Improve Your Sewing Skills and Make Less Mistakes

Is it possible to become a better sewist utilizing brain training techniques? Last year I decided to take a more systematic approach to sewing using deliberate practice and in this video, I share my results.

If you are not familiar with this, it's a method popularized by Swedish psychology scientist Anders Eriksson and refers to a highly structured practice with the specific goal of improving performance.
Mostly this term is used in activities like sport and learning instruments but I think it can definitely be applied to sewing too.

So how I'm applying this method to sewing? Well in several different ways

1. Always challenging myself

I've stopped being fearful of seemingly difficult sewing techniques and have really dived into learning new things consistently. Staying challenged and going outside your comfort zone regular is a key to improved performance.

2. Being systematic in my practice

For instance, I try not to sew on real fabric until I feel confident I can pull off the technique
I now do tons of samples, experimenting with different techniques and settings, before I tackle the real project.

3. Only do the hard stuff when I can fully concentrate

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That means I sew less now on the weekdays and more on the weekends as I have more uninterrupted time and is more alert during the weekends. This is approach has also helped me make fewer mistakes. If I feel the sewing bug on the weekdays I do less mentally challenging stuff like setting up my machines, preparing the patterns and cutting fabric.

Another component of deliberate practice is repeating similar tasks over and over, and I that's the part I find harder to apply. since there are a lot of sewing techniques that I only use occasionally and I'm not sure I want to spend a whole year just inserting various zippers to samples for instance, even though that would probably make really great at sewing zippers!

Now I would love to know, have you experimented with sewing smarter and what methods have you found helpful?
Also I feel that some of my technical skills could be better, especially considering the amount of sewing experience that I have. So earlier this year I decided to try a more mindful approach to sewing, inspired by the book The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle and in particular the bits about deliberate practise which is based on the studies of scientist Anders Eriksson.

So in this video I talk all about how I'm applying deliberate practise to my sewing to improve my skills and what I've learned to so far.



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Видео Improve Your Sewing Skills and Make Less Mistakes канала The Last Stitch