Remember that favorite little black summer dress of mine from my WEEK 145: Weekend-Engagement prompt - One piece post? Yeah, that one. Well, I figured.. what if I attempted to copy-paste it..?
Well, ok, fair, my thought process was not as straightforward. It all started with a different fabric, that I just saw in my eyes as a cute summer dress, but taking into consideration the complexity of the design (for my near non-existent levels of sewing skills), the limited amount of fabric, and the unforgiving nature of said fabric.. as excited and inspired as I was by THAT project.. I figured I needed something more manageable to start off with.
That if I could successfully pull off a relatively simpler project to start my sewing journey off with, then I could go on and attempt the more complex one, riding the 'look at me, I CAN get something done after all' wave. THAT was my thought process.
At the back of my mind I have always known that I wanted to learn how to sew properly. But up until now it just hadn't been the right time. My only experience being that from primary school lessons. Which I did enjoy in all fairness.
And 
Now, mind you, growing up, I've also had a different 'role model' for sewing.. one that gets easily frustrated, hates the process, needs everything done ASAP, and takes it personally if even after giving it the best effort the end result still does not look PERFECT!
Here's to not taking on someone else's patterns, but building and discovering your own personal relationships with the process instead!
There are some valuable lessons that I have taken on for myself by observing however.. and those are as follows -
1. Most importantly - remain calm!
2. Ensure you have everything prepared and tested beforehand.
3. Do not rush it. Take your sweet ass time to know for sure you're not making any mistakes.
4. Be patient and meticulous. If you cut corners, it'll show.
I did run into some early problems, like not having the proper thread and the proper needle for the sewing machine to work with this particular fabric. Do not kill me for not knowing fabrics yet, I'm but learning. I'll get there eventually. But this was a stretchy t-shirt kind of fabric so I ran the risk of stretching it out too much whilst sewing, which would end up in wavy seams.
I did feel like I was getting into the sweet sweet hyperfocus zone with this project, which is always nice, but I did have some other things in between that I had to attend to and that ended up chopping up my flow state a bit, but it worked out nicely in the end either way as I did not lose the pull to the project. I started it on 4th of May and finished yesterday the 7th of May.
Don't get me wrong, this in NOT a well-sown dress by any stretch of the imagination!
But it's mine. I actually finished it. It exists.. where it was not before. Granted it is also NOT an exact copy of the original. I also opted out of sleaves at the end as I did not want to mess it up right at the end.. but.. hey..
It does look cute if I do say so myself!
Shall we attempt to style it and see how it looks on?
It is tiny, I have to admit. But I had limited fabric to work with.. and I promise not to go in public with it. ;)
