I'm Sari.

And I'm Haley.

And this is Seamwork Radio.

Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy.

Today, we're talking about something that I think a lot of us need to hear.

Permission to play. We'll cover why even our beloved hobbies can sometimes start to feel

stressful, how to recognize when you need a creative reset, and 10 concrete activities you can try

to bring that sense of joy and experimentation back to your sewing.

All right, Haley, let's do our icebreaker.

Tell me about a time when you made something just for the pure fun of it with no plan or pressure to make it perfect.

Okay, I used to be really bad about this.

And I was very structured in my sewing.

But recently, I've just been having so much fun making, like, silly little, like, accessories.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, tote bag, zipper pouches, scrunchies.

And it's been so fun just to, make these like utilitarian kind of projects.

You know, they're going to get used, but they're the kinds of things that I don't take too seriously. Yeah. Like I don't care if like my scrunchy is like super ridiculous or if like my

grocery bag is super ridiculous. So it's been

kind of fun to just incorporate more of those kinds of projects and allow myself the

opportunity to improvise a little bit, like use the giant Rickrack that's been sitting like on my

shelf for like a weird novelty stitch and just like kind of have fun. I's been sitting, like, on my shelf for, like, a weird novelty stitch and just, like, kind of have fun.

I've been trying to, like, do one quirky thing at each of those projects.

...