My Creative Process Part 1

Everyone always asks me how I come up with my stuff... so I thought I'd take you through my creative process step by step! I've always been a short-term project kind of girl: if it takes longer than a day or two, I easily lose my motivation and move on to other things! I've got a boxful of half finished projects that were too time-consuming to keep my attention, haha!! So, now that I've learned my lesson on not starting complicated projects, I always keep my designs simple so they can be completed quickly! My ideas generally start with a trip to the fabric store, or browsing fabric shops online. I spot that PERFECT fabric and immediately envision all kinds of amazing things that could be done with it. Here's a piece I spotted at Hancocks:

I thought it was absolutely adorable and would make the cutest apron!! Since no fabric like this should ever stand alone, I had to find coordinating fabrics, of course (especially since I have a coupon in hand!!)! I decided which colors stood out the most to me in the main design, and discovered these matching fabrics:

I brought the fabric home, and now I'm ready to sew! If I dont do it right away while I'm excited, the fabric will just sit here on the pile of doom, lol. I never spend money on patterns, they're too time-consuming...my mom taught me to sew when I was young, and that creative spark has always been there. I have always loved to make things (AND do things!!!) MY way! And, if it can't be cut with a rotary cutter and mat, I'm not interested. Every pattern I design is rotary mat friendly, and simply written down in my notebook as dimensions, accompanied by a line drawing, like this:

Kinda different, I know!! As I cut out the apron, I will write down all the dimensions of every piece I cut. Later, as I'm sewing it, if something doesnt turn out quite right, I just tweak it till it does, then note the changes in my book. NOW ITS TIME to draw my design, and cut out the apron... Stay tuned for Part 2 to see how it turns out!!