Big mistakes can yield positive results

Instead of going into a really long rant about how I almost ruined my dress by cutting a hole in the top just above the elastic lace and nearly scrapped the whole thing altogether, I'm going to write a quick explaination and then eat some dinner.

Today I finally felt well enough to start working on finishing my first dress, which I can't say is my favorite, but that's because I made a lot of changes that led to mistakes that led to it not fitting exactly how I wanted it. I hemmed the bottom (very easy), took the top in a couple inches (hence the line down the back of the dress) and then started on the ruffle. I looked at a tutorial video on how to do this, and it was just as easy as she had said. I simply cut the fabric 3 times the length of the neckline (hemming that as well) and then sewed it on using a scrunch every inch. It worked really well and I'm very happy with how it turned out. It added the little extra to the neckline that I was looking for, and it doesn't look like an amateur did it...which of course, is exactly what happened. And being an amateur is exactly why I almost killed my dress and gave up the project as a bad job.

My boyfriend agreed with me that the straps were frumpy and needed to be thinned. I did this by folding over more fabric and sort of sewing a new hemline along the arms. I just eyeballed this, and one was slightly bigger than the other. *sigh* I went back and fixed that too. I wasn't feeling quite as good as I thought I was, and was getting pretty darn frustrated at this point. I quickly (seriously, have never sewn that fast!) folded over the left side and made it even with the right side and thought I was finished. After taking pictures, I decided the waistline was too low and wasn't as flattering as I would like....still.

And here is where I started half-assing the job, made a big mistake and got really, really pissed off.

I eyeballed about an inch of fabric, folding from the bustline to the waistline, and sewing them together. I did this quickly, then started cutting away the extra material. Well, I not only eyeballed just a bit too much fabric, but I also cut a hole just above the elastic lace. Argh! At this point, I threw caution to the wind and just start going at it witht the sewing machine!

Well, all turned out ok. I ended up with a dress that is a bit lower cut than I had expected, but it is definately more flattering than before. You can't really see where the hole was, but don't look on the inside of my dress...it's a hot mess. I'll probably need a cami to go under this one, at least when I'm in a more professional place. I like it though. It feels good, and maybe it will be like the blue floral skirt. A bitch to make that feels great to wear.