6 ways to get your sewjo back
If you’ve ever suddenly found yourself completely disinterested in sewing even though it’s something that you love to do, well, fear not because you may have temporarily lost your Sewjo. I’m going to walk you through exactly what Sewjo is, my own experience with losing mine, the best tips for navigating through that phase, and 6 infallible ways to get your sewjo back. Alright, let’s dive!
What exactly is Sewjo?
My definition of Sewjo is your motivation, passion, and inspiration to sew and create. It’s when you close your eyes and can see something that you feel inspired to make.
On a typical day, I have a pretty good amount of Sewjo. Most of the time, I have a project or two going on with breaks here and there, but rarely do I ever lose that creative vision.
Even if I’m not sewing I love to think about what I might be able to sew in the future. I consider all of this to be a healthy Sewjo.
Now let’s talk about the symptoms of losing your Sewjo. I can speak from my own experience and from the experiences of people I’ve seen around the interwebs. For me, I lost my Sewjo very rapidly even though from one day to the next, I have an ongoing project. And I completely lost interest in not only that project, but any other creative project.
I almost had a little bit of an aversion to sewing and a severe lack of creativity in general. Let’s talk about how you can navigate your way out of losing your Sewjo. Many people who lost their Sewjo still want to do other creative projects. These could be like knitting, crocheting, painting, etc. when they lose their Sewjo. But, for me, it felt like I lost all my creativity and I didn’t want to do anything creative at all. And, trust me, that was so scary for me.
A lot of you know that I like to do a lot of fashion sewing. So when I lost my Sewjo, I also lost my passion for getting dressed. All I wanted to do was wear a t-shirt with jeans or yoga pants and sweatshirts. I had no desire to put together fancy, cool, fun, and creative outfits like I normally do.
So you may find yourself completely devoid of creativity altogether. But, wherever you find yourself on the spectrum of losing your Sewjo. Worry not because I’m going to share my best tips for regaining your Sewjo.
1. Do not fight it
The first thing to do for navigating the loss of Sewjo is to not fight it. When I first lost my Sewjo, I was very scared, to be honest. As many of you’re aware Sewing and the city is a huge part of my life. I sew for fun, but I also do it as I have a business around sewing. So losing my interest in sewing was terrifying. But, to surrender to the situation and not fight it, is what I’ve learned from the difficulties I’ve had in life.
So when you realize you’ve lost your passion. Don’t fight it. Give yourself permission to drop sewing for a while and accept the process.
2. Believe this is temporary
Trust that your loss of Sewjo is temporary. When I lost my Sewjo, I panicked. There were times when I felt anxious and had thoughts like what do I do now? Why is this happening to me? How do I get my Sewjo back? ? Is it ever going to come back?
And this kind of goes with point number one that when you surrender instead of fighting it, you also trust that it’s temporary.
- Channel your energies into other creative crafts
If you still have a spark of creativity, take this as an opportunity to channel it into other projects. Divert your focus into other creative crafts that help you rediscover your creative side that eventually help you to get your sewjo back. This could be cooking up a simple gourmet meal for yourself, doing paper arts like origami, drawing, or even picking up your bag of yarn to knit.
4. Clean and organize your sewing space
There is something I also tried as I was moving through this Sewjo loss process, and that is cleaning and organizing my sewing space. So there was a point where I did feel like cleaning. I came to my studio to my sewing space and did a good cleaning of the floors. And that felt good. So you might find joy in organizing your notions, fabric stash, or patterns.
I do have a sewing planner that can help you in organizing.
- Dig deeper into why you feel the way you do
My next tip is an invitation to take a deeper dive into the situation that you find yourself in of not feeling inspired. Get your journal or talk to a good friend and confide in them. Also, dive into what else is going on.
Is it fear-based that you hit a rough patch in a project and you are kind of stuck?
Is it because you’re afraid that you might not be able to meet the expectations?
Or that you’ve put money into this project?
You can look at what you’ve been sewing and understand what value those projects have been bringing you.
Are you sewing because you love to wear beautiful maid things?
Are you sewing as a stress reliever?
Are you sewing because it’s bringing you more self-confidence?
Asking yourself these questions can help you discover what else is going on deep inside you.
- Choose things that light you up
And so that’s going to be my kind of project that gets me back into sewing. Although I’ve lost my Sewjo before. This time, it has been so difficult. So, my biggest takeaway from losing my Sewjo would be to choose only those projects that really light me up. It could be fabrics that I use, partnerships that I have, products that I make, patterns that I design, and the courses I sell. I want to have everything in my sewing world that lights me up.
So I encourage you to do the same as you think about what projects you want to make in the next coming months. Choose things that inspire you to work on. And no one says to do things in a certain way, so try different things and break the boundaries of your sewing. This way you can sustain the rhythm of creativity inside you.
Have I gained my Sewjo once and for all?
I’m going to be completely honest that I’m still not out of my lack of Sewjo mode. I’m still kind of crawling out of the darkness. But I will say that one of the reasons why I wanted to film this video was to share my experience. Around that phase, a beautiful thing happened.
I got a message from one of my friends. She messaged me because her 8-year-old daughter has been nagging her to learn to sew. And she thought of me because she doesn’t know where to start with her daughter. And I instantly got so inspired. And I realized throughout the process of helping someone with sewing, especially a little girl, reminded me of myself. That experience was enough to spark my sewing mojo back into gear.
The other thing that led me to sew is I have a tonne of scraps here in the scrap stash that I’ve been building. I know that there are dogs and some cats at my local shelter who will love to have cozy handmade beds. And that makes me feel really good.
Check out the video tutorials for making dog beds and mitered corners. These two are some really quick and fun projects that may be the palate cleanser that help you get your sewjo back.
So now I would love to hear from you. How have you lost your Sewjo before? What are the ways you tried to get your sewjo back? What did you do to navigate through the fear?
I’d love to hear your comments. It also helps the community so others can learn some other tips that have worked for you.
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Happy sewing!
Christine
