Sew Disappointing

Have you ever had one of those days that started strong but quickly fizzled? Started a project you were confident would turn out great, but turned to crap without notice? That was yesterday.

I've been trying to develop veggie applique designs for the produce bags. The early versions (now sold) worked out well, but I wanted to move away from felt and use all cotton fabric.

Yesterday I was cruising right along. Beets! Tomatoes! Carrots! Sweet Peas! What variety I would soon be able to offer in my shop.

Only one of those ideas worked, everything else did not look anything like the picture in my head. Let me show you what I mean...

The buttons won't fit under the presser foot, so it ended up uneven, puckered, skipping stitches...all around a mess.

Beets--the tops do not remotely resemble any beets that I've ever eaten. Plus, they are overall way too big to allow for a drawstring casing at the top without chopping off said wacko tops.

Carrot--Not bad, but still puckered at the tips because the main fabric is too lightweight. At least the overall design is a keeper.

Tomato--Just a whole lotta mess here. Satin stitch is too tight, main fabric too lightweight, and the fancy stitch I wanted to use as the leaf was way out of scale and looks ridiculous.

Closeup of the tomato leaf mess.

When you set out to be productive and have confidence you will meet success, this type of fail can zap an entire day's worth of motivation. I didn't even want to do non-work tasks after this.

Today is another day. At least I have a carrot design that works! Back to the sketchbook for the other veggies. One produce bag-related success I did see yesterday was the idea to bundle bags into sets. I have a special packaging idea planned that I hope to have ready in time for next weekend's Harvest Fair.

Have you had any creative setbacks lately?