Projects and Mental Health

I have been working on a personal project for a while now and it’s almost done.

It’s nothing major, just something I have wanted to do for a while. You know those jackets that have patches on them? I’ve always thought those were so cool and wanted to make one. This year I decided to go for it and try to create my very own.

I found this great camo jacket on sale and bought some patches and pins from Etsy and Comic-Con and have been working on it for a few months now since I don’t get the chance to sew that often.

Needless to say, I bought ones to match me, one of a ufo beaming someone up with the caption ‘I want to leave’, and Umbrella Corporation one, ‘Not today Satan’ and a few others.

My favourite is my Hickhickers Guide to the Galaxy one that says in bold text ‘Don’t Panic’. I love it since not only is it a reference to one of my favourite books but also a reminder for myself to keep calm as I am prone to panicking over everything.

I try to make a day of it since while my sewing skills are decent, I still have a lot to learn so it takes me a while to sew one patch on. I know, that is pretty bad but I am getting better, slowly but surely. You know, start with the basics and improve from there.

I also have to do it all by hand since I don’t have a sewing machine and I don’t think it’s a priority to buy one at this point in time.

Some are off centre and lopsided but honestly, I don’t mind too much. It’s not meant to be perfect anyway.

I’m planning on learning how to cross-stitch in the new year since sewing is a useful skill to know and I find it rather enjoyable. Well, when I am not stabbing myself with the needle. That bit sucks but you get used to it.

Sewing is a calming activity for me and I find it rather beneficial to my mental health in a few ways. Not only does it calm me down but being able to look at something I made and be happy with it really boosts my self-esteem. I wear this jacket fairly often to remind me that I am capable of learning new skills and growing as a person.

For me, I see mental health and self-improvement as complementary to each other. My mental health is at its best at points of my life when I was making great strides in my life, yet when my mental health takes a turn my self-improvement all but grinds to a halt and it’s hard to get back on top of it again.

I’m hoping by learning new skills I can get out of this funk I have been under for a bit and get back on track. So far it seems to be working. Let’s just hope it continues to do so.