Guys, I’m going to do a little report on my break from the internet soon, but let’s just say: a) it was not overly successful, but b) it was totally necessary for me to not blog/Facebook/Pinterest for that first week of September, and c) taking that much time away from my blog doesn’t make me feel good.
Do you know what does make me feel good? Conquering an extremely frustrating project. Let me give you some context on this dress. Before sewing this dress, the extent of the sewing I’d done was cutting out two tubes of fabric and sewing three seams to make this skirt, and practicing seams on scraps of fabric. That’s all.
Turns out, there’s a *ton* of knowledge that one needs to follow a sewing pattern. That includes knowing how to even read the pattern, how to pin pattern pieces to the fabric properly, what all those funny marks on the paper mean, what to do when your sewing machine (inevitably) jams, how to finish seams, etc, etc, etc. And this is all basic stuff! Despite my stubbornness (“I’m going to sew a dress, darn it!”), I had actually chosen a relatively simple pattern – it’s just that there’s still so much I didn’t know how to do.
So how did I manage? I yelled at my pattern a lot (wish I was exaggerating). I would take the pattern one sentence at a time, and sometimes half a sentence. I called my mom about how to cut out fabric. I Googled everything and watched a lot of Youtube videos. I Googled some more. I tentatively followed the steps.
It was a bit of a meditation, actually. I was really eager to be finished the project (as I always am), but I couldn’t really rush this one. Every time I tried to rush, I’d almost mess up, and I’d have to remind myself that I wanted to do a good job, and that I needed to focus. #lifelessons
Trust me, nobody was more amazed (or motivated) than I was when I saw this dress start to take shape. Every time I finished a step it looked slightly more wearable, and it made me giddy. And guess what? Now that it’s finished, it really is wearable – and I’ve actually worn it! Success!
I bought my pattern from Simplicity, it’s called Misses’ Dresses. The one I made is called the Diplomat dress. I think the pattern was good, but I will never again buy a printable pattern – the system was not easy to use to download it, and it was so much extra work to print, cut, and tape together the pattern pieces. I picked out my fabric at Fabricville because it was cotton, and because it was pink polka-dotted.
I have to say that although this was without a doubt the most frustrating of my 10 DIYs this year, it is also probably my favourite. I am really proud to have accomplished it, and opened the door (to myself) to make more sewing patterns. Not that bad once you get the hang of it!
I’ve completed 10 DIY projects this year! To see the others, click here.
