Sewing When You Really Don't Feel Like You Can or Should

August 29, 2026

I'll be honest, I almost didn't write or post this. I had something else kind of in the works for this month, but then I decided I can't be the only one who has days like this, so I went with it, lol! It's not even so much about the sewing or the quilting as it is about headspace. I started this after a close friend of more than 45 years entered hospice and passed away. I had tons of things I should have been working on in my sewing room but to be honest, my head was definitely not in the game and where it needed to be.

The thoughts of trying to cut fabrics correctly, follow directions on a pattern, and keep things organized was more than my head wanted to deal with-especially on projects that were needed for work. I knew it would boil down to frustration and a lot of time with "Jack". Yet, when I feel like this I also have the urge to be in my sewing room, probably because it allows me to zone out and forget everything except what is in front of me.

So I compromised and went in with full intentions of doing nothing important, nothing that needed to be perfect, nothing that needed a lot of concentration.....in other words if I totally messed it up, it would be ok. So I'm going to share the little, imperfect things that literally got me out of mind and by the end, I came out feeling a bit more positive and ready to tackle the projects that I put off.

Are they great??? Nope. Are there messy areas??? Yep. Are there things I should have done differently??? For sure. Does it matter that a few pieces of fabric were totally destroyed and thrown in the garbage??? Nope. But I'll use these little therapy projects for myself and move on.

I found a little tiny gob of Christmas fabrics that had never been put away in the correct bin so that was my starting point. I started with the idea of making a little gift bag. I didn't even measure the fabric, just grabbed the first two pieces that were relatively close in size and laid them wrong sides together and cut them into a long rectangle.

If you look at the markings on each side, I marked the center and then 1 inch above and below the center. I sewed all around leaving those two areas unstitched.

Next, I trimmed the corners and then turned the unit right side out, poked out the corners and gave it a press, making sure to fold in the seam allowance on the unstitched portion. Then I found the center of the rectangle where the unstitched part was, and stuffed half of it down inside the other half to make a little pocket shape.

Then a quick seam across each side to make a casing area to thread a drawstring. I rumaged around to find my bodkin and threaded some ribbon through from both sides and voila, a tiny gift bag with no unfinished seams inside!

This one used two different fabrics, but I did a bigger one later using all one fabric and instead of ribbon, I made a fabric drawstring on that one. So easy to adjust these from small to large depending on the size fabric you start with. Just remember, the bag will be roughly half the size of the rectangle you start with once you stuff half of it down inside the other half to make the interior lining.

Then I thought, maybe there is a way to make a little pocket to put a gift card in that would hang on a tree. It was super easy! I started by quilting two small square pieces of fabric with a piece of scrap batting in between, I used very simple straight lines to quilt. Then I pressed two squares of fabric in half to make triangles and layered them on top of the quilted pieces. I stuck a gift card in the slot and then used a pencil to draw lines around and cut it to the desired size, leaving enough room around the edges to allow for binding. I turned it over and basted a little ribbon on the back before I put the binding and then machine stitched the binding on, being careful the loop wasn't caught somewhere it shouldn't be. These would be fun handwork when you are watching a movie, you could make a bunch and then it wouldn't take any time at all to hand bind the binding around the back of such a small project. There's even enough room to tuck a candy cane and small chocolate bar!

These would even be really cute in a larger size that you could stick a book and a bookmark in, what a cute gift!

There were a couple of strips of 3 inch fabric in among the scraps and I thought about making a bookmark. I quilted a piece of fleece to wrong side of the top fabric and then put that piece wrong side together with another plain piece of fabric (again, I tucked a piece of ribbon inside these two pieces so when it was turned the ribbon was there. Sewed around leaving a small opening to turn it. Poked out the corners, pressed it and then topstitched around. Next came drawing a narrow tree and using a piece of fusible, I appliqued it to the top of the bookmark.

None of these are spectacular, but they served the purpose I needed them to. It didn't matter if I totally goofed up and had to throw away a few scraps. I didn't even measure very much. A lot was just laying the pieces out and figuring it out as I went. I will make some more of these someday when my head is in a better space, and they will probably be cuter and much neater. Sewing really can be therapy, and the goal doesn't always have to be a perfect result. Some times it's just going through the motions to get over a bad patch!

Not every day is a good day, and that's ok, they do get better!

Twila

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