Progress

I feel very successful tonight.  It’s just after midnight, and Ihave made a lot of progress on my Halloween costume. An awful lot.

I found this pattern at the thrift store a few weeks ago for a quarter.  It was made for me. Literally.  My mom has made dozens of dresses for me over the years.  Formals, and not so formals, and dresses for church, and my wedding dress.  And not one of the patterns she used fit me as it was written.  She was always making modifications and taking things in and making adjustments.  But this one?  This one fits perfectly as is.  Like a glove.  It’s a miracle.  Nothing like making your first dress with the only pattern on the planet that you have a chance of being totally successful at without changing everything.  Of course, I went and changed everything anyway.

Tonight I successfully installed my first zipper.  Maybe you don’t realize how big of a deal this is.  I’m a button girl.  In my former life I’d do 20 buttons rather than a zipper anyday.  But thanks to some serious moral support from my mom… I hit this zipper right out of the park.  Home run.  Hey, don’t laugh.  It’s a big deal..  I’ve been afraid of them forever.  Like I said, I am was a button girl.

I also successfully drafted a new sleeve for this dress and set both of them in.  I’ve never made a dress for an adult, just for small girls and babies.  I can’t believe how much easier sewing big sleeves is.  I just had so much space in there to work with!

Of course, the night wasn’t completely successful.  Less than 30 seconds after I plugged in my iron, it felt warm, so I attempted to iron out a small crease.  Ha, very funny.  Scorched.  Melted.  Burned Black and Crispy.  Apparently my iron spikes it’s temperature and then cools off to the correct setting.  Ah well, I was able to work around it and it wasn’t a total loss.  A few steps forward, but only one step back.  I’m going to try and put the facing in the neck of my dress before I go to bed.  I drank a gallon of Dr. Pepper at dinner and I don’t think I’ll sleep for days.  Which is fine.  I’ll need that time to finish things up.  I’ve got a costume party on Thursday and I’d really like to go without any pins holding my costume together.  Of course, I’m not totally against that either.

*PS- Taking pictures at midnight sucks.  But it had to be done.  I am just so proud of that zipper, and those sleeves.