Begin again…

The past couple weeks have been very busy and sometimes frustrating. I am a teacher and teach English and Culinary Skills. For Culinary Skills I make videos and show them in class. About the middle of March, we purchased some editing software so we could make great videos. It has been a disaster. I am not one to skewer a company on my blog, but let’s just say, this software isn’t what it is cracked up to be. It was supposed to be easy. It is not. I spent about 10 hours on a video this weekend and got absolutely nowhere. When I called customer support, I could barely understand the person who was “helping me” and even then, they had to turn it over to someone else. Supposedly we will get an “email” addressing our problem, which they think is a “technical issue.” Yeah right. I shopped for software and this is what we ended up with. Talk about false advertising. I hate being frustrated and it usually manifests in crying fits, which I’ve had about five of since yesterday.

After that fiasco (I still don’t have a video), I decided to work on Dress #3. I had an epiphany about a week ago. My epiphanies always end up happening at 11:00 on a Sunday night, which does nothing for my sleep. I woke up Monday morning feeling terrible but on a mission to find a different dress pattern for my slip. I went online and found several ideas and then went to the fabric store to see them for real. Out of eight patterns, I found two. One was a pattern I purchased last August, so I actually had it at home. The other one I found was a definite NO. I decided the pattern I had at home would probably work. And, better yet, it was “Easy.” That is a good thing after fighting with a pattern that was anything but. The pattern is Butterick 6146.

I think what initially turned me off on this pattern was the dresses they made that were downright dowdy looking (in my humble opinion) or maybe it’s just me. I don’t want to look dowdy. Anyway, I was determined to make this dress look fabulous. I bought the material on Friday and didn’t even look at it until this morning. I looked at the pattern instructions and was immediately taken aback by some of the instruction notes. For one, this is a pattern for “full-figured” gals and you should make sure to measure yourself carefully, but the dress is made to drape and be flattering. Well, I was all in. Then they showed these drawings of women with obvious flaws, you know, flabby arms (mine aren’t exactly Michelle Obama arms), a fat tummy, and poor posture. It was kind of condescending. Oh well. I’m not one to take offense. I decided to make a size or two bigger because of those drawings. Well, the dress will certainly fit. I tried it on after sewing all the panels together and as it stands right now, I will be swimming in it. I still have a while to go. At any rate, I hung it up with the overdress. I’m good for now. Feeling pretty confident, even though the dress is huge. But again, I’m looking pretty small in the abundance of fabric.

The other thing was, and I’m only saying this because it sounds kind of pretentious, but there was a comment about how, when cutting out the dress pieces, you don’t necessarily have to cut the notches because professional dressmakers do not — they simply snip the fabric because it saves time. Oh brother. I looked at the layout and the entire dress was laid out on a single thickness of fabric, so, in other words, you had to cut every piece twice (except for the front, which should be on a fold). I thought, “What is that about?” No wonder you’re trying to save time — is there a real need to lay things out on a single thickness? Well, I did. I also bought the amount specified and had a ton of fabric left over. Are the pattern companies in cahoots with the fabric companies? It was actually a good thing because I made a “snipping” error and needed to cut out another piece.

By the way, based on the progress I’ve made today, what with cutting out the dress pieces and the lining pieces, and finishing the first 6 or 7 steps, I feel like I could be a professional dressmaker! Oh, and sorry for the mess. We have a dog crate for our grand-dog and that paper sack is filled with leftover fabric.

This dress is also lined. I made good progress. I cut out and sewed all the main pieces of the dress. I also cut out all the lining pieces, but am now at the point where I’m supposed to try on the dress and make sure it fits and make adjustments as necessary. And, also make adjustments on the lining, so it isn’t too big for the dress. I need help with that, so will ask my neighbor. And try to do it when I’m home alone (whenever that might be).

Last week I won the Fitbit Workweek Hustle with 102,710 steps for Monday-Friday. I got to thinking on Friday that if I changed my Fitbit steps to 20,000 instead of 10,000, I should have a good chance of cutting some pounds. On the other hand, I might regret making Dress #3.

I will be taking a week off of the dress-making thing though. I am visiting my mom and helping her with some stuff in Palm Springs. It will be a whirlwind, but I’m looking forward to it. I leave next Saturday and come back the following Saturday.

Another thing, we have a cat. Cheddar Bob. He’s orange and a love. A few weeks ago, he ended up eating some thread. I thought I got it away from him, but apparently, I only got a piece away from him. I didn’t really think much of it until he became lethargic and quit eating. He lives to eat, so it was very alarming. We took him to the emergency vet and they said he needed surgery. Apparently thread isn’t a good thing for cats. His intestines were all bunched up and if he wouldn’t have had surgery, he would have died. I felt awful. It was my fault for letting him near my sewing project. Anyway, he had the surgery and fortunately, the thread didn’t perforate his intestines. He also had to eat baby food. Not cat baby food, but baby baby food. He really loved it. He is fine now, but the thread gets put away. He used up one of his nine lives on that little episode. And, our wedding budget took a hit. Poor baby. We really love this cat. Mike especially. I think Cheddar Bob knows that Mike saved his life. He is super loving to Mike anymore. He spends days in his office and purrs and jumps up on his lap. He used to never do that!

We got our first RSVP for our big day. We haven’t sent the invitations, but I’ve handed a few out and sent a few to relatives. Still, it was kind of a big deal. We have a website, if you were wanting to check it out — https://www.theknot.com/dianeandmikegetmarried. By the way, registering is sure different today than it was 35 years ago! And honestly, we don’t really need stuff.

Well, I better wrap this up. I will be working tomorrow and want to get some sleep. Also, I’m hoping I won’t have any epiphanies tonight.