20 lessons from my failed sewing project
I had a vision… it did not come to life like I’d hoped. This is what I learned in the process.
How to cut and sew a bodice
How to attach a scallop trim
How to add darts
How to insert a zip (in theory)
How to stop the fabric from fraying
How to iron seams so they don’t look too bulky
How to hand-sew scalloped edges together
To measure as I go
To zig zag the edges of each piece BEFORE joining them together
To cut fabric on flat surfaces (oops)
Not to rush through steps and cut corners (figuratively and literally)
Not to trim off excess fabric until I know I’ve got the seams right (another oops)
Not to spend too many hours hunched over my sewing machine at once (ouch)
Not all projects work out perfectly
I may have bitten off more than I could chew
I may have chosen the wrong fabric for this project
It’s ok to pull things apart and start again
It’s ok to abandon the project for a while
Sewing is about the process and having fun creating something from scratch
It’s ok to treat this as a prototype for a future project (when I’ll learn from all these lessons)
The full story
I saw this dress from Farm Rio on their Instagram and immediately fell in love with it, but there was no way I could spend almost 400 pounds on a dress, no matter how breathtakingly gorgeous. So I took a screenshot and saved it to my hypothetical with list for when I win the lottery or become a millionaire... ie. not going to happen.
A few weeks later during a weekend trip to Edinburgh, I was browsing in a charity shop (as I often do) and came across a green tablecloth with scalloped edges. I thought of the dress instantly and an idea started to brew... maybe I could try to recreate it? I bought the tablecloth for a fiver and carried on through the city.
Another week rolled on and I was scrolling on Vinted (a bad habit I'm trying to quell) when I came across a white tablecloth with the same scalloped edges. Surely the universe was speaking to me. I nabbed it straight away and started sketching ideas for what this dress could look like.
I took the two tablecloths to my weekly sewing class and sketched up a final idea with my teacher. She showed me how to create a bodice pattern and we talked through different options for how the colours could be blocked out. I then went away and spent about four days straight cutting and sewing and unpicking and sewing again.
It was all going well until the zip came along, and I realised that eyeballing isn't the best technique for measuring when dressmaking... nothing lined up properly at the back and the zip insertion pulled everything into a bunched up mess. The fabric was fraying and the fit wasn't right. I pulled it apart and tried again several times, but it wasn't going to work. I felt deflated and like I'd failed. It wasn't the dream dress I'd imagined and I felt like my hours spent hunched over my sewing machine were all for nothing.
Later that evening, I was lamenting my failed attempt and mentally throwing away my vision of creating my dream wardrobe (and generally being too dramatic about the whole thing), but then my partner asked me what I learned throughout the process. I started listing different skills, like constructing a bodice and adding darts, and my attitude gradually shifted from one of failure to one of hope. This was my first attempt at sewing a dress after all, and it was a bloody ambitious first attempt. My partner challenged me to spend a day away from my sewing machine and instead write down all the things the project had taught me and reflect on what I'd gained from it. So I did. And he was right (as usual). I learned so much from this process, and it's only been a week. Imagine what I'll have learned a year from now!
The moral of the story? Keep calm and carry on sewing, because every failure is a lesson to make your work better next time.
