If you ask for an opinion...

...be prepared to hear the truth!

"Are you still working on your homework?" the Man of the House asked me. "Are you at least making a dress that you want to wear?"

I replied in the affirmative, and tried it on for him after I finished basting in the second sleeve.  

"The shoulders are really narrow.  It makes you look like a bell.  It's all out of balance."  

Ouch!  Not what I wanted to hear when (I thought) I was nearly done.  I ran from the room -- not in tears, as you might suspect, but to grab the pin cushion.  Maybe it was a bit too roomy in the hips.  So, since he had offered an opinion, I roped the Man into helping me fit the dress.

"But I don't know how to pin a dress!" he protested.  I grimly stuck a pin in his hand and told him to pin the back side seams where *he* thought they should be.  Well, that didn't work, not because he was so bad at pinning, but because that pulled the side seams to the back of my side.  So I ended up pinning the front side seams myself.  I took at least an inch out of both sides.

Chalk marks to mark the edge where I had it pinned.

I had to rip out two long seams and re-pin them.

The extra inch only came out of the side panel of fabric, not the front, which made lining up the seams a little more challenging.  

After stitching it up, and pinning it closed, and pinning on one of the buttons as an example, I tried it on again.    The Man gave it grudging approval, but hated the hemlength so much that he almost wouldn't look at it.  I tried to get him to help me pin that up (it's really hard to pin a hem while you are wearing the garment) but he was about as useful as a three-year-old who has decided he doesn't know how to put on his socks.  I already have one of those, so I had to take it off and pin it myself.  Miss A helped out with the photography. I think it's a little shorter than I would like it, but this is getting close.  Meanwhile, I decided I need to adjust one of the princess seams again above the bust, and ran out of steam in the middle of the afternoon.  

That was yesterday.  The middle of the afternoon, the Man of the House asked me if I was going to work on my dress, or if I was going to save it to work on at odd hours of the night as usual.  I told him I was taking a Sabbath rest!

But never fear, I still had plenty to do.  Miss A and Miss Z had lobbied for a trip to the fabric store -- Miss A was determined that I should make a dress for her.  She wanted a "silky fabric" and picked out a very large challis floral print.  I had no idea what I would make for a seven-year-old out of that fabric, but fortunately around the corner we found some sundress fabric with butterflies and flowers.  Perfect.  That only took one seam up the back and hem, but with Miss A learning to sew, we still had to do some ripping.  But, she also learned how to pin and to iron in the process, and did those admirably (though she managed to burn her hand and her elbow).  She has learned to set the iron down far, far away.  

Miss Z decided that she wanted to be a bee for Halloween.  Thus a bee tutu was in the works.  This was after finishing her fairy ribbon tutu.  At least these were no-sew projects!