How to get over your first big craft fail! March 24, 2019 00:16 83 Comments

Massive craft fail

I like to say you're not a real crafter until you've had a couple of huge craft fails! 

Do you recognise this scenario? You suddenly get an urge of creativity, you create a mental image of a wonderful piece of artwork or crafty item you’re going to make and you settle down to get started.

But then the journey isn’t quite as enjoyable and enlightening as you might have hoped. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The frustration takes over because the masterpiece you had in mind looks as though a child could have made it. Whether you had an expensive incident with gold leaf foil or managed to stick your burnt fingers together with a glue gun, it’s happened to the best of us.

It genuinely builds resilience
But if it happens to you really early in your craft journey, take heart! Sometimes the most disastrous of creations can bring out a surprising kind of resilience in you. When it comes to getting over failure, the only thing you can do it try again (many, many, many!) times. And thankfully, it's practise that pays off with craft. Maybe you went in a bit ambitious, maybe you just need a bit more time to get the skills, but with handmade stuff that's all part of the deal. Just keep at it and you'll look back on the journey with immense satisfaction. 

You learn the best stuff that way
Sometimes, you can look at a piece, and it may look a mess but you can see all the lessons it taught you, so it most certainly wasn't a waste of time. I have that experience with dressmaking a lot - it's how I learned the best tricks I have up my sleeve. It may sound cheesey but it has changed how I feel about things going wrong in life in general - nothing is a waste of time because there's always something I learned from it.

Keep on challenging yourself
You may not be worthy of appearing on Kirstie's Handmade Christmas anytime soon, but you might just create something you’re proud of if you push yourself to step out of your comfort zone. And if you're going to do that, you're going to fail some of the time. The more spectacular the fail, the more you've probably learnt. And stretching yourself a bit mentally to solve a creative problems is pleasing.

You already know Pinterest isn't real life!
So if you recently took on your own project at home and it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, you're not alone. It’s totally normal to have a handful of disasters under your belt. Hey, the only way anyone creates those Pinterest-worthy pieces is through plenty of trial and error, and like lots of social media, you only see the polished end result and not the carnage that went into making it! 

You'e not alone
And as creatives and crafters, some of the best bonding we share is over our worst fails. Be the first one to show yours, and watch as everyone starts to confess their stories of stitching their work to their trouser leg by accident, missing out a page of instructions, putting things together backwards or making something perfect and then just spilling coffee all over it. 

So if you've just got into craft and had your first horror, don't worry! It's all part of the process. You're not a machine so your stuff shouldn't look like it was made by one.