Unleash your creative side

– Are you going to go to bed?
– I will do around 11-12, I’m nearly finished.
– Well it’s way past that.
– What? What time is it?
– It’s 2 am…

A conversation I have had –so many times– with my mum at 2 o’clock in the morning, when she wakes up and sees that my light is still on. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s go back to the beginning; back to the beginning of the day.

Not everyone has the luxury of being able to go out and buy everything they like. I will spend hours and hours browsing Pinterest for outfit ideas and garments that I want, save them to my PC, study them and recreate them all by myself.

Once I have found what I want to make, whether it is a dress, a skirt or a top, I have to measure myself –the part I like least of the whole process– and create the pattern. It takes time to get it right and especially when I miscalculate and have to start over… so frustrating! And now it’s time to go out and pick up the material that I will need. Every time I walk into the shop, I get lost; distracted by all the pretty colors and patterns.

But as soon as I get started, I get absorbed into this little world of my own. Nothing can distract me; no one can bother me. Surrounded by meters and meters of fabric, millions of pins and needles, threads and bobbins at the ready, I get lost in my creativity. And feeling like the little birds and mice in Cinderella, I can make whatever my heart desires. But first I need to sit down and stare at everything until I get going.

And before I know it, I’m cutting and pinning pieces of material together, preparing to attack them with the sewing machine. Double and triple checking if I have got it right before it goes through the machine. Otherwise I’ll have to do it all over again. And we all know how bad that can be.

As my new dress starts to form, I start getting excited and anxious to see the finished result. But before I know it, it’s 2 am and I’m having the same conversation with my mum again; chasing me to go to bed. I need to take a break. I need to eat, take a shower and sleep. If I don’t my brain will get too tired and that’s when mistakes start to happen.

Close to the end is the worst time to make any mistakes. I’ll get frustrated and angry at myself but I’ll soon find a way to correct them and get back on track. Getting excited again and forgetting the anger that had started to build.

It’s a whole new feeling of achievement you get when you see that you can make something beautiful with your own two hands. It’s not perfect as I’m not a professional but it’s mine and I’m proud of it. For me, it helps me relax and focus on the positive things in life. It’s a way of expressing myself.

And when I finally get to wear my new dress, go out and show it off, I am proud of myself. I get excited when people tell me they love it and ask me where I got it from. In that moment, when I can tell them I made it, I feel on top of the world. I can feel their admiration that slowly turns into jealousy as they realize that they could not make something like this on their own.

Creating something on your own, whether its clothes, jewelry, or even redecorating a space in your home, gives you an amazing feeling. It’s like you’ve found a new part of yourself. Like you have renewed yourself and discovered another part of you within. The creative side of you.