I finally finished the dress I started working on before Easter. It had been draped across the ironing board in my craft room, un-hemmed, for over a month. Every time I ventured upstairs to grab a roll of tape or a tube of glue from my craft closet, the dress mocked me with its raw, ragged hem. I finished every other sewing step, including what seemed like miles of tedious hand stitching on the lining, back in April. But the hem remained untouched.
The Husband frequently had to remove the dress from the ironing board so that he could press his pants for work in the morning, and I unrelentingly returning it to its spot on the board so that it could continue to taunt me with its incomplete state. I must be a glutton for punishment.
Finally, this weekend, after purchasing the materials to make another dress, I decided that I had to end the battle of wills with my Easter dress once and for all. I had to hem it. It took me all of fifteen minutes.
I found myself wondering why it had taken me so long to complete this final, menial step. It wasn't difficult by any stretch of the imagination; there had been steps far more complicated involving lining and under stitching and zippers that had caused me much more aggravation. It certainly wasn't time consuming.
I think the lack of a firm deadline slowed my progress to a halt. After we learned that The Husband would be traveling to Mexico on Easter Sunday, and we determined that our original plan to attend church Easter morning wouldn't be feasible with his flight schedule, it just wasn't important to finish my new Easter dress in time for an event we wouldn't be attending. And so on the ironing board, almost-finished, my dress hung for nearly two months.
Now that I'm finished, and I have worn the dress for longer than a two minute try on, there are some things that I know I would change should I decide to make this pattern again. For one, the pattern measurements lead me to believe that I needed to build in two sizes worth of ease in order for the dress to fit my curvy hind-end. This caused the proportions of the skirt and midriff to look "off" in comparison with the bodice. Additionally, the bodice itself is a bit large (even though I made the size that my measurements dictated), which causes the sleeves to droop on my shoulders. I spent most of the day hitching up my shoulders and tucking in my bra straps. Annoying.
For my first real go at intensive apparel construction as an adult, I think my dress turned out pretty well. Even if it did give me a serious case of hem guilt. I'm going to be talking to my therapist about this for years.
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