Dress Disaster!

Have you ever had one of those projects where you have in your head just exactly how you want something to look? Add to that a deadline for which your really excited. You work quite focused to reach these goals. And then... then it doesn't come out exactly how you envisioned it. In fact by the time you're done you've been looking at the fabric for so long that your nearly cross eyed and you can't decide if it even looks pretty and vintage like you thought or if it somehow turned japanese kimono/ old lady night gown before your very eyes.

This is what happened to me this week. I'm leaving tomorrow for a weekend conference on writing. I wanted a new dress (the one I talked about briefly here) to wear to this conference. I wanted to look quirky, vintage, and trim all at the same time. Oh heavens, today when I finally stitched the last hem and pressed the last seam I couldn't even tell if I liked it. I can't tell if it looks good! I might have cried a little (but in my defense I was also really hungry and it's so gloomy here I'm suffering from a lack of vitamin D).

I took a few pictures (because of course it was the topic of today's blog) and then put it away. Maybe tomorrow with fresh eyes, a cardigan, and new boots I'll feel differently. Maybe tomorrow instead of it looking like a nightgown it will look Madeline in Paris like I intended.

Sewing can so mirror life, can't it? You have a vision in your head and plans and sometimes it just doesn't turn out the way you wanted it to. Sewing has such risk involved, you can't truly know how something will look, fit, feel, match until it's made, until you've already put in all that time. And I think maybe it's a good thing, maybe it helps us handle those bigger life issues where things didn't turn out the way we wanted them too. But, there's still learning; I'm still a better seamstress then when I started this dress (I did a successful full bust adjustment and I drafted my own collar). And, maybe, if you layer a cardigan over your new-made dress, then maybe, just maybe, it will turn out, just in a different way then you had intended.

More pics to come once I've gotten some things to help it out.  If your looking to sew your own dress might I suggest this pattern available in our online shop: It's the Monique pattern from Serendipity Studios.  I made this dress and I wear it all the time.

Find the Pattern Here.

That's the pattern above and this is me in the dress.
An actual success, I just had to show you that not all
of my projects end in tears (this one ended up in Jamaica!)

Also check out our Pinterest Board Apparel filled with all sorts of good ideas.
I hope your sewing and your life is filled with good stitches.
Happy Sewing
Love, Jessie