I decided that I should make a dress for the small cousin who will be the flowergirl at our wedding. I thought to myself that really it couldn't be that difficult. First, I went to the fabric store and found a so-called easy pattern. They lure you in with a brand-name of "Simplicity."
Here's a play-by-play of my Monday night in Topeka, making a practice version of what may someday be the real dress. Warning: this is super-exciting stuff. Hold on to your hats.
I was encouraged at my mastery over the first two steps of this project:
Step 1 - Wash the fabric.
Step 2: Dry the fabric. (This was my favorite activity.)
But after that, things got tricky. I probably called Jonathan's mom at least five times with different questions - and that was only after re-reading the entire contents of my pattern envelope and consulting a "Sewing Basics" book that Jonathan's aunt got when she realized the sad state of my sewing skills. The next few steps proceeded slowly and painfully.
Step 3: Lay out the pattern and cut the fabric.
Step 4: Figure out the sewing machine.
Step 5: Put it all together. This step involved gathering fabric, which wasn't nearly as stressful as I had anticipated. I did manage to crush my gathers when I sewed the top and the bottom together, though. And the finished result looks way too big to me. I guess that's why this is the trial run.
But in the end, I took a bunch of fabric and made it into something (almost, but not quite yet) wearable. That's pretty cool. I can try anything once.
