Yoga and sewing

This is my new sewing machine that I got a few weeks ago. I've been testing the waters and have already made a pair of leggings, a dress and now I am on to a very complicated purse.

While I was mid-way through the dress, I realized that sewing is a really good practice for me. I never had a lot of patience, or super-fine attention to details, but when sewing, you need those qualities turned on. I've noticed that, through yoga, I have more patience with myself, which is where I needed it most, but also with other situations and people. I was a never a person that read all the directions, I thought most of the time I can figure it out myself and directions wasted precious time - until you mess something up and have to re-do everything. With sewing, they recommend to read all directions before even starting, and I am actually trying that now. It gives me an idea of what the big picture is and what I will need to prepare for. There are also so many preparatory steps, the boring stuff! Washing, ironing, cutting and more cutting, pinning - it takes up more time that sewing! I found that difficult at first, but I am learning to enjoy those steps as part of the whole process as much as the actual sewing parts.

Sewing is like a mini-dharana practice, which is concentrating the mind, a single focus (dharana is one of the 8 Limbs of Yoga). With each step in a sewing project I am completely absorbed into it, trying not to remember the one before (that maybe I didn't do as well as I wanted) and not looking ahead to see what I am going to do next. For me, a shiny new beginner at sewing, it is about diligently going through the necessary steps, taking care that I complete the task at hand before moving on. I take frequent brakes so as not to rush through (since of course I just want the end product asap), but sewing is the process of creating something. I am creating something that I could have easily purchased, but without the fun journey of getting there.