I'm just a cock-eyed optimist

Good morning internet, I have a question for you. Is it possible to be too optimistic?

I've asked myself this question an awful lot in the past month or so, and I find that I am not quite sure. I know that I'm more hopeful than the average bear, and that sometimes this can cause a situation to become a letdown, or to blow up in my face, but it does seem to add to by overall happy demeanor.

I'll give you a specific example. This month I began my journey towards learning how to sew. The original intention of this was to teach myself how to make minor alterations in RTW clothing and, eventually, to craft pieces of my own from start to finish. Within a week of deciding that I wanted to learn, which has been a back burner desire f mine for a while, I had decided that it would be nice to create a custom fit, homemade cotton or linen suit for my cousin's wedding in Florida...in June...as in less than half a year from now.

I have since begun to realize that this is far beyond likely as the process of tailoring a jacket properly and having a well finished piece at the end is a very involved process that adds advanced techniques on top of the basics of seams, pressing, pattern altering, etc. As it stands right now, I have yet to learn ANY of those basics.

Despite all of this, I want to try and put together my first muslin of a jacket pattern sometime this month. My perhaps overly optimistic thought process leads me to believe that if I just jump into this process with both feet NOW, I'll make a ton of mistakes, and learn a lot in a little bit of time, but everything I learn will be able to be directly applied to my final project. I also don't mind having to possibly go through 2-3 or more muslins to adjust for fit, practice interfacing, experimenting with different suit styles, and other factors. I have a ready supply of muslin fabric in the form of white cotton sheets. I work at a hotel that has at least one queen or king flat or fitted sheet every month that gets a small stain in it that cannot be removed after multiple attempts, these would be thrown away otherwise. Not to mention pillowcases as well. I also have a decent amount of free time as I work the overnight shift 4 days a week, and so I am awake while the rest of the world is asleep for 2-3 days total per week.

So tell me, do you think that I've hopped on a one way trip to crazy town, or is this optimism and excitement just the thing to help propel me beyond the odds. Can my lack of fear to try be the one thing that removes me from the crowd of others learning a new skill and allows me to become better, faster, and less afraid to mix it up and try new things once I have the basics down (I'm already thinking a wool jacket and corsetry would be fun projects for later, but will probably follow up with Peter Lapin's sew-alongs for jeans and dress shirts to help give myself a little bit of structure).

Here's to a new year (even though it's already Feb.) to learn a fun, interesting, and useful new skill!

Even the path most traveled can be fun, if you dance your way along it.

Matthew