For this installment of bullet journal dumpster fire, I am sewing in a bullet journal. More specifically, I am using a sewing pen in my bullet journal. (Quick catch-up: once a month, I draw a paper out of my acrylic dumpster desk accessory, and attempt to use that tool/supply in a bullet journal. This is part of a “use what I have” experiment as well.)
So 6 months (SIX MONTHS?!), ago, I went through my craft room and made a list of everything I have. Most of these things have been collected over a period of 5-10 years. Whatever I decide I am no longer interested in using, I will purge.
Not going to lie to you, but this sewing pen may be one item I will be purging. This project almost broke my spirit. But, it is done and I have video evidence of attempting to create this massive dumpster fire (see what I did there?!).
Bullet Journal Sewing Supplies
- Archer and Olive Kraft Paper bullet journal
- We R Memory Keepers Stitch Happy Pen
- Archer and Olive Dot Grid notepads in black and white
- Tombow Dual Brush Pen in N15
- Ranger Dylusions by Dyan Reaveley – A Heck of Hexies
- Versafine Pigment Ink in Onyx Black
- Black and white cotton
Why Sewing?!
I asked myself this question the entire time I was working on this project. I was clearly feeling malicious when I put the papers in the dumpster, because this almost broke my spirit. The actual answer to why is, well, because I can, and because I wanted to. I was so young and naive when I thought this would be funny…
Method to Handle the Madness
Number 1 thing to note – I sewed on paper outside of my journal and then glued it in. If I sewed directly into my notebook, I would’ve given up. To be fair and honest, it’s not so much sewing that was the issue but rather the Stitch Happy Pen (which didn’t make me very happy).
Basically, you pierce the paper, then have to hold the thread in place behind the paper, and pierce to the next stitch. I ended up trying to pierce into the loop created by the previous stitch. This was marginally successful in keeping the stitches in place but I still created a giant mess. At the end, I just taped everything down with some clear tape and called it a day.
For my background, I used the “A Heck of Hexies” stamp set since my hand drawn designs were inspired by Dyan Reaveley’s stamp designs. I then went in with the black Tombow to create a lace effect border. While it doesn’t look like much now, this lace border does make a huge difference.
Final Thoughts
In case you can’t tell from my slightly snarky titles and writing in this blog post, I’m not a fan of this project. I will admit that it was definitely faster than sewing with a regular needle. The Stitch Happy Pen does come with stencils that you can use and I think I tried to use it once, but it wasn’t successful. Maybe this pen takes a bit more practice than I initially thought.
In terms of the bumpiness from the stitching dumpster fire, it’s not going to be great for my next dumpster fire project but we’ll see how it goes.
I’m sure it’s obvious by now that I would not recommend doing this in a bullet journal. It was frustrating, stressful, and, at the time at least, disappointing. I am happy with how it turned out overall, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Previous Dumpster Fire Projects
As always, thank you so much for your time today! I hope you enjoyed watching/reading this dumpster fire. I will probably come up with a rating system and eventually go through and rank them. Let me know if you are up for that! There are still many MANY little bits of paper in that acrylic dumpster so they will keep coming.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments. As much as I wanted to claw my eyes out during this (and I was binging Bridgerton at the time btw), I’m proud that I pushed through and I love the results. The effect definitely turned out like I imagined and brought me one step closer to realizing that I could possibly maybe try line art and be moderately successful!
Take care of yourself!
Amazing. I created sewn cards, great idea to include in bullet journals.
Thank you so much Vera! It was definitely fun to try. I think I’ll stick to hand sewing though 🙂