Pink Abomination - Part 3
Well, the Pink Abomination (PA) has taken a turn for the worse. The Crap Sieve kicked in last night, and when I cut the hemline so that it's shorter in the front than the back (per the pattern, I might add - this isn't just me getting creative!), I decided that rather than cutting straight, I'd use the flowers on the lace as edging. Suddenly, the whole thing has taken on the appearance of a skating costume. A large, two-toned pink skating costume. For an ungainly skater, or a transvestite lounge singer. I'll post pictures later, but I just wanted to prepare you for a little bit of amusement and/or dismay.
I myself am quite amused. After all, I have no intention of wearing this dress, though I fully intend to finish it and bead the lace. It's a muslin of a muslin, after all - if I don't practice my technique somewhere, I'm going to end up getting married in a reasonable facsimile of a gunny sack, since the option of just buying a dress is now completely out. If I don't follow through with making my own dress now, I won't be able to live with myself.
Karen, whose blog I stalk all the time (moi-ha-ha-ha!), commented on my last post about how she wouldn't have thought to buy fabric she didn't like in order to jumpstart a project. She's completely right - what sane person would actually buy fabric in a color they detest? Ha! The answer is a NOT SANE person!
The thing is, I have all this fabric I totally adore, but until this dress, I hadn't even managed to make myself cut out a real purchased pattern, with the exception of the blue abomination, (which I made from fabric I have to wear gloves to touch).
I was afraid to cut up any of the stuff I liked, just in case I really, truly sucked. Like, what if I couldn't cut out a pattern without ripping it with my big bear paws? What if I couldn't read the pattern at all? What if I couldn't figure out how to work the iron correctly? Stupidest fear ever, since I've been ironing military uniforms of one variety or another since I was 13 - seriously, I can pull a long-sleeved cotton uniform shirt out of a ball, from the bottom of a cold dryer, and have it on and ready to pass inspection in less than three minutes. I have many useless talents - this is one. Still, ironing a 100% cotton shirt is different from ironing pretty much anything in my stash. Other than my 100% cotton. Wow, Rachelle, ramble much?
Anyway, the PA is probably only half finished, but I already consider it a success. I cut out the pattern, which I've never done before, I cut up some fairly fancy fabric, which I've never done before, I sewed darts, which I've...well, you get the picture. I even successfully set in an invisible zipper, edited the pattern a bit so that the skirt and bodice fit better around my middle, still managed to line up the darts on the bodice and skirt (more or less), and stitched all the pieces together, all while using two very slippery fabrics. As far as I'm concerned, even if I chuck the whole thing now, I'm light years ahead of where I was seven days ago - I'm practically a whole new me!
Before PA, I was scared of every single step. I truly worried that I'd cut up some pretty fabric, get stuck somewhere, and lack the foundational skills to get unstuck. Now, I know that if I DO cut the nice fabric, I might still wreck the project, but I CAN figure it out, and I WILL be able to finish.
Anyway, as far as what's left to do, I'm going to finish the hemline, and if it DOES end up looking like a skating costume, I'm going to embrace that as a theme for the finished product, and I'm going to embellish accordingly. I still want to finish it properly, inside and out, because I need the practice, and when it's all done, I'm going to photograph it extensively, and then find someone to give it away to.
One last point - it's more to console me than to assure you - I got the fabric for the PA off the bridal fabric sale table at Fabricland, and I only needed six metres for this project - three of each fabric, though I did end up with an extra half metre of the lace, because it was destined to become a bolt-end otherwise, and the lady at the cutting table recognized me from the day I bought 66 metres of taffeta because it was on for $1.00 per metre. That's a whole other post, though. Anyway, both pink fabrics were 70% off, so between the fabric, the zipper, the bias binding, and the thread, I only spent $22.62 on this project, including tax. As far as waste goes, I can live with that. Plus, six metres in, six metres out - the stash remains in balance!
I myself am quite amused. After all, I have no intention of wearing this dress, though I fully intend to finish it and bead the lace. It's a muslin of a muslin, after all - if I don't practice my technique somewhere, I'm going to end up getting married in a reasonable facsimile of a gunny sack, since the option of just buying a dress is now completely out. If I don't follow through with making my own dress now, I won't be able to live with myself.
Karen, whose blog I stalk all the time (moi-ha-ha-ha!), commented on my last post about how she wouldn't have thought to buy fabric she didn't like in order to jumpstart a project. She's completely right - what sane person would actually buy fabric in a color they detest? Ha! The answer is a NOT SANE person!
The thing is, I have all this fabric I totally adore, but until this dress, I hadn't even managed to make myself cut out a real purchased pattern, with the exception of the blue abomination, (which I made from fabric I have to wear gloves to touch).
I was afraid to cut up any of the stuff I liked, just in case I really, truly sucked. Like, what if I couldn't cut out a pattern without ripping it with my big bear paws? What if I couldn't read the pattern at all? What if I couldn't figure out how to work the iron correctly? Stupidest fear ever, since I've been ironing military uniforms of one variety or another since I was 13 - seriously, I can pull a long-sleeved cotton uniform shirt out of a ball, from the bottom of a cold dryer, and have it on and ready to pass inspection in less than three minutes. I have many useless talents - this is one. Still, ironing a 100% cotton shirt is different from ironing pretty much anything in my stash. Other than my 100% cotton. Wow, Rachelle, ramble much?
Anyway, the PA is probably only half finished, but I already consider it a success. I cut out the pattern, which I've never done before, I cut up some fairly fancy fabric, which I've never done before, I sewed darts, which I've...well, you get the picture. I even successfully set in an invisible zipper, edited the pattern a bit so that the skirt and bodice fit better around my middle, still managed to line up the darts on the bodice and skirt (more or less), and stitched all the pieces together, all while using two very slippery fabrics. As far as I'm concerned, even if I chuck the whole thing now, I'm light years ahead of where I was seven days ago - I'm practically a whole new me!
Before PA, I was scared of every single step. I truly worried that I'd cut up some pretty fabric, get stuck somewhere, and lack the foundational skills to get unstuck. Now, I know that if I DO cut the nice fabric, I might still wreck the project, but I CAN figure it out, and I WILL be able to finish.
Anyway, as far as what's left to do, I'm going to finish the hemline, and if it DOES end up looking like a skating costume, I'm going to embrace that as a theme for the finished product, and I'm going to embellish accordingly. I still want to finish it properly, inside and out, because I need the practice, and when it's all done, I'm going to photograph it extensively, and then find someone to give it away to.
One last point - it's more to console me than to assure you - I got the fabric for the PA off the bridal fabric sale table at Fabricland, and I only needed six metres for this project - three of each fabric, though I did end up with an extra half metre of the lace, because it was destined to become a bolt-end otherwise, and the lady at the cutting table recognized me from the day I bought 66 metres of taffeta because it was on for $1.00 per metre. That's a whole other post, though. Anyway, both pink fabrics were 70% off, so between the fabric, the zipper, the bias binding, and the thread, I only spent $22.62 on this project, including tax. As far as waste goes, I can live with that. Plus, six metres in, six metres out - the stash remains in balance!
Labels: crap sieve, pink abomination
I dont know about abomination...but I cant wait to see the blue one all finished up!! The pink looks good in your last post!
And Im TOTALLY putting my 40 graphic on an inappropriate baby tee! :P :P
A cat-lady tee would be awesome! Ill put my thinkin cap on!
I think it's time for Pink Abomination - Part 4. I'm not nagging, I'm just curious.