Salvaging a Wadder

Ouch. This one's not pretty. It started with Tasia's Las Margarita Dress, which I absolutely adore, and upon close inspection it seemed like a silhouette that would work well for me. Well, about 10 million hours later, I had to toss it aside in pure frustration.


If you're like my parents and want to say, "Weeeeeell, it's not that bad ..." my reply will point to great hypocrisy on my end. I'd probably say that to a blog friend too [especially seeing only a photograph and not in person]. But for myself, I know I'd never wear this monster.

First of all, we've got these great mini-Madonna bust darts going here, which is something I don't quite understand since I cut/graded a size with 1" ease in the bust area, except what I think is going on is that I need a greater petite upper chest adjustment which would lift the entire upper bodice and smooth out a lot of those fit issues [muslim, that's what a muslim is for!!!] Also, it's strangely baggy in the bust area for something that's only supposed to have 1" ease [user error: I don't think I was sewing at exactly 5/8" SA].

Probably my greatest error was deciding to underline this instead of interfacing it - and choosing a stiff thrifted duvet cover to underline a soft, floppy suiting fabric. *Facepalm.* What IS that, Jessica??? So sometimes I say that I'm a very tactile learner - I learn by doing, and I learn fastest by MAKING MISTAKES and then going, oh geez, I don't think I was supposed to do that. Ten gazillion hours of my life, gone.


Probably the biggest reason I'd never wear it, though, is that this dress makes me feel fat. There, I've said it. I know we're supposed to be in some post-modern age where feeling empowered via handmade trumps societally-imposed standards of beauty and whatnot, but honestly I don't like wearing clothes that make me feel bad about myself, Me Made or otherwise. So I chucked it.

And then meekly retrieved it from the garbage can [all right, from the floor]. Because one thing I'd noticed about the pattern was that it had a really nice, full skirt, and even though I've made myself a squillion skirts already, I don't have a plain gray A-line skirt that would look inconspicuous in an office. So I unpicked the skirt, re-stay-stitched with quilting cotton selvedges, reinserted the zipper, inserted the lining the wrong way and decided I didn't care anymore because we were at the ten gazillion and two point five hour timepoint, and the hemmed it up.


Much better.


Still as twirly.