Crafting can be a great hobby: making something with your hands is a great source of pride for many people. The arts and crafts market is a testament to how popular DIY hobbies are. In 2021, online sales for art and craft supplies, for example, were over $15.7 billion.
Sadly, not all crafting ideas result in something stunning every single time. As a casual knitter, I admit I have made some atrocious socks and even gifted them to friends for Christmas. My only hope is that they never shared them on the “That’s It, I’m Craft Shaming!” Facebook group. And if they did, well… let’s look for them here!
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OK shame away, I spent a lot of hours making my wedding bouquet, I have to say I was rather proud of my efforts, what do you think?.
If I’ve learned one thing in my quest to find new hobbies as an adult, it’s that practice makes you better. I, too, have once looked at acrafttutorial and thought: “Pfft, I can do that. Flawlessly. On the first try.” But that’s just one of my toxic traits, I guess. You have to try and fail many times before actually making something beautiful.
Having a hobby in the crafts realm also has benefits to our mental health. Research shows that it can help usmanage stressbetter. When we do crafts or art in a group, it alsomakes us feelmore connected to society.
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During Covid lockdowns I saw something online about sending a family friend a “hug”. It was made out of card like a mini strip of paper with hands cut out the ends and it was a bit basic.
I decided I can sew (kinda!) and I can upscale this to make a “hug” out of fabric that was based on my own hands and arm span for hug length.
Gave it to my parents. Think I also gave them nightmares
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This is from about 7 years ago. A friend got me the kit as a fun pick-me-up, and I unintentionally made horrors with it
“But how can I feel zen when everything I try to craft turns out trash?” you may ask. Well, that has to do with us always reaching for perfection. Your first (or second, or tenth, or hundredth, for that matter) craft doesn’t have to be perfect. In other words, it’s more about the journey than the result, if you will.
In fact, in some cases, makingbad craftsmight even be more therapeutic. Sam Reece, the mind behind S****y Craft Club, can attest to that. The community she started is all about gluing beads and rhinestones onto everything and anything. Reece calls it “low-budget, high-impact crafts.”
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I wish I would have known about this before I got rid of most of our stuffed animals.
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I was pretty excited about this awful chicken I made. I tried the Poppy the chicken pattern. My husband calls it Poopy the chicken, Poppy’s uglier cousin
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Some call Sam’s crafting club “lightly unhinged,” butshe saysit’s a way for her to explore her relationship with perfectionism and do her best to make art enjoyable again. To those who attend the club meetings, perhaps, it’s something similar as well.
Sam started Craft Club in 2019 when she was feeling “creatively burnt out” by her everyday job. She started organizing club meetings in Brooklyn, and when the pandemic hit, it went, in her own words, “modestly viral” on TikTok.
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I volunteer at a thrift shop and I kept this doll head and some cords from a damaged gift bag and made this abomination.
My mom hates it.
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‘Used a broken Smart TV to replace the glass top of my patio set.’
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Reece claims bad crafts help her heal her inner child. “With every [crappy] craft I make, Kid Sam is right there—reminding me to play, to make art that’s just for me, and at the very least, to just create something. Because when we’re dealing with [crappy] crafts, it’s not important that it’s perfect—it’s important that you made it.”
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Back away from the needles, honey
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But what about the times we intend to make something good and it ends up looking horrible? Well, sometimes, you just gotta accept that you’ll make some duds. Blogger Felicia of The Craft Sessionwritesthat sometimes projects just fail. She asks her readers to look for joy in theirfailed projects.
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WHY?
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This woman is asking $160 for her “creations” since she uses seashells and semi-precious stones.
I feel like this could be done by a 7 years old. Mind you, she did social studies in Uni, but failed to impress her teachers so she decided to devote her self to her “passion”, painting.
Felicia writes how she makes a conscious decision to feel joy about being wrong. “This is not a reframing where we are trying to make a pile of elephant dung be a cookie. But rather, it is a cookie that, upon first glance, can look like elephant dung.” Failure teaches us something, she says.
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$80 dollars… and you can see what looks like hot glue all over it.
Underselling yourself.
What in the fuck lol
I think we may be overselling the audacity.
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She also touches upon an interesting subject: that we take failure way too personally. When we fail at something, even at crocheting a granny square, for example, we think this says something about us as a person. That we’re not capable enough, that we’re too dumb, or that we just don’t have the talent. In reality, mistakes are opportunities to grow.
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Genuinely just saw this on FB marketplace
Craft blogger Cintia of My Poppet alsowritesthat we sometimes tend to be harsher on ourselves than we need to be. She invites crafters to ask themselves: “Is this reallya fail?”
“Just because you don’t love it doesn’t mean someone else won’t,” she says.
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“Meat Ball” earrings or what?
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From a more practical perspective, there can be lots of reasons your DIY craft failed. Some projects (especially when you’re a beginner) need a lot of attention to detail. Sometimes, we might overlook instructions, swap the listed supplies for something we have at home, or just be in too much of a rush. Slow but steady wins the race, y’all.
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It’s definitely better than I could do but.. yikess
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Found on Etsy
So, which craft fails did you like the most, Pandas? Have you ever made something so atrocious it was worth shaming online? If you’re brave enough, come forward and show us your bad crafts! Perhaps I should share my pathetic attempt at making paper bag snowflakes with you? But maybe let’s leave that for the next time.