One barrier I traversed earlier in life was that of sewing. As a child, both my sister and I were dragged before the school principal for creating disturbance in sewing class. Why? We both couldn't be bothered to thread a needle, or play with bits of raffia and weave them into a mat. We couldn't be bothered worrying about whether a piece of embroidery was done as finely as possible to enhance its creative output.
Then, as an older teenager, I allowed my mother to enrol me in a two-day course on sewing your own garment, and I made my first whole garment from scratch, from a pattern. After that, I went to night school, and did a lot of sewing at home. I applied for a wardrobe mistresses position in amateur theatre, and I well remember this was before I was very familiar with a sewing machine. I did not know what the bobbin was for. However, I went on and did some paid work with both the West Australian and New Zealand ballet companies, in their wardrobe departments. I also made myself a red velvet evening dress, for which I got complimented by John Bell, of Bell Shakespeare fame.
At one point, soon after I left home, I bought two contrasting bolts of cloth, a fine corduroy, in tan and deep blue. I hand cut out geometric designs (similar to a harlequin pattern) and hand stitched a dress, which ended up looking very medieval, and not fitting me because I hadn't worked out the sizing or applied science to my method! But I learned how to put the colours together in the pattern I wanted.
Then I realised, later on my journey, that the block I had had against sewing in my youth had been due to a past life in the Middle Ages where I had been a tailor. That was the reason I felt so pushed to complete the medieval costume in full, so the creation could be completed here in the 3rd dimension.
One of my earliest efforts was Turkish bell bottomed pants (the type that swish out in fat pantaloons); and also a long cotton top with extensive hanging scallops for the hemline. I feel like I unconsciously visited some of my past lives and made all the fashions of the times.
Then I pushed on and did a couple of decades of sewing every weekend and in my spare time, making all my clothes, and doing it for others, including an attempt at a wedding dress (which worked out OK!) I even made my own clothes to wear to my own wedding, which was a pair of pants and a styled jacket.
I sewed a yin/yang duvet cover for my driving instructor and used it as payment. I sewed a beautiful silk skirt for a lady who gave me accommodation in Adelaide. I did sewing repairs for $5 a time while living on Stewart Island for some months. I just walked up to the homes of the ladies on the island and did the hand sewing in their dining rooms, and this kept me in food.
Another time, when I was 22 and had been doing secretarial work for 7 years, I decided it was time for a career change and I got a job in a high fashion house in Surry Hills, Sydney, which was to sew items for retail on a commercial sewing machine. But due to a mix up, arriving for my first day one day early, I didn't know the fashion industry had fixed holidays over January, and I met the boss and helped him with a secretarial problem. After that, he wouldn't let me work in the sewing section and wanted me to be his secretary. I didn't accept that offer, and went home crying on the bus, since I felt my skill at typing was blocking me from a great career in sewing.
Today, I've done so much sewing in my life, I can't be bothered with doing any more of it with a machine (still own a good machine and an overlocker); but I still do hand sewing repairs for my charity work, which takes up about 10 hours a week.
So yeah, I pushed past a boundary/barrier that I thought was a Mount Everest at the time I was made to do sewing at school.