A tale of two dresses

A few months ago, or longer I am not great at keeping time, I decided to make a dress. This is the tale of two dresses. One I used a pattern for and the other well I found on Pinterest.

This is the pinspiration, you can find the tutorial Here

This is what the Pin said:
Tutorial: How to make an easy dress for under 6 bucks!
This dress takes less than an hour and is so comfortable!

Before  I show you my version of this dress I just want to point out a few things. The girl in the photo made this tutorial. She is a very pretty girl.  She is stick thin. I am not at all, I have child baring hips and more than a few extra pounds hanging around...Her dresses are super cute on her. That is why I tried it for myself.

I had a stain on this tank top right at the bottom so I was more than willing to turn it into something cute and wearable. I took the the tank top to Hobby Lobby and found some cute fabric that kind of matched it. I spent $12 at most for everything. Then I spent four hours wrestling with the fabric and the tank top. I would sew it rip out the stitches and resew. It is hard to pin stuff onto yourself, it is hard to cut a straight line after you pin it to yourself and take it off. This is how my dress came out.

I actually really like this picture. The dress doesn't look bad here with the sash.

This is the horrible truth behind the sash.

I have to admit I was really put off and frustrated. I bought a few patterns and a craftsy class and decided to try again.

This is the pattern I used. View D is my dress.

I made a muslin of the dress first.

 

Here is Pinny modeling the muslin copy. 

Then I spread out the muslin pieces and began cutting the fabric.

I had to rearrange the pieces at least three times to make sure everything was being cut out right.

Then I sewed

and checked and ripped out the seems and sewed again.

I finally finished the dress. There are a few minor things that I am not sure how to fix but Oh My Gosh I made a dress!

The lesson I learned from these two dresses is this: It is worth it to put the time and the effort in to any project. When I started that first dress I thought thirty minutes was reasonable and I just got cranky and beat myself up. When I started the second dress I went knowing that it was going to be a long process. It was easier to deal with my mistakes and to fix them too. Also sometimes failing is just a lesson in reality. Never be afraid to make mistakes it is how we learn and grow as people. Plus if you never have that epic fail staring at you then you don't have it as a reference. I can do better than that first dress. So can you. Go try something you have always wanted to try. You can do it and you can be great with time and effort. Now I am off to start another dress...

I hope your day is filled with inspiration, love, and laughter. Be well my friends.