Tag Archives: failure

August 4, 2013
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Failure: Everybody’s Doing It

I was on the wrong end of a giant project fail this past weekend. I thought I’d branch out a bit and test my sewing skills by trying to make a “simple” shift dress, but it was a complete disaster. I couldn’t find a pattern at the fabric store that I liked, so I thought I would just take apart a t-shirt that fit me pretty well and use that as a dress pattern. I obviously planned on lengthening the t-shirt a bit to make the dress because I’m not a Walmart lady-of-the-night that just goes out in a t-shirt and no pants. Although when I realized that there was only a six-inch difference between the t-shirt length and my desired dress length, I did have to take pause and think about my life choices. I concluded (like anyone would) that this particular t-shirt was in fact a very long t-shirt, and the thus the small different between my shirt and skirt lengths made total logical sense.

Anyways, I spent about 5 hours trying to sew, what should have been, an adorably short black and white buffalo plaid dress with leather sleeves (don’t you already want one too?!?), but I ended up tired and sad at two in the morning when I realized a few things: One, I’m not sure I can sew a dress that I have the correct pattern for. Two, I definitely cannot sew a dress that I completely made up a pattern for. Three, this dress will never see the light of day.

Charlie (our cat) also almost died at the hands of this project after she sprinted up to the dress and grabbed a straight pin in her mouth. I yelled so loud in horror that, thankfully, she dropped the pin and all cats were well (although one human in particular was shaken up).

Anyway, the point is I tried something new and I totally failed. I hated that feeling of being exhausted from working so hard on something and having absolutely nothing usable to show for all my time and effort- it’s the worst. But you know what? I know where to buy more fabric and more leather, and I’m determined to find a pattern that will work for me.

Today’s moral: don’t allow failure to stop you completely- just let it be the pause button while you regroup and gather a new plan of attack before pressing play again.

I don’t know what small or giant obstacles you might be facing, but I plan on wearing a fabulous plaid dress with leather sleeves this fall, no matter how many more times I have to try.

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