How to Make Time for Yourself and Your Sewing || How to Find Time For Hobbies

A few weeks ago we asked followers of the @FoundationsRevealed social media accounts what their biggest challenge is when it comes to sewing.

The answer was clear - overwhelmingly, makers talked about their struggle to find time or make time to sew.

I've made a video about finding time before, but that was a few years ago, and my ideas on that have developed since then. It's not just about prioritising or even about "carving out time". I hope you find this useful...

Love, Cathy x

"For Those Who Know" by Gavin Luke
"Tidewaves" by Martin Gauffin
"Illusory Motion" by Gavin Luke

Edited by Sophie Black at @triskellepictures

You can also follow me and see my own sewing on Instagram:

Your letters and cards are welcome at Mr Worth's old place.
7 Rue de la Paix
Paris 75002
France

If you're in the UK, I also have an address here:
1 Northumberland Avenue
Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5BW
United Kingdom

Please don't send parcels - the fees to have them imported/forwarded to me are expensive! Contact me first if it's something special or important.

Thank you, thank you, to everyone who has sent something to me. It is deeply valuable to read your words in your own handwriting and hold them in my hands. It helps me to connect to who you really are, and what you really need from me. I read, enjoy and treasure every one. Thank you.

[HesterPrynne]

“... before the Lord took her.” I may have laughed too hard at that!!!

[treason]

I bake. A lot. It's my stress/anger/anxiety management. I bake a cake and decorate at 3 am. I make bread from scratch because I'm angry, I make croissants from scratch because I'm anxious and the slow process relaxes me. I would never do it professionally because the last thing I want is to end up hating my hobby.

[deborahlovel]

When I was 16 or thereabouts, we visited my Great-Aunt Maggie. She was a quilter in Missouri. She had likely learned her craft at her mother's knee and carried on with it her whole life. She was quite talented, and her quilts were delightful examples of American folk art. I own one of those quilts. Aunt Maggie called it "The Crooked Road to California." I studied this quilt for many years, but always talked myself out of recreating it...until recently, when I located the pattern on the internet....and now I'm sewing my own "Crooked Road to California."

[wynnewhitten-holmes]

I'm autistic and I am learning that I need as well as deserve to focus on the things that make me come alive. Sewing is one of my special interests (I suspect costube is also!) so I give myself time every day to think on it, practise my skills and just play. It helps me to regulate and rejuvenate. ✨

[Diluculi]

When my mental health plummeted for the first time, I sat down to write. then I had the idea to write a book. But I let those voices in my head tell me I was not experienced enough. That I would not have the skills. So I stopped this project and wrote other things, things I shared online and desperately trying to be good enough in the eyes of strangers and my inner critic. Needless to say this didn't result in me doing anything for the book project as I got distracted instead. So when years later I decided I'd give it a try again, all inspiration was gone - which shouldn't be a surprise, since my reason was still trying to find shortcuts to have the perfect book done on the first try. So I abandoned it for another couple of years.
Now that it's been almost the quarter of a century, my mental health is dropping again but this time, I return to this project with a different reason. I no longer want to please the entire world. I just want to write it for myself. No time pressure, no more desperate "everyone must like what I do" - I realised this doesn't matter.
I just want to write it because genuinely I love the characters and want to give them their story and it's slowly coming together, word by word.

[emmar]

Friends, family and even strangers always question why i'm sewing something by hand, when a sewing machine is so much quicker (and often neater), and never understand that just getting lost in the repetitive motion of tiny stitches, little details and intricate patterns calms my mind enormously! I don't need to make impressive things very quickly, I want to make things I'm proud of slowly (:

[anastasiiadehtiarova]

I have so many hobbies. I've tried seeing, crocheting, painting with watercolours, making baskets and so on and so on. And multiple people told me it's stupid and that I'll never be good at these things because there is so many of them. But that's the thing. I don't have to be good at them all. I can just do them because they calm me down, help unwind and leave anxiety behind for and hour or two. This video genuinely made me cry out of relief. Thank you so much

[kristinrobertson]

Alternative title of this video: “it’s okay that none of us are Sewstine: I don’t know how she does it all, either”

[kallman]

You have a gorgeous soul Cathy - I'm so glad Bernadette introduced us in the weird parasocial way that the internet do. Thank you for being a maker and reminding us how essential art and craft are to the experience of being human.

[petert]

I am an embroiderer. I am also an engineer. Being an engineer requires me to be focused all day, while at the same time be able to answer questions from anyone on anything at any moment. My day is nothing but constant interruptions and constantly trying to regain my focus. This is why I embroider, I am able to recenter my focus. It is my meditation, and it keeps me from crashing

[cindyzigler]

This REALLY resonated with me. My husband, who is 54, was diagnosed with dementia 3 years ago. For now, I can take care of all of his needs. But I realised I also need to take care of myself. So I dug out my bag of numerous half finished cross stitch projects, and dove in again. They slow my brain down, relax me and it gives me joy watching something beautiful appear made by my hands. Over the past year I've completed about 8 projects. No rush, no schedule; I just sit in my chair every evening after supper and happily stitch away. I don't give myself a time limit either; the project gets finished when it gets finished.

[sarahpitcaithly]

I had an old friend ask me just last week "When was the last time you had a :"real" break. Not something that is a mission (travel for work, moving house, looking after friends, and family). I sat there like a goldfish with my mouth open and no honest answer. I realised I haven't had a proper holiday for 3 years. I needed a wake up. I needed to find the time for me.

I have now booked a week in a resort for me and my husband. I need to find the time for us. I should be prioritising me and him. I have lost my slow gear. I need to sit and read. I need to walk slowly and enjoy the view. I need to do some hand sewing in front of the fire.

Thank you for reinforcing the need to find "pause" in our days.

[calicocritterscrafts]

I’m a mother of two and a nursing student getting my RN and BSN. I’m watching you right now while cutting out my scrub cap pattern to sew up. My house isn’t pristine but my sanity IS preserved. Sewing, crafting, silversmithing are my release and relax time. I’m happy to have a husband who recognizes this and helps get everything aligned so I can do my happy work.

[mobiusvegan]

I’m bawling my eyes out right now. How is it I feel this way but have never been able to explain it so simply to others? Thank you Cathy.

[kaitlynmays]

Just tears every time... thank you for laying your artist's heart bare so we can all remember what keeps our souls sparkling with life. I sew and draw and carve woodcuts because I wish for a different world. I wish for villages of neighbors who make the beautiful objects of life for one another from what's around them, with reverence for all the beings around them that make it possible. This is my small way of making that huge, seemingly impossible, dream come true. It's a big reason and it keeps me at it constantly, obsessively, with utter devotion. And because of you costubers, I feel we're all doing it together, making a better world. With love and admiration, Kaitlyn

[homemadeonourhomestead]

Oh Cathy you just inspire me. So lovely to watch. All of this is so true. I to make my own clothes and I prefer to enjoy the process then rush through it. Thank you ❤️

[spfisterer]

I am not a creative person so for me it's spending time with my horses. I do it every day and I've had lots of comments from people asking how I have so much time. I don't. I often work until 10 or 11 pm to find the time to spend part of my morning with my hobby. And there are many things that I simply don't do like watching movies, playing games, spend time online, going shopping.... The thing is this: horses keep me sane. The world is crazy with lots of demands and so I take a horse and we vanish into the woods for an hour or two and when I come back I can think clearly again. They are not optional, they are a necessity.

[thealexfreakingbradshw]

I paint. Acrylics, watercolor, all of it. Most of my day is filled with people telling me what to do and where to go. At night, when it's my time to do things for myself, I paint. The slow, intricate process of sketching followed by mixing paints and coloring in the shapes is so relaxing for me. I get to slow down and think through the day and expand my artistic ability. And at the end of it either get something I'm not really happy with, which ends up going in a stack of finished projects affectionately named my "void", so I can look back on it later and see how far I've come. Or I get something I'm really proud of and hang it on my wall. The whole process is so helpful for my adhd, anxiety, and my peace of mind.

You continue to inspire me and fuel my passion for sewing and creativity in general. Thank you for providing a safe-space <33

[bravehearticus]

Amen Cathy! My depression has been very bad this week. But to distract myself, I took to my machine and made some drawstring bags. I also got a fat quarter of fabric and made a wash bag. It felt great.

[mariekramer]

Sewing, and crafting in general, is just so much a part of me that I 'find time' for it naturally. I find that the more stressed out I am about life and the things going on, more hand-crafted items appear around me. It has become so automatic to use crafting as a coping skill that I am not entirely conscious of where the time comes from- art just worms it's way into my day all by it's self and through it I heal and regenerate. When I am crafting- time doesn't exist, so really finding time isn't possible, instead, time finds me.