The Short Answer is 2 1/2 Hours

I received a question asking how long it takes to alter a t-shirt like this. It really got me thinking. I suppose, if I worked faster, I could do it in an hour. However, I'm a very slow sewer.

I spent about an hour and a half on the sleeves and an hour on the neck and hem together. That includes at least forty-five minutes hemming and hawing about what I needed to do. That's the part that's a problem when I'm rushed. It eats a up a lot of time, but I don't mind doing it. Actually, I seem to need to do it.

Being able to think about all my alternatives and choosing the one I really want is a big part of my sewing enjoyment. Over the years I have realized that sewing is the only thing I do that is completely for me. I get to make any decision I want. I can keep a mistake or redo it. I can go get more notions or use what I have. I can do the quick fix or the long solution. It's all in my hands. Real life isn't like that. I have to work around other's needs and desires, using limited resources and limited time. But with sewing, I can do whatever I want. I often choose the long way and the hard way. Not always, but often.

I wonder if this is what makes hobbies enjoyable to people. Is this why the guy who builds train villages in his basement does it? Is this why a painter paints? A stamp collector collects? Or is it some other reason?

One of the sewing blogs I enjoy is The Slapdash Sewist. I think she is experiencing the same thing. Sure, she chooses the slapdash solution, but the same principle is at work. She can make any decision she wants, so she makes the one that pleases her. So do I. I think we could happily sew along side each other, laughing at each other's decisions, but totally getting it.

Friday night I sewed the pre-pinned binding of a small wall quilt. Took about two hours. It was maybe thirty minutes of work. I was watching TV. Yesterday I altered the sleeves of another t-shirt and it took one hour. I timed it this time with my stop watch. For the first five minutes, just having the stop watch going freaked me out. It was taking away my joy.

I once seriously contemplated being a sewing professional. I started timing myself. It took eight hours to make a pair of jeans and five hours to make a pair of dress pants with all the details like welt pockets. I suspect that's a really long time. Speeding up is no fun for me.

I am enjoying the process of altering t-shits as much for the acquisition of skills as for the new, fitted shirts. I think if sewing was about saving money at a minimum cost of time, I'd have quit as a failure a long time ago. For me, sewing is about having exactly what I want, made exactly the way I feel like making it.