Find inspiration for something cute on Pinterest. Think, "I HAVE to make this!" Click through to the tutorial. Super, super easy! Go to the store and buy fabric. Promise yourself you won't start til later in the week once you are caught up on _____. Pull out your scissors as soon as you get home, hoping to have a new shirt/skirt/dress to wear by the end of the afternoon.
And then.
Your sewing machine does crazy things like pucker the fabric, making it appear that your tension is WAY too tight, even though it is on the lowest setting, you have changed the needle and are indeed using the correct one, and re-threaded the top thread and the bobbin numerous times. With a normal cotton broadcloth - it's not like we're sewing taffeta here or something! You curse at the machine (in your head) and vow to move your "new treadmill" money into a "new sewing machine" account.
And then the puckering magically stops long enough for you to get a few stitches in. You look at the tutorial you found on Pinterest again to make sure you are doing the "ruffling/gathering" thing right. She makes it look so easy. "Now, sew two rows of basting stitches and gather!" She didn't mention that it might take 15 minutes, and that you will worry the whole time that you will break the thread because you are pulling SO HARD.
They you pin the "gathered fabric" to the waistband. You pat yourself on the back and even take a picture because this is the FIRST project you have ever pinned, because you are so incredibly lazy. But because you are actually pinning, the sewing angels must descend upon your project and make it turn out fabulously. You deserve it.
And then you sew it. And it just does. not. turn. out. Gold star for effort! But no gold star for getting other fabric stitched up in it accidentally. You rip out your work and try again, rolling your eyes and grumbling about how you knew pinning was a waste of time. You flip it inside out. It looks GREAT! Except that you didn't match the fabric up correctly that time, so the waistband is right-side-out and the rest of the skirt is inside-out.
You tear it out again and give up the idea of a different-colored waistband. A simple piece of elastic will do, you just need this skirt DONE, dang it! And then, your machine stops catching the bobbin thread again, and no amount of re-threading will fix it.
You come to the sad realization that you wasted your entire afternoon and got about 15 minutes worth of actual sewing done. And you still have to do that homework you ignored. You could cry, or eat too much chocolate, and you are thinking about how satisfying beating the sewing machine with a metal baseball bat would be right about now...
And then you see this Hey Girl meme.
And feel completely justified in your righteous anger. So glad he understands.
So, this happened to me yesterday.
I may or may not have cut the front pattern piece of a dress out upside down (the print on the fabric went the opposite way as the rest of the dress) and got it entirely sewn together before I realized the mistake. Luckily I always over-buy my fabric so I had enough to fix the mistake, but I won't be making a knee-length skirt like I'd thought I might with the leftover fabric.
ReplyDeleteIt would be really funny if it weren't so doggone frustrating. Ah the allure and torture of sewing. I'm wanting to sew myself some long and knee length knit foldover skirts but am just a little apprehensive about following the "it's just that simple" tutorials. It just seems like no matter how many times I measure, figure, refigure, and remeasure, I always end up making some kind of mistake. And yet I continue to sew... interesting...
So did you end up with a skirt or not? I want to see a picture.
Oh, how frustrating about the dress!!! Glad you were able to fix it, but still, to have to do all that work over again!? Ugh.
DeleteI know the exact skirts you are talking about, haha! I found a "SUPER EASY: make a knit skirt out of a men's XL t-shirt!" tutorial last summer and tried it and it just flopped. I just ordered 2 from Old Navy the other day because I decided I wasn't sewing for a while. And then I found these pictures and just HAD to try these so-easy skirts. ;)
I didn't end up finishing it. Hopefully I will get some time this week to figure out the waistband/elastic. I got tired of re-threading and the bobbin thread still not catching the right way! My machine is just temperamental. The longer I go without sewing, the more trouble I have, and it's definitely been a LONG time!