Start with a mildly complicated project

(Poplin fabric)

I spied the most adorable skirt on one of my favorite new blogs last week, followed swiftly by some spectacular advice on E Tells Tales about how to get started with a sewing project: 

Start with a mildly complicated project you love. If you start with something easy and useless, you'll hate yourself by the end and probably give up. If you want the finished result badly enough, you'll end up learning the process. And be prepared to make mistakes, completely ruin things, and cuss a lot.

This skirt seemed like a mildly complicated project I loved, so yesterday I went to the fabric store and found the darling Poplin print above (on sale for $6.49 a yard!). I made a deal with myself that I needed to use my sewing machine for this project. No telling myself about how people in the olden days sewed everything by hand, and surely I could, too.

There's nothing wrong with that approach, of course, but I've been avoiding my sewing machine for months for a completely silly reason. I was scared of it. 

Looking back, I realize how crazy that sounds. I've only used it for a few hours, but already I love my cute little sewing machine! It's quiet and seems pretty easy to use - at least, it should be, once I learn a bit more and can stop referring to the directions every few minutes.

I did have a little mishap this morning which took 10 minutes to sew and about an hour to undo, but so it goes when overcoming a fear to learn something new. I hope by tomorrow I'll have a cute little Flirt skirt to show you!