Productive!

It's funny, the days I work at my job and then come home and sew seem much more productive than the days I have off. Why is that? Maybe it's because I expect less so it seems like more. I should try to expect less of myself when I have the whole day, I might be more pleased with the results. Anyways,.

Friggin purple dress is basically done. Just working on sewing toole together for underneath to help make it big and poofy. I like poofy, I've noticed. If I were a girl, I think I would wear poofy things.

Yesterday I worked all afternoon putting the zipper in the dress. Seriously, it took me like 3 hours. I tediously hand sewed the lining to the dress and everything. I had cut the top of the zipper off because it was too long (Zippers have stops at the top and bottom when you buy them so the zip part doesn't come off the teeth) I proclaimed 'finished!!!' after working on it forever and zipped the zipper closed to admire my work. It zipped right off the top and off the teeth because I cut the stop off.

I screamed into a pillow.

I think the people that live below me still heard me- I heard them mumbling. I was furious, the hairs on the back on my neck were on end. I thought I might explode. I definitely cried. I've done it before in the past and wasn't able to fix it-it meant me taking out the zipper all together, buying a new one, and putting it in. The thought of doing that with this dress made me .. well it made me momentarily go crazy.

But then I thought about it for a second. Seamstresses can fix zippers without replacing the whole thing, why can't I? there must be a way. I googled and found out that I could open the zip with pliers and put it back on the tracks. I did have to open a couple seems but it was no big deal compared to taking the whole thing out.
all is well. I felt silly for being so upset.

I think that this is as good of point as any to mention that I've never been taught how to sew. How to draft patterns. How to put in ZIPPERS, this is all just stuff that I've figured out through trial and error. I do have a BFA in textiles, but strangely enough we never learned how to sew. That's a common misconception about the program at acad.
I learned how to treat fabric in the same way a painter learns how to treat paint. Conceptually I could write an essay on linen and the signifires that pertain to it. I could tell you how its made, what people see in it from years of various uses, that it's stronger when it's wet (Which is why sails on sail boats are linen) I can dye it, silk screen print on it, devore it, make it into a linen sculpture with chicken wire and leather boots and call it 'the drunken sailor feels her wrath' or some other nonsensical title, and get an A in a textile class. I can do all of these things with linen except sew it into a wearable garment, that I can't do. Or at least I couldn't with my formal education. I can now...but who wants a linen skirt? the point is moot.