Show Notes

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Podcast Transcript

Sarai
I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.

Sarai
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 talking about a five-step process for tackling all your unfinished projects. So we're going to cover why UFOs feel like such a burden, what common barriers stop us from finishing a project, and the steps you can follow to have fewer unfinished projects taking up space both mentally and physically.

All right, icebreaker time. What do you currently have sitting in your unfinished pile, Haley?

Haley
Oh, okay. I gotta think about this one. I have a flower girl dress that I'm working on. That’s kind of in-progress, though. I have a matching gingham top for Charley and I a little tank top for her and one for me that, like, cut out on a whim, like, four months ago and haven't touched since. And I also have a patchwork Hansie that is in my unfinished project file right now. I think that's all actually, not too bad, really. All things that I could tackle in, like, a day if I set my mind to it.

What about you?

Sarai
I have two right now. One's more recent, and one is old. The old one, I might have talked about it on the show before, but it is a quilted Easton jacket that I cut out long ago. It is a velveteen outer fabric and then a really pretty cotton interior lining. And I've got everything cut out, but my plan was to do some free motion quilting on it once I did this, and I don't know how to do free motion quilting, so I was going to learn how to do it. And so that's been kind of a barrier because I don't know how to do it. Maybe lesson learned there. Like, maybe I should have practiced that before I planned this whole jacket around it.

Haley
Do you have to free motion quilt it?

Sarai
No, I don't, but that's definitely been kind of a barrier in my mind to finishing it. And I find, we'll probably get into this, but the longer things sit around, the less motivated I am to actually finish them.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
And then the other one is a dress, a really pretty vintage dress that I cut out, and it's actually a pretty easy sew. And I have it all cut out, and I know it probably won't take me very long to sew. The problem is that it's really summery, and as we're recording this, summer is just about over. It's really rainy and wet here today and probably not going to see much more sunshine this year, at least not days that will be appropriate to wear it.

So I'm afraid it might go to the back of the closet for a while, which is really too bad, because I was really excited to make it, so I just put it off for too long while I was doing other things.

Well, I'm sure you all have yours, and we'll talk about today what to do with them. But in the meantime, I wanted to mention that if you have an icebreaker for a future episode so if you have a question you want us to use as an icebreaker and you're a Seamwork member, you can go to Seamwork.com/go/icebreakers and leave it there for us, and we'll use it in a future episode.

Sarai
All right, so let's get into our topic for today a little bit more. So in case you haven't heard, the term UFO is basically an unfinished project that lingers in your sewing room. It's not about little green men. And the term UFO stands for unfinished object. And I think it came from the knitting community. I'm pretty sure that that's where it came from. But we sewers have adapted it for our own use. So that's what a UFO is.

And even though it sounds like it's about space aliens, unfinished projects are really more like ghosts that haunt you and mock you from the corner of your sewing room. So we decided to talk about this around Halloween because they are kind of haunting.

Haley
They feel spooky.

Sarai
They certainly can. They're just kind of mocking you. I think having these or having too many of them or feeling any kind of way about them can make sewing feel a little bit more like a chore or a little bit more, I don't know, just not as fun as it could be.

So we're going to talk about how to overcome that today. It's just demotivating. So we're going to share a process to help you exercise those demons in your sewing room. And I think that just clearing up that space mentally as well as physically can do a lot for your sewing practice. And hopefully some of these tips I can take away from some of those projects I just mentioned myself.

Haley
Maybe you'll finally make that Easton jacket, I believe.

Sarai
I don't know. What's the longest that you've ever hung onto a UFO?

Haley
I have a really good story. Well, I don't know if it's really good, but I have a story about this.

Sarai
We'll be the judge of that.

Haley
Yeah, that's for you guys to judge, I suppose.

So I used to teach sewing classes, and one of the classes I taught regularly was for a Collete pattern, and it was the Hazel dress. People really loved it. I taught that class often, and for one of the sessions, I decided that I was going to make one along with the class to demonstrate with. And I picked out this really cute fabric. I was excited about it. But the thing when you're demonstrating is sometimes you show just enough or just the tricky bits.

When they're making a dress like that, you can assume a student knows how to sew a side seam. And so I had homework between classes and I didn't walk away from my four-week class with a finished dress. So I put it in my trunk and there it stayed for, I want to say like six or seven years.

Sarai
Oh my gosh. I thought you were going to say months.

Haley
No, this is from the time maybe more like six, but from the time I taught that class, I moved to Portland, started working for said pattern company that made the pattern. And then it wasn't until I sold my car.

Sarai
Wait, the dress wasn't in the car when you sold it?

Haley
No. Well, I had to clean it out. I found it. It was like I had like an emergency roadside kit and I think it was like tucked behind there in the trunk. I brought it in, I was like, oh, this is cute. So I decide I'm going to finish it. But I was also pregnant at the time. So I finished this dress that is fitted at the waist and in the bust and actually I kind of worked. I could hike it up over my belly, but my boobs were just like bursting out of this thing. But it was finished. And then I felt good about donating it. Or I think I brought it to a clothing swap. But that is, I mean, I'm just kind of proud that I actually finished it.

Sarai
Yeah, that's pretty amazing. That is something to be proud of.

Haley
That would have been very easy to let go of in my mind. Yeah, but I was just like it just needed a little bit of something at the facing and the hem. It was like 20 minutes of sewing.

Sarai
I think you should have fold it with the car though.

Haley
I should have. Emergency dress. CarMax, do you want this UFO?

Sarai
I think it would have added to the value at least $10 to the value of the car. I love that. I don't know what the longest I've hung on to a UFO is. I really couldn't say. This jacket I've had for a couple of years is literally in a garbage bag in my sewing room. I might have hung onto other things longer than that, but probably that might be the limit for me.

Haley
That brings up my next question, which is, at what point do you give up on a project?

Sarai
I think if I feel like I'm really never going to wear it at that point, then I will give up on it. This Easton jacket, I do feel like I would wear it if I made it.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
So I haven't given up on it yet. But I feel like if it's something that appealed to me at one moment in time and it no longer does, which is often the case with UFOs, because that's often the reason that you haven't finished them. Because you're not excited about it anymore. In that case, I will give up on it and just cut my losses.

Haley
I would say same, but the thing I'll add to it is if it no longer is going to fit me. If it won't fit my physical body anymore, I'm not going to waste time on it. And I'll repurpose the fabric somehow or find something else.

Sarai
Yeah. Oh, that's another UFO. Actually, I think I have is I bought all this linen to make slip covers for my dining room chairs, and I cut them all out and then realized that I didn't have quite enough to finish the last slip cover.

Haley
Oh, gosh.

Sarai
And I went back to the fabric store and they didn't have any more of the fabric. Ended up buying a totally different fabric and making them. So I have all these pieces of linen cut into these rectangles, and I haven't gotten rid of it because it's nice fabric, and I feel like there's something you could probably do with it, but that's another one I just thought of.

Haley
I feel like I vaguely remember this.

Sarai
Yeah. It's like a really pretty brown linen.

Haley
What do you think is your number one barrier to finishing a project?

Sarai
I think it being out of season.

Haley
Yes.

Sarai
Is the number one barrier. So that dress I was talking about earlier I think is now out of season, and I have absolutely no motivation to make it because I'm not going to be wearing it.

Haley
And then when the season rolls back around can feel like you have new ideas yeah. New, exciting ideas that feel more urgent than your old ideas.

Sarai
Yeah. I think the good thing about this particular project is it's going to be a pretty fast sew, so I'll probably still be excited about it next summer, which is why I'm holding on to it.

Haley
Yeah, I agree with that. That the seasonality, especially now that I live somewhere with more seasons, that is definitely a barrier. When I lived in Southern California, I basically wore the same thing year round with or without a sweater.

I think that my other barrier is just, like, constantly generating new ideas. And if one idea falls to the bottom of the pile, I feel like if I execute on three other projects and still haven't finished one, it just I don't know, it adopts a very spooky air to it.

Sarai
Yeah. It starts to haunt you.

Haley
Definitely. Okay, well, let's get into this process that we've alluded to.

This is more or less the process that I use when I feel like my UFOs are getting a little bit out of control and I need to get a handle on them.

So step one is you really got to corral all those UFOs in one place. I like to create a space for them that's, like, their dedicated space, so they're not, like, lingering in the trunk of my car for some reason. So I now have a dedicated space where I put my UFOs. But if you do not, I encourage you to go around your sewing space, find all of those hidden, unfinished ghouls, get them into a box, a basket, a coffin.

Sarai
I think it should be coffin shaped.

Haley
And I like to keep it so that it's not directly in my sight. I don't want it haunting me every single day. But I also want it to be easy enough to access that I'm not going to forget about it entirely.

Sarai
Yeah, I think that's definitely step one. And then step two is to go through those UFOs and really get real about them.

So make three piles, and the first one will be to donate or give away. The second are things that you want to repurpose, and the third is things that you want to finish.

And then your piles already shrunk. You've already done half the work here. You've decided.

Haley
Yeah. Something that I really like to do is if things are going into the second pile, the repurposed pile, I like to take an extra few minutes to maybe cut them up into pieces and then put them into my scrap bin just so it's a little bit lower effort when the time comes to use it for something else. To actually use it for something else.

Sarai
Yeah, definitely.

Haley
All right. Step number three is to come up with a plan for them. So I like to make a list of all of my unfinished projects and write down what I need to do to finish said project. And then I just jot down how much time I think it'll take me to finish it. Sometimes seeing it written out in black and white can—sometimes it might make it more intimidating if it's a whole quilted jacket. But if it's just like adding an armhole facing on or hemming something, you might find that some of those UFOs are a little bit lower hanging fruit than you thought that they were.

Sarai
Yeah. One thing I like to do is keep all of my in-progress projects in some kind of bag or container, so some of them will fit into, like, a large freezer bag, for example. And then you can just write on the bag those answers that Haley just mentioned, and I find that to be really helpful.

Haley
That's a great idea.

Sarai
Step number four is to set a goal. So there are a bunch of different goals that you could choose from if you want to do this and help kind of get these things done.

Some examples might be that every other project needs to be finishing one of your UFOs. That could be the goal for you. Or maybe you finish your UFO pile before you cut anything new. That could be another one for you. Or you could set a time limit, tell yourself, I need to finish this in the next three months or it gets donated. And if you're writing directly on whatever your project bag is, you could write the date right there like you do when you put something in the freezer, like best by this date. It was not done by this date. Get rid of it, just like you do with stuff in your freezer. I think that's a great metaphor. It's a great way of thinking about it.

Choose the goal that works for you and set it.

Haley
And the final tip is to or step is to kind of rinse and repeat and to set a UFO ritual. So what I like to do, I'm always a big fan of setting reoccurring calendar events on my phone as little reminders to do things. You can certainly do the same here.

So you go to your UFO box every three months, and you go through it and repeat this process. Or maybe you build it as more of a habit. And after every project you finish, you finish a project. You go to your UFO box and finish a project.

Another hot tip is if you just ever find yourself in your sewing room trying to decide, what should I sew next? What should I make? Just grab that UFO coffin and grab a project out and get to work.

Sarai
Yeah, I like that a lot. All right, so I'm going to recap the five steps that we talked about today.

So, step number one is to create a space for all your UFOs and gather them together.

The second step is to go through your UFOs and make three piles, donate or give away, repurpose or finish.

Number three is to come up with a plan for them. So make a list of what you need to do to finish it.

Number four is to set a goal for yourself. So whether that's every other project needing to be a finished UFO or making up your finished UFOs before you cut a new project, whatever, it works for you.

And then step number five is to set a UFO ritual for yourself so you continually come back to them and finish them up. So those are the five steps.

What's your big takeaway from this episode today, Haley?

Haley
I think my big takeaway is that I often build my UFOs up to be scarier than they are, and that spending a little bit of time to identify the actual steps that are holding me back from finishing can really remove that barrier for me.

Sarai
I think for me, my big takeaway is that I feel like with UFOs, they're often very out of sight, out of mind. So, for example, I completely forgot about those slip covers that I have sitting in a drawer somewhere. So having a process around it can really help with that and make sure that I'm revisiting that regularly. So I really like that idea.

All right, well, speaking of keeping things organized in your sewing space, if that's something that's a goal for you right now, you can download for free our Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Your Sewing Space. This is a free mini-guide, and it has tons of tips and ideas for creating a better and more functional sewing area, no matter how much space you have. And that's something that I'm working on right now as I'm building out my little backyard sewing shed, thinking a lot about using the space wisely.

So you can download that for free at seamwork.com./go/sewingspaces.

And if you like this episode, please consider leaving us a five star review. It really helps other people to find the show, and it really lights up our day when we see those positive reviews coming in.

And we super appreciate you for taking the time to leave a nice comment and a nice review. It really, really motivates us to keep going. And right now, if you leave us a question, if you leave us a five star review and you leave us a question in it, we're going to answer it on a future episode. So if you have a question for us, it could be anything, go ahead and leave it for us in your review.

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

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.