Having a Hobby

Dear Readers,

I just read about hobbymaxxing and it sounds rad. But I think just like I feel romantically, I am not poly with my hobbies, I am a one-a-time guy. This is because, I think, I go hard, and also because I only have so much time right now. I think younger me would have hobbymaxxed but right now I am SEWING and SEWING IS MY HOBBY and this is very exciting to me because as I’ve written about before I have wanted to learn to sew basically my entire life and for a variety of reasons I just never did. It is less complicated why I started: I googled classes at the shop down the street from my home and found that Sewing 101 started the next night, and there I went. I have now taken three classes, completed two quilts, a shirt, and a dress, and some smaller projects too. I am going to do bigger things before long: very excited/scared about a dress with BUTTONS (dear god) and LARGER QUILTS and just like following the path of whatever strikes my fancy?

I genuinely spent years saying 1) I would learn to sew and 2) I needed a hobby that didn’t involve screens. Sewing has also been social for me because of spending so much time at a studio where other people are doing creative work, as well as chatting with other friends who are more experienced than me and are VERY PATIENT with my very beginner questions.

I was chatting with another writer the other night about it, who said she needed a hobby she wasn’t monetizing, and I felt that so hard. I do NOT want to sew for others except as gifts. I don’t want to start a sewing Substack (I know sometimes this feels like one but usually sewing is A METAPHOR OK). I just want to like doing something and do it!!