Tuesday, October 17, 2006

WAY out of the comfort zone

Wow, I knew it had been a long time since I'd posted something here, but I didn't realize that it's been close to three weeks! I guess consecutive bouts of chicken pox will do that. There's another reason why I haven't posted though. I tackled a project that was way out of my comfort zone. This doesn't have to do with scrapping or stamping, but it does have to do with the craft of sewing.

Let me preface this by saying that I DON'T SEW! LOL! About three weeks ago, I took my girls to a shop that was supposed to carry the white dresses that they need for special days at school. The shop had one dress. ONE! It was also one that neither of the girls would wear, and I really couldn't blame them. So okay, I've tried regular stores for these dresses and have never been successful, not to mention that this isn't the time of year to find white dresses in stores anyway. My fallback plan has always been my Mom, who CAN sew and who has made dresses for the girls before. Minor detail--my Mom is not at home as she's helping my sister with her baby. That was out. Finding a seamstress was one more option, but time was already short. In desperation, I looked at the school's list of approved patterns for dresses. Hm, some of them actually say the word, 'easy', on them. Another one says, 'less than 2 hours'. I could already feel the nuts and bolts coming loose in my head. Soon I was talking myself into tackling this project myself. Never mind that I DON'T SEW!

How hard can this be? You buy the pattern. It tells you how much fabric you need and all that, so you can buy that, too. You lay out the pattern on the fabric, cut out the pieces, sew 'em together. Sounds simple, right? Sure! I made sure that there were no buttons, no zippers, no weirdness of any kind on the dress. Should be just simple piecing together. I'd just ignore the fact that blood from needlesticks on white fabric could be a pain, in more ways than one. I mean, I don't think that I need to assume that I have to stick myself EVERY time that I use a needle, eh?

The girls' bouts of chicken pox ended up being timely. I was forced to stay home, which gave me LOTS of time to work on these dresses. They need them this Friday. I finished them today. Yes, I actually did manage to pull this off. No bleeding or anything! And yes, I finished with time to spare, despite the fact that I don't sew. My sewing machine has been used to put Girl Scout patches on vests and sashes. It's been used once or twice for crafting. I can now say that I've made actual clothes and they turned out okay! Even my girls pronounced them fit to wear! I'll just add in here that crafting did come in handy. I found some fun lace/sequin appliques to put on the dresses. Hooray for the craft iron and fusible webbing!

Here are the dresses....
Whew! Now that that crazy project is behind me, I can get back to what I really enjoy doing--stamping!

6 comments:

  1. You did a beautiful job. I love the one with the sash around the middle. Much better than I could have done! I bet your glad its over.

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  2. You did a fabulous job, Jay! WOW! And I am LOL @ your "no buttons, no zippers, no wierdness of any kind" comment! :) I can totally relate. Sewing REALLY intimidates me! My mother was a seamstress (not professionally, like her grandmother was, but she certainly could've been!) and sometimes I wonder if that's where my sense of insecurity about the craft comes from, but i just can't get into it. Maybe one of these days I'll give it a shot... probably on some fail-safe curtains or something. You know... "no buttons, no zippers, no weirdness of any kind..." LOL ;)

    Hope the pox has finally vacated your premises. Take comfort in knowing you did a fantastic job on these dresses! Hopefully they won't be your last! :)

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  3. WOW! for not sewing you are a master! the dresses are BEAUTIFUL!
    sorry about the chicken pox - been there - done that and it isn't fun!

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  4. They look fabulous!! Good job.

    Mary :O)

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  5. Can you make a dress for me? LOL I swear I keep saying I'm going to learn to sew so that I can make my own clothes that fit perfectly :)

    Hope the Chicken pox have left...I'm waiting for them to pass through here. Usually happens in Kindergarten right?

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  6. Thanks for the comments! I'm hoping that it will a long time before I have to tackle another sewing project! Weirdness or not! LOL!

    Also, Stacy, we got chicken pox late here. Might be because the girls both had the vaccine, but they're 4th and 6th grade. And just FYI, it seems that the American Academy of Pediatrics is changing their recommendations for the vaccine and that the kids who got/get it will likely all need boosters--too many kids like mine getting break-through cases. I don't have to worry about that anymore though. Whew!

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