“How DO you find the time for sewing?”
It’s a common question I get as a busy homeschooling mom of three. Some people look at me funny when I reply, “I just sew a little after the baby goes to bed”, and they envision me laboring away, sewing into the deep hours of the night, every night. But that’s not true! The truth is, I schedule my sewing time and work on my projects bit by bit, step by step. Then the projects just get done!
Your day and situation likely looks different than mine, but we all have the same 24 hours to work with. This is how I found the time in 3 steps…
1. Break it down. How much time do you need to finish just ONE step or two of your project?
This is where I was hung up here for three years. I needlessly gave up my life-long hobby for three years because I was doing it all wrong!
We don’t actually need hours and hours in a single day to sew. While it’s definitely nice to have those huge chunks of time, it’s not realistic for busy people to binge-sew on a regular basis. This is where I got stuck. I used to have one massive “sewing day” about once a month when I had a day off of work. I would work on my project ALL day and often late into the night, knowing that I could catch up on missed sleep the following night. That just doesn’t work now that I’m maintaining a home and have a family with small children.
But how much time do you actually need to make at least *some* amount of progress on your project? If you break your project down into steps, how much time will you need to complete one step? For me, I usually need at least thirty minutes but an hour is best. 30-60 minutes a day, 1-3 times a week… now that is much more doable!
Finding 30-60 minutes 1-3 times a week (or whichever time you chose) suddenly doesn’t look so hard. It might take 40 hours total to finish a huge quilting project… But broken down into 3 hours a week, that huge 40 hour quilt can be done in about two and a half months. I can make a nice giftable tote bag or an apron in only a week or two. This is achievable!
2. Evaluate your day. What do you actually spend your time doing?
It helps to look at your overall schedule, then figure out which day(s) of the week would be best to add in that block of sewing time. Then evaluate those days. What do you usually spend your time doing? I used a method called “time blocking” for just one day to track everything that I did. Every 30 minutes, I wrote down exactly what I did in that block of time. I was amazed to see how much time I wasted on my phone, taking super long showers, etc.! Most people probably can’t spend every day with a strict time blocked schedule (I sure can’t), but doing this exercise just once really helps to shed light on the day so you can start thinking of ways to adjust or reprioritize.
Maybe that adjustment is spending less time on the phone, making easier meals on the nights you want to sew, doing a quick chore in the morning before work instead of later at night, etc. Start small, see how it goes, and work your way from there.
3. Make your sewing space easy to set up and clean up
It is much easier for someone with a permanent sewing space to start, stop, and pick up again later. Not everyone gets that luxury though! If you sew at your dining room table, it’s takes a lot more time (and effort) to set up and then clean up. The key here is to simplify your set up and plan ahead. Keep your sewing machine and tools in an easily accessible spot (so maybe not under a stack of bins at the bottom of a closet). I also found that it helps to store your machine in a case that is easy to open and close (I do recommend keeping the original box w/foam your machine came in for transporting purposes, but having it in a more accessible case at home is much more convenient to take it in and out of).
Plan your project in advance too. It helps to have all the materials for that project in one easy-to-grab basket or bag, and to know exactly what you’ll be doing that day. If you know that you only have 30-60 minutes to work and the next step of your project is to cut a pattern out, you won’t even have to take out your sewing machine! Only take out the tools you’ll need for that one session, then it’s much faster to set up and clean up.
In a future post, I will go into further detail about how to organize your WIPs (works in progrees), UFOs (unfished objects), and break them down into steps, so you can just insert those steps into your dedicated sewing hour!
Sewing in this way now allows me to maintain my hobby (and make gifts, enter county fairs, etc.) and I actually get more done than ever before. I hope this helps encourage you so you can reach your sewing goals!
Happy Stitching!
Ginger of Home & Thimble