I have figured something out about myself - there is a very big difference between being creative and making things. I very much love to make things - but I need patterns. I cannot pick up yarn and suddenly have a hat - I need to be told how to do it. I am a maker, not a creator. I think, 5 years ago, I would have balked at this. But now? It fits, I love the distinction. And I can stop pressuring myself to be a creative type. I'm crafty, not arty.

In my sewing class (First Time Sewing at Lill) we are making a messenger bag/purse thing. So far I've learned a bunch of different seams/hems (rolled, french, straight, blind), learned how a machine works and cut out 16 pieces of bag from fabric of my choosing.

Piles of cut fabric on the right, sewn fabric on the left

The only bit of productive sewing (besides trying out all those seams and hems) I've done so far is to sew the pockets. And really, I just prepared the pockets to be sewn on to the bag (they are just flat pockets, but lined on both sides).

Here are my rectangles! Grey corduroy on one side, green pattern on the other.

At this point, I love this class.  Even though I spent three hours tracing, cutting and then measuring/marking hems on these pieces, it was my kind of three hours. I think I might be a sewer.  Seamstress seems too formal/skilled for what I'm doing, but sewer? No, I am not a place where dirty water/poop collects.