2nd Mod Dress- Simplicity 6679 from 1966

The dress in the blog was made from the above sewing pattern.

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It happens to the best of us. We go through a struggle, but we sorta forget about it. We move on, and we think- "hey, that wasn't so bad after all." For some reason, we gloss over all those blood, sweat, and tears that made the thing difficult in the first place.

And that's what happened to me when I made my second mod dress from a vintage sewing pattern. My first dress (see previous post) was a struggle. I made it so much more difficult than it needed to be. I demanded perfection on the first try. That was just plain silly.

Somehow on the second dress, though, I managed to forget about the difficulty of the first dress. My husband encouraged me and praised my work. I thought, "hey, I can do this!" It was the equivalent of a kid giving her mom a picture to put on the fridge, saying, "Look what I made!" And mom gives a big smile and loves the picture even though to an outsider, it's just a bunch of scribbles.

Needless to say, I was overconfident. I picked an awesome diamond/harlequin black and white mod dress. I shortened it into a mini.

It was a beautiful dress, and I was way too ambitious. I couldn't, for the life of me, get those friggin' colorblock diamonds to meet into a point. I finally got it to "good enough", but I hadn't learned my lesson the first time. I was trying to be perfect-- I was too ambitious--but I'm only a novice.

And did I mention I decided to sew with knits my second time around? Probably not the greatest idea. My inexperience with knits led to a zipper as wavy as the Atlantic. My inability to make points led to a back that was as uneven as Obama's presidency.

And did I mention the armhole facings or the collar? I still can't get them quite right. Blasted curved seams are the death of me.

But here's the dress. You can't see all the whining and complaining my husband endured, and he took the pictures far enough away so that you can't see the raggedy armholes or wonky collar. I could say these little details give the dress character....But I won't. I want to get better, and I'm trying not to kid myself! ; - )