It’s true; rules are often there for a reason. If you don’t want your seams to be obvious, then match your thread color to your garment color. Secure your stitching or else it’ll come undone. That’s just common sense. But there are lots of little “rules” floating around that are more like matters of opinion.

I think my least favorite rule isn’t exactly about sewing, but fashion: never wear white after Labor Day. Why? Says who? Is it rude? Will the world explode? Will my aunt Thelma disown me? What if I like wearing white? What if I’m a chef? Or an astronaut? Or a bride? Is my aunt Thelma rich?

Creativity should never be about what you can’t do. It should be about all the beautiful possibilities of what you can do. And getting bogged down in rules can cause some people to be afraid to just MAKE something.

So what if you made something and didn’t follow all of the rules? You didn’t make it the “right way”? Well, if it worked for you and you’re happy with the end result, and the world didn’t explode, then maybe that WAS the “right way”.

Who cares what aunt Thelma thinks, anyway?