Scrambling

A propos of the tremendous learning opportunity I've had in making the Lady Grey coat, this process has been entirely worth while (life changing, even) on the basis of hand stitching technique alone.

I'm not too proud to tell you that I was afraid of hand stitching. It struck me (ha!) as tedious, painstaking, finicky and hard. Instead, it's meditative, painstaking, finicky and sort of hard, but not really. (That's quite an improvement on my initial impression!)

Here's the thing. I'm a left handed person in a right-handed sewist's world. I sew, depending on the tutorial I'm watching or the book I'm reading and the state my brain is in, with either hand. In truth, I find it harder to re-scope the right handed instructions for left-handedness than to just sew with my non-dominant hand.

I should mention that I'm considered ambidextrous according to those inconclusive tests. I do most everything with my right hand (except write). My dominant eye, ear and foot are on the right. Nonetheless, depending on the moment, I do choose to sew with my left hand and, if the technique is new to me, I have no precedent to follow. Once my brain is clicked into left- or right-sidedness, it's almost impossible for me to switch. I mean, I have to walk away for quite a while till my brain resets itself. Weird, I know.

I wish there were a book called "Hand Sewing for the Left-Handed Sewist". I would SO buy it. Of course, most sewists are women and most women (by a huge majority) are right handed. In fact, the segment of self-identified, left handed women in our population is 1%. How many of them sew, I wonder?? So, something tells me that book doesn't exist.*

Patty smartly suggested that I turn the garment upside down (she read somewhere that it works). Problem is, I generally can't figure out when I'm sewing the wrong way around to begin with. I'm telling you, peeps, my brain doesn't operate in a particularly linear fashion. What's up or down??, really, I say.

So here's today's question: Are you a left-handed sewist? Do you know of a book about left handed tailoring? Did you just switch over to the right-hand?

Or - if you aren't left-handed (the likelihood, after all), do you enjoy hand stitching? Hate it?

*Update: Apparently, there is a book. Guess it doesn't hurt to check before writing the post. PS: Looking at the photo on the cover, my brain winces. I can't figure out if that's the way I want to thread my needle. Maybe I'm a right handed sewist, after all???