Why Do I Do This To Myself??

Really, why would I?  It's not like this is a cheap hobby, and it has its fair share of complications and aggravations.  And this is supposed to relax me?

Hell yes!!

Here's a Venn Diagram of why I decided to get serious with this garment sewing thing:

Look/sound familiar?

These seem to be the standard motivations for most garment sewing-types out there.  I love fashion and clothing, but I hate shopping in stores.  I'd much rather be able to design and create something I know will be what I want, rather than hoping I'll be able to find something in the stores (i.e. every time I've had to find something to wear to a wedding).

The fuck?!?!

True, I've been sewing for off and on for about *coughcough* years.  (Ok, let's just call it since I was about 6 or 7, shall we?)  But in that time, outside of a few years of the occasional piece of clothing I mainly sewed costumes and straight seams for basic home decor, I've taken large chunks of time off, and I was mostly self-taught by the highly skilled method of "Let's see what happens when I do this!!" (Do NOT trust me around shiny red buttons!  I can't guarantee there won't be maniacal laughter or thunder crashes involved.)  

A couple years ago I decided to dust off my atrophied sewing skills and start learning to sew properly, instead of just working on the occasional costume or throw pillow cover.  ......And then I just sat on the idea for another year and a half, up until this past summer. 

Outside of costumes, when I was making clothes about 15 years ago as a naive collegiate, I drafted them on my dress form.  Working with commercial (regular) clothing patterns is a relatively new experience.  Over the past few months I've accumulated a pretty good library of commercial patterns to complement the 3-4 (mostly costumes) I've kept or used over the past 20-something years. 

Don't get me wrong.  Even though I have technically over 20-something years of "experience" at sewing, I'm a lousy seamstress, comparatively speaking.  It's my own damn fault for letting the hobby slide, but I'm also grateful that I have the initial experience and early successes to bolster me in this, my time of ziggy seams and bad fittings.

But I aim to polish those skills so I can knock out frocks with the best of them.

Until then, I'll need to caffeinate.