Today, I’m heading out to my parents’s house for the day to do some sewing. Over the course of the pandemic, my mom cleaned up their basement and started using the sewing room as a sewing room (as well as a laundry room). Having that dedicated space is what we all dream of; for me, it’s three buses away instead of in my own house. I spent Sunday cutting all the paper patterns my dad had printed for me at his office, folding and organising. Today, it’s time to cut the fabric, and maybe even sew a little.

This week, I found a delightful reel on Instagram. The audio goes, “Everything is content. Don’t forget to film it.” The video where I saw it first was a person pressing their sewn seams with an iron, but here’s the original. (I’ve had it stuck in my head for days.)

I have a book coming out. That book is about sewing. But for the purposes of making content on the internet, my niche is zines. I’m not particularly interested in making full sewing tutorials. But I’d maybe like to make some sewing vlogs. The reason I chose zines as my niche is because I make zines about everything. I make zines about process, as documentary. My book started life as a zine!

So yes, I’ll be filming some sewing today. I don’t know if it’ll be a YouTube video or an Instagram Reel, but it’s content. It’s process. It might promote my book one day. Or it might live in my Photos app forever.

Everything is content.

The video I’m working on for Saturday is about making during the pandemic, or rather, not making. How my relationship with making has changed. But I’m finding some excitement and energy for sewing again, and I want to share that. (Good thing it’s gonna be good promo for my book.) Eventually, the cycle of my life will come back around to baking, too. I’ll never give it up completely, even if I’m not doing the market this summer.

I’ve had this same problem my whole life. My degree is called General Studies because I couldn’t pick a major. Can that be my niche, too?