thing except maybe taking a bath or reading a book, like a fiction book. Those are the only things I can think of that maybe never, never feel like something I should be doing.

So I encourage you to kind of shift your mindset if you're starting to look at the things that are supposed to be bringing you happiness and supposed to be bringing you pleasure as things that you need to do, because it really can suck all the joy out of it. So if you feel overwhelmed and your time sewing just feels more like a chore than a creative practice, I think that's a good time to not sew. That's a good time to just step back and remind yourself, you don't have to do this. This is just for fun. This is just for you. This is just to make sure you feel good.

Just get a nice cover for your machine, keep it safe and clean. And then later on, when you're ready to come back to it and you feel like sewing, you can do that again. So I think that's really important.

Again, just to go back to this break that I took because I feel like I learned a lot of lessons from it. I found, personally, that I was getting really burned out on all the things that are supposed to be making me feel better, because there's just so many things people tell you to do in order to be happy and be fulfilled and be well balanced and have good mental health and could have physical health.

All the things you could have, like, a 20-part morning, perfect morning routine and a 20-part evening routine. And then on top of that, you've got work, and you've got kids, and you've got all the things pets, and it can just start to feel, like, way too much. And really, there might just be, like, two or three things that make you feel good and that will really enhance your life, and it's okay to cut back to those few things and then build from there again if you want to. That's something that's been helpful for me.

All right, well, those were our ten tips on facing burnout and heading it off before it starts when it comes to sewing. So, Haley, what's your favorite tip from this episode?

Haley
I have to go with sporadic sewing because sporadic sewing is my jam. I find that it's the way that I can really enjoy my craft the most without placing too much pressure on myself.

Sarai
Yeah, that's a good one. I think mine is actually having some playtime. I think that is a really fun way to remind myself that sewing can be fun. It's something I've been doing a little bit lately, just making some really easy, quick projects with scraps, and I get a lot of joy out of that. It's really fun. So that's definitely a tip that I would encourage you guys to try if you're starting to feel like or you just need a little break. Sometimes you just need a little break. You don't have to be even in burnout mode. You just need a little pause.

All right, well, one thing we wanted to mention before we wrap up today is the Style Workshop, which is something that we've talked about a few times. So the Style Workshop is a hands-on workshop that walks you through ten exercises to help you identify your core style. So it's a really great process to go through before you tackle any other sort of wardrobe planning. And it's free for Seamwork members, but if you aren't a member, it's only $10. So very affordable. So if you're not a Seamwork member and you want to join Seamwork, remember that podcast listeners get 50% off the annual membership, so you can find that at seamwork.com/go/podcast50.

And if you want to check out the Style Workshop, you can find that at seamwork.com/go/style-workshop, and we'll put those links in the show notes on our website.

And if you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a five-star review it really helps other people to find the show. It's the best thing you can do. If you enjoy the show and you want to give back, that's really the way to do it.

So, we have one today from Katie Quilts and Sews, and she gave us five stars, and she said, “Comforting and informative. I've now listened to 100 episodes, so it was time to figure out how to write a review. These shows have been so comforting to me, important for a school psychologist and a great escape. Haley and Sarai chat with good humor and allow their audience to get to know them. That's fun. They actually educate, too, in the most pleasant way about lots of different aspects of sewing, including the mental components. I'm actually a member of Seamwork but have been so busy at work, I have hardly tapped into a fraction of the benefits. Just learned on a recent podcast. They have discount codes for lots of fabric stores. The one time I used the community and asked about sewing tables, lots of folks jumped into the discussion, even with pictures to help me out. Thank you for all your information for being your shining selves on this podcast. Five stars.” And then five star emojis after that. So she gave us five stars three times.

Wow. Thank you, Katie. That's really, really nice. And it's great to hear that you're getting so much out of Seamwork, too. That's really cool and nice to hear. And, yeah, you're right. The Seamwork community is outstanding. You will always get such helpful responses.

Haley
Five stars for them, too.

Sarai
Yeah, people go out of their way to be helpful there, so that's really awesome to hear from you.

And that does it for us this week. I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.