I’ve been not feeling 100% and haven’t sewn anything too strenuous for a little while. I think disaster would be the end result. Experience tells me so.
‘So tired sewing’ can result in some truly funny moments.
Earlier this year I was wondering what was wrong with my ‘walking foot’. I then realised it was the ‘buttonhole foot’ and decided I needed to ‘step away from the machine’!
Are you ready to confess your ‘so tired sewing’ moments? Let’s have a giggle…
Sew Busy Lizzy 
Oh yes, definitely! Making a bag, knowing one piece has to measure 80×30 cm and realizing in the morning that I cut it 70×30… What happend to those 10 cm? I even measured it twice before cutting it out (at least I think so)…
LOL! you probably had the measuring tape twe wrong way around. 80+70 = 150 cm. Makes sense, right?
(ask me how I know…)
I usually sew something on back to front when I get tired, your attention lapses and mistakes are easily made!
Usually I have somehow placed the bobbin incorrectly. Feel better!
Pretty sure I traced two different sizes for the pattern pieces of one little dress I made recently. So annoying but thankful it wasn’t something special. I do silly things all. the. time. Definitely sewing tired, and sewing at night! Hope you feel better soon. You definitely can’t force the sewing thing 😉
Once I was so tired I put the back neck facing of a dress on the outside. Knowing it would be worn under a matching, completed jacket the next day, I left the re-do until after the affair!
After making five things in two months, I screwed up sewing a button on my husband’s shirt…
I cut a collar piece wrongly, swore copiously, started again – and made the same mistake a second time, using what was left of the fabric. So no collar in that project…
I have to say your presser foot mixup is actually hilarious. Could be me all the was!
Inside out bias binding… Wouldn’t be so bad, but I cleverly used a contrasting (clashing) color because it was handy. Not as funny as mixing up feet – that’s pretty good!
Absolutely. I am in one of those funks at the moment as well:( I try sew for half an hour in the morning when I am fresh or work on a small project or small task until I get my mojo back.
Oh my sewing is all out at the moment. The number of things I’ve sewn on backwards is getting ridiculous… and let’s not even go near my cutting out 😦 I hope we feel better soon xx
My most common “so tired sewing” mistake is accidentally sewing things together with one piece flipped the wrong way, or putting sleeves in backwards.
Sewing tired: Trying to hammer rivets from the front and wondering why they won’t go in properly; giving a finished metallic skirt a final press and scorching it so badly it’s pretty much unwearable; sewing sleeves on inside out and thinking I could get away with it and several steps later realising inside out plackets didn’t work. Just my most recent mishaps. I hope the sewing love comes back soon. For me when it does, it does with a vengeance.
I was serging when I was tired and instead of just serging a side seam – I serged part of the armhole as well – don’t ask I was tired.
I hauled my sewing machine back to the dealer because it wasn’t letting me select a stitch length greater than 0 only to find I had left the dog feed down!!
😉 Yes, repeat after me, ‘don’t touch the overlocker/serger when tired’ I’ve taken the corners off bikini tops & dress hems… Chatting while sewing does it to me too though, clearly I need to sew in a daylight infused bubble!
So easy to forget to change back stitch length after basting, or needle position after understitching, or check if your bobbin is running out – but when I’m tired I’ll do all of these things one after the other…
My friend and I were sewing together all day. She is usually a funny, fun gal who doesn’t need to talk to herself when working through a problem ( like yours truly). Around dinner time I began to hear mild potty words from across the table which escalated quickly to stronger no- no words. We both started laughing and decided it was time to eat.
I hear ya! I’ve done a bunch of stupid things but a few memorable ones include: working with lovely gifted, non replaceable lace , not laying out all the pattern pieces, cutting out sleeves first (duh!) and not leaving enough fabric for the front; and sewing though my finger ( just the tip but still, ouch).
I needed to cut a binding piece for the neckline…which I promptly cut from the bodice of the blouse! Thankfully I had enough fabric to cut a new front. Feel better soon.
I finished sewing a birthday dress for my daughter today while feeling very tired. First, being lazy, decided to bind armhole instead of bothering with facing, stuffed up very badly; had to unpick (after trimming and notching!) and then make a facing after all with a v. v. narrow seam…Second, gathered the underskirt to the bodice without remembering the overskirt in between…unpick. Grrr. Third, sewed the whole underskirt to the overskirt WITHOUT any thread in the bobbin…Swore a lot. Re-sewed. (How is it that a machine with beeps for every bloody thing conceivable does NOT beep when you run out of bobbin?) Fourth – finally finished it and had coffee. What a relief!
I think the most silly thing I’ve ever done was when I first started sewing. I was wondering why I was finding cutting fabric so tough, then I eventually twigged that my scissors were upside down- oops!! 😂
I have had a good laugh at some of the above comments…..but made plenty myself over 43 years of sewing. Feel like I could kick my own a…sometimes!
I mean …..made plenty of idiotic sewing manoeuvres, (comments – that too , as per above)
When I was in school, late night sewing just came with the territory. The mistake I used to make over and over and over again was sewing the sleeves in backwards. At least as time went on, I learned that if I ripped them out and sewed them in again, they would be backwards a second time. So I would just stop till the morning.
I sewed through all the layers of my fly front and ended up sewing it shut. Then I picked it out and did the exact same thing gain!
i could write a book, but just the other day i hemmed a pair of dress pants for someone and cut the fabric off right at what was to be the hem line. luckily i had marked them a little longer and ended up using the piece cut off as a ‘facing’. i chose not to confess this to the man, who will never know.
Oh yeah, there are not many of these that I haven’t done and I don’t have to be tired either hehe, but the whole not beeping when the bobbin runs out? That catches me all the time, there I am zooming away pulling out a whole bunch of carefully placed pins only to find I haven’t sewn a stitch cause the bobbins run out. I don’t even swear anymore just sigh and re-pin. When. Will. I. Learn?
I’ve just come out of a phase like that recently which resulted in 3 patterns being taken out of their envelopes and put straight back in, and one pair of trousers and a skirt in the bin.
Stuart is always amazed at how many times I can sew a seam the wrong way, I also have a habit of pressing with the iron unplugged!
Was making pajama pants for Christmas for my husband. I was toward the very end… finished the second side-seam pocket. Realized I’d sewn it into the butt seam.
Of course I have done most of the same sleepy mistakes as already posted. The worse I’ve done (to me) is when I’ve sewed a pattern piece in and realized I cut it backwards, then I un-picked it, re-cut it & sewed it back in to realize the original piece was actually cut properly I had just placed it in backwards. So I had to un-pick it & sew it in AGAIN!
I was SO tired I just started crying. My husband laughed at me for crying which made me cry even more.
When tired step away from the machine , also when distracted , or tipsy all times that are important to take a break ,or face mistakes sometimes disaster just give yourself a leave pass for a bit.
Lol, I love this post and all the comments. I usually sew things backwards together when I’m tired
You know another thing I have found is that I don’t sew well when I am in a bad mood. I go upstairs thinking that a little sewing will make me calm again only to find that everything I touch seems to be infected by my bad mood.
Oh dear, my “sew tired” maneuver is almost always to sew a sleeve in inside-out, argh!! I’ve done it a couple of times… so silly!
Twenty five years ago I sewed my sister’s wedding dress. We had about 7 people staying in our family home (7 of us too… small house) and they were so distracting. I was attaching the skirt to the bodice… triple stitched it as it was so heavy and flipped it out…. skirt is on inside out. I cried, announced for no one to say anything to me and then went into the bedroom and unpicked it… it took 3 hours. My aunt felt so sorry for me, she hemmed it for me, and I was so shattered, I let her.
I broke 3 needles yesterday at a sewing class. I just had machine serviced & class was at same store. I called the tech over & he said you can’t zigzag with a straight stitch plate on . 10 min later Into the project forgot again & broke another needle .
Way too many snafus to list, but I think most of the above would just about cover it.
I hope you feel better soon.