The Sewing Place

Good enough to teach sewing / dealing with imposter syndrome

Roger

Re: Good enough to teach sewing / dealing with imposter syndrome
« Reply #30 on: March 17, 2018, 17:39:09 PM »
There’s a great many unfortunate urls out there ( pen island for one)....

And using your own name is a good way to build a reputation and be memorable.

All the best with it and I really hope it goes well!
A bit of a vintage sewing machine nut! Singers: 500a, 401g, 48k Elnas: lotus SP & grasshopper, Bernina 530-2 F+R 504, Pfaff 30, Cresta T-132

Marniesews

Re: Good enough to teach sewing / dealing with imposter syndrome
« Reply #31 on: March 17, 2018, 18:19:36 PM »
It's taken me a while to catch up with this thread to say the least! Nevertheless, I did see the first few posts originally and have pondered on it from time to time. I agree that formal qualifications are much less important for teaching beginners than simply being someone who is good at imparting knowledge and skills with a good grounding in them herself.

It's clear that the imposter syndrome is haunting you somewhat and I suspect it's more intense purely because your aim is be paid for it. A lack of confidence is likely to show and it seems that's the area in need of boosting. It sounds as though your experience with friends has been positive but what about considering some charitable opportunities outside of the formalised learning path to acquire more specific experience of teaching sewing before actively plying your trade? That might answer your doubts more fully than teaching friends will do and give you greater confidence whilst increasing your understanding of what you need to address.

You might consider approaching a women's refuge on a voluntary basis to demonstrate how to alter buys from charity shops and also make baby/children's clothes from plus sized clothing.  You'd need to check that their Public Liability Insurance would cover the activity and ideally you'd want the refuge to own a sewing machine so it could be used when you're not there. Of course they're usually well versed on how to source donations but it's not unusual to see basic zigzag machines for around £25 or so in charity shops and a bit more on Gumtree, Preloved etc., hopefully within their budget.

Just a thought. It might not be what you originally envisaged but you could both benefit from the learning/teaching experience.
Hopefully back more regularly! Ballroom sewing may be permanently paused but bag making is the current focus.

DementedFairy

Re: Good enough to teach sewing / dealing with imposter syndrome
« Reply #32 on: March 17, 2018, 18:50:13 PM »


Just a thought. It might not be what you originally envisaged but you could both benefit from the learning/teaching experience.


Brilliant idea
C'est moi!

Morgan

Re: Good enough to teach sewing / dealing with imposter syndrome
« Reply #33 on: March 18, 2018, 12:57:40 PM »
@Morgan  Hello, I took a bit of a hit health wise at the start of the year, so things got off to a slow start!  I'm back to it again now and thankfully at full health as long as I look after myself.

Great to hear that you're still going to be sharing the sewy love

warpbywarpweft

Re: Good enough to teach sewing / dealing with imposter syndrome
« Reply #34 on: March 25, 2018, 11:35:03 AM »
Thank you for the ideas, yes, that could work really well.  In our area the woman's refuges are hard to contact (understandably), but I have a contact who may be able to help.

I am also doing some (non sewing related) work on my confidence, the book 'Feel the fear and do it anyway' by Susan Jeffers is meant to be an oldie, but a goodie so I am reading that among other things.