Infinite Elephants: Realization and Acceptance

I've been sewing off and on for about 10+ years. I've never been what I'd consider awesome at it, but my skills are improving. The big change came after Kinsley was born and I made her this insert pad to go in her car seat. I had several people ask me about it and a few even bought one. That got me thinking about making and selling them on a larger scale than just to those who saw mine. I had some skill, a little talent, some extra time, and a strong desire to feel like I was doing something other than just cleaning the house over and over. The thought occurred to me that making things could be a source of income that could at the very least, cover the cost of my own personal projects. I heard of someone who had a site on Etsy, an online store I had never heard of that was for people like me who wanted to make and sell things. That was the target market I'd been looking for. I signed up on January 8th, 2011, and on February 11th, I had my first order. I was hooked, and I began making more infant car seat protector pads to list for sale in my online store. I bought fabric in different patterns and different colors, and started taking requests.I upgraded my sewing machine to one that does embroidery and I've since added other things to my Etsy store besides the pads. These days I'm not doing too bad. I'm also not doing super great in that I'm not making alot of profit due to re-investment and my own projects, but it's something and it makes me feel good to know that other people who I've never met want and like my products enough to pay for them. So it's now June, and I've gotten more and more into the sewing thing. I recently made Kinsley and I matching dresses, and I've made some "promo" items for some friends as well as numerous baby gifts and other presents. I have to say that I was really impressed with the way the dresses turned out, and after finising and looking at them I realized that I'm not too shabby at this sewing thing. I've accepted that I'm not the greatest, but I certainly don't suck. In fact, I pretty consistently rock out loud on my projects.That's not meant to be cocky, but I am proud of the work that I can do and have done. I'm getting more vision, talent, and skills. I have people around to support me in my endeavors and give me help and advice. I'm thankful for friends like my wonderful husband Henry, my friends Nancy & Joy, and Cynthia, the lady at The Viking Store where I got my sewing machine. It's nice knowing that she can tell me things I didn't know I didn't know. Now I actually have questions to ask that don't sound like I just crawled from under a rock. I've come to realize what tools I need to do a proper job, and I've gotten a lot of those tools. It's an awesome feeling that my friends ask me for advice and help too. Obviously my skill level has improved to a "worthy of help" status. My friend Joy now has her own Etsy store. I'd like to think that I encouraged her to do it, but really I'm not sure. She and I are like non competing business ladies who bounce ideas and projects off each other. Sometimes we work in tandem on projects and other times we hand off prospective projects to each other. Yep, this realization and acceptance thing is pretty nice, and as I sit here listening to my latest project stitch out in the machine, I think about how far I've come and the progress I've made knowing that more of both is on the way.

Here are the dresses I made.