Sewing is more than just a craft or a way to create beautiful clothes — for many of us, sewing is therapy. It’s a way to reset mentally and emotionally, a comforting ritual, and a creative sanctuary where the world slows down and focus sharpens. Whether you’re a seasoned sewist or just starting out, embracing sewing as therapy can transform your creative practice and your well-being.
For me, sewing has always been a quiet refuge — a chance to step away from daily stress and distractions. Growing up as the oldest of seven, sewing on my mother’s machine was a way to carve out space for myself. It was peaceful, solitary, and deeply satisfying. My father’s habit of lighting incense and playing music while working rubbed off on me, and to this day, scent therapy and music are key to my sewing sessions.
Many sewists find that sewing creates a comforting zone that helps them decompress. It’s not just about finishing a project; it’s about the process, the rhythm of stitching, and the focus it demands. For some, like myself, dedicated sewing time after work serves as a daily mental reset, a moment to unwind and recharge.
Every sewist has unique rituals that help them get into the “flow.” Here are some common practices that nurture creativity and calm:
These rituals help create a nurturing environment that supports both focus and relaxation, key ingredients for therapeutic sewing.
Sewing requires patience and focus. If you’re agitated or emotionally overwhelmed, it often shows in the work — mismatched seams, crooked stitches, or sewing pieces the wrong way. That’s why it’s important to approach sewing with a calm and centered mindset.
When life feels chaotic, taking time to shut off distractions and focus on sewing can serve as a powerful reset. Sometimes, stepping away from the machine to tend to other calming activities like caring for plants can also restore balance. Creating space — physically and mentally — for your sewing practice is essential.
Here are some simple ways to create a sewing space that invites creativity and peace:
Remember, what works for one person may not work for another. Some thrive in “organized chaos,” while others need order and minimalism. The key is to find your own balance and environment that supports your creative flow.
Feeling stuck or experiencing a creative block is normal. Here are some encouraging reminders to help you move past those moments:
Sewing as therapy isn’t just about making garments; it’s about cultivating a mindful practice that nurtures your mental and emotional health. It’s a way to slow down, focus on something tangible, and express creativity in a personal, fulfilling way.
If you’re interested in learning how to sew your own clothes and take control of your style and well-being, explore this beginner-friendly post: Do You Want to Sew Your Own Clothes?
For those who want to turn their sewing passion into a side hustle, there’s guidance here: Turn Your Sewing Skills Into a Side Hustle.
Sewing can be a powerful tool for self-care, creativity, and emotional reset. Whether you’re sewing late into the night to finish a special outfit, or quietly stitching away to the sound of your favorite music and incense, embrace the therapeutic magic of sewing.
Remember: it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be yours. Make space for creativity, find your rituals, and enjoy the journey — stitch by stitch.
Keep dreaming big and growing slow.
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Zahiyya: Welcome to the Designers Plants and Coffee Podcast, where we’re sewing, sipping, and staying rooted.
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We’re three creative women building handmade businesses and sharing real conversations about
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design, growth and what it really takes to make things that matter.
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So grab your coffee, pull up a project, and let’s grow together.
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LaTisha: So they say retail is therapy, but for me, sewing is truly therapy. So let’s start out.
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When does sewing become therapy for you all?
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Zahiyya: I guess I can start.
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I grew up in a house of.
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I’m the oldest of seven kids. So my.
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The machine that we use was my mother’s machine, which was in her room.
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So it was a way to get away from everybody.
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So when I sewed, people normally just left me alone, and it was just like a quiet space.
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So I used to do that.
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And I mean, I know I said in a previous episode, I mean, I used to sew all everybody’s egg clothes at once.
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So they really left me alone because they wanted the outfit. So.
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So it’s just like, that became my thing.
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And my father, he’s a general contractor, and he used to do.
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He used to light incense and play music every time he started working.
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So I picked up that habit from him because back then, you know, TV didn’t have.
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I didn’t watch TV really.
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It was music, incense, and sewing.
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And that was my way of just shutting everything off and just basically sewing.
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And I carry it to it to this day.
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I mean, now I have a TV in my. My sewing space.
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I have candles, I have a diffuser, I have incense, everything. Scent therapy.
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And I definitely have speakers that have, like, a sound system in here. So, Naomi, you go.
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Naima: For me, I think it has always been like a comfort zone, you know, something you always fall back to.
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But in the last few, probably four or five years, I don’t do it as much.
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So I created this thing where after work and, you know, I work from home most days, I will dedicate
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a minimum of one hour to sewing every day.
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And that’s how I decompress. And that’s my therapy.
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And I’ll turn on something on the TV that doesn’t require thought.
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It’s funny you say music, Zahiya, because every time I teach, my private student comes in, and
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I always say, what’s mood?
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And we pick whatever music we’re gonna work to that day.
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So it just goes hand in hand.
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You know, you create your space. You curate your space.
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For those of us who do this for a living, you kind of cur. Curate your space.
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I always pick something that I want to make for myself when I need that therapy.
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You know, I’m not making anything to sell.
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I’m not teaching, I’m not making anything for anybody.
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If I’m really in a mood and I need to lighten that mood, I pick something that I want to make for me.
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So that’s how I create that comfort space and get into that head space.
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And then of course, my one hour usually turns into two or three.
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So, you know, the same with me.
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LaTisha: It’s. It’s the space where I can go put my music on and it’s. I just get.
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I get lost in it to the point where it’s been that way for as long as I’ve known how to sew.
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I just get into my own space, focus, and can sew and don’t even realize how many hours I’ve been there. Even so that I.
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I will sew into the night, be up all night sewing, because now I’m trying to beat the sun.
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Like, I want a full.
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I want a full wardrobe to be complet before the sun rises.
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Zahiyya: So, you know what’s funny?
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I used to do that when I was in high school.
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Like, I used to come.
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I used to have an idea.
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I come home, I had the fabric, I had the pattern, whatever I did and I made.
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I did whatever I had to do before I had to start sewing.
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And I would make my outfit for the next day, no matter how late it took me. 2, 2 o’ clock in
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the morning, 3 o’ clock in the morning, wake up, you know, 6 o’, clock, have to go to school.
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I did that, you know, and it was just.
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It was fun, you know what I’m saying?
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I mean, you exhausted, but it was fun.
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Now that I’m doing tutorials for YouTube, that’s as therapeutic as when I’m doing it with no cameras, nothing.
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Like, I’m not demonstrating anything.
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So it always has to be like, you know, no one’s here, my door’s closed, and everything is just like, quiet.
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Naima: Yeah.
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LaTisha: I’ve discovered that when. When I’m teaching and instructing, especially for recording, I’m
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more so making sure that my stitches are straight, that I’m teaching them everything, like the,
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the correct process and none of my little shortcuts, because I know it’s instructional, they’re going to use it.
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I want them to start off on the good foot when I’m sewing for myself and for therapeutic.
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There have been times when I’ve sewed, literally sewed a dress, and it’s like Wait, you didn’t have any lining? You didn’t do.
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You didn’t finish the inside.
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I just had to get it out of my head.
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And it’s like it was enough.
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It was cute enough to wear, but it’s like, you’re going to need to go back and clean it up.
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Naima: I tell my students all the time, we put all our uglies on the inside.
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There’s nothing you need to see on the inside.
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Nobody needs to know what’s on the inside of your garment.
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I mean, I don’t do that as a practice, but, you know.
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LaTisha: So what kind of creative rituals do you all have?
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Naima: When I sit down to sew, I want everything cut out already. I want every.
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So I like to take a whole day and cut out everything I want to make.
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And Letitia is laughing at me because she knows that I’m a little bit anal about it.
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So each project has its own bag and label, and I put them in the bin.
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And sometimes I will just.
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Just go in that room, close my eyes, pull out something, and whatever I pull out is what I’m making that day.
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So that’s one ritual that I have.
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And then another one that I have is if I can’t think creatively, sewing, I’ll do something else.
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I’ll color something or crochet something.
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I’ll do something else until I can get my head back into the sewing space.
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But stop laughing at me.
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Yes, I do put everything in a project bag.
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And I teach project bags, and they come with their Ziploc bags because they listen to professionals. That’s for Naima.
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Zahiyya: One of my rituals before I start any type of creative process is I have to have a clean space.
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Everything has to be where it’s supposed to be.
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I have to be able to find all my tools.
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Everything has to be vacuum dusted, whatever.
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Just because I cannot create in a disorganized space.
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I know some people might say it’s anal.
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It can be whatever, but that’s just the way that my brain worked.
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Like it was too much distraction. It just can’t happen.
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I mean, because you see this, right?
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This is, you know, everything has to be in order.
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And if you see my sewing space, everything has to be in order because I have to be able to find
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the tools that I need when I need them so that I’m not sitting there searching for a seam ripper
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or, you know, a snip or something.
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I have to have all my buttons, my zipper, everything that I need for that project has to be
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out and visible so that I can do the whole project without any type of interruption.
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Naima: You would hate my space.
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I work in creative chaos.
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I know where everything is.
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In the midst of my crazy, it’s just look like it’s organized chaos because I can tell you where everything is.
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LaTisha: So for me, the ritual stuff.
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One, I am not cutting everything. I literally hate cutting.
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If I could pay someone to cut out my fabric, I would, but I. I get it.
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And the bags, I will say I do use some bags to.
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For certain things, but I cut and I do have to have a clean space.
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My, my sewing machines, my thread, need to know where all of my supplies are because once I
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start, I don’t want to be searching because then I’m mad.
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How are we using sewing to reset mentally and emotionally when.
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If I’m too emotional, it will show.
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It may show up in the garment.
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Zahiyya: Well, you have to be in a sort of relaxed state or like a mentally focused state.
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Because if you’re agitated or angry or any like, annoyed, you wind up sewing the wrong pieces together, wrong sides together.
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You know, the machine doesn’t want to work, the stitches are coming out wrong.
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So you have to be in a space of patience, of focus, of, you know, just trying to be in a creative space.
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So it has, you have to be in that space, otherwise you will make mistakes.
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So with all the craziness that’s going on in the world today, sometimes you just need a break.
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You have to shut everything off and just take a reset.
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And this is, sometimes this is reset.
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I mean, I have lots of plants, so I just go around watering my plants. So it’s a lot.
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Y’ all know, y’ all seen em.
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But I’m just saying I have a lot of plants, so sometimes that is therapeutic.
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I do not talk to them.
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They do not have names, but I do take care of them.
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LaTisha: Do you have any tips for making your sewing space?
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Zahiyya: Nurturing music, my aromatherapy and my clean space and my organization.
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Those are the tips I have.
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But I mean, that’s me, you know what I’m saying?
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I mean, I think everybody’s different and everybody creates differently.
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So I can say how my space needs to be for me to create, you know, well, or, you know, have a, a creative flow.
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But Naima just said the opposite.
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She’s like, you know, she works well in chaos.
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So, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s up to you to find what works for.
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LaTisha: You type of encouragement for anyone who’s stuck, who’s maybe experiencing a creativity roadblock.
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Zahiyya: It doesn’t have to be perfect.
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You know, you can always change and there’s a seam ripper.
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I mean, all of us use a seam ripple on a daily. So it doesn’t be.
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Have to to be perfect.
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Yeah, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Don’t, don’t let.
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Was it analysis paralysis stop you from starting a project.
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And if anything, it’s just like, just clear your space.
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I mean, that’s just me. Clear your space. Make room for it.
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You know, a lot of things people don’t make room for, so you have to make room for creativity.
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So if you have a lot of things going on, sometimes you just need to pause and say, okay, I can get to that.
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I can get to that.
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Make space for it, you know, physically and, you know, mentally.
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So just make space for it.
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Naima: I would say walk away.
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Don’t be afraid to walk away for a minute.
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If you are making something and it’s challenging and it’s frustrating, turn off your machine, get up, walk away.
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Go have a cup of tea or a cup of whatever you like in your cup.
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You know, sit there for a minute.
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Maybe if you are following some sort of pattern, just read the instructions without looking at the process project.
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Just kind of read them and absorb them, but just, just walk away.
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Because the more you sit there and the more you try to work it out and it’s not working and
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you’ve seem ripped for like the.
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The third time, it’s going to frustrate you even more.
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Zahiyya: Thanks for hanging out with us on the Designers Plants and Coffee podcast.
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If you love this episode, please leave a review, share it with your creative friend, or tag us on Instagram.
00:10:54,390 –> 00:10:57,830
Until next time, keep dreaming big and growing slow.
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