The morning started off a little rocky, it was another rainy day and they had spent all of the day before cooped up inside the house, the sun did eventually come out but they were antsy until it did. I sat down behind the sewing machine and started removing the zipper from the dress. Once the zipper was out I laid out the fabric laid out the hot pink part of the pattern and shorted the dress to what it should have been from the start, from the top of the hot pink not the bottom.

With the dress now shortened, I had to open the seam, re-sew in the zipper and tackle the challenge of “gathering” the fabric. First that meant watching a video because I honestly have no idea what “gathering the fabric” even meant. The video was simple and quick and I thought, “Oh! That doesn’t seem so bad”, but by the team I snapped my fourth piece of thread near the end of gathering an entire side of the dress I was ready to throw the damn thing in the garbage and buy a dress off of eBay.

My mother encouraged me, my husband reminded me it just takes practice and I just needed to take a breath. So I did, I fed the kids lunch, I ate some lunch myself and by the time we were done the sun had come out. The kids headed outside and I sat back down behind my sewing machine convincing myself I could do this. I added the stitches grabbed the bottom threads and started gathering again. Then it happened, snap the thread broke – but this time in a way I could actually salvage.

I fussed and fiddled and finally I had done it I gathered the dress and looked at my dress ready for a waist band. I felt triumphant. I felt like I could cheer but then I sewed on the waist band and remembered I’m still learning. It was a good peg knock down.

I laughed to myself, unstitched my mistakes, re-sewed the waist band and brought it down to finally try it on. Here’s a moment of truth – how was I at measuring?

Let’s just say I can’t gain anything – if anything I’ll need to focus on losing a bit – wish me luck there.

I moved on to the overskirt – a rolled hem, I’ve done this before so I was comfortable and confident as I sewed the hem and then added the lace only to realize I have to gather this fabric too. I fought that battle once today, I wasn’t ready to fight it again, so I finished up, and hung the dress on the mannequin – with a bigger petti coat it’s starting to come together.