What have you ruined (or almost) lately?

This weekend, I worked on two sewing projects. The first involved a new-to-me dress pattern, and in the muslin stage I already knew it was going to need some serious work on the bodice (I did a successful full bust adjustment only to discover the rest of the bodice was going to be way too small). I didn’t have it in me at that point, so I decided to shelve it until a later date.

The second was a plain 6-gored skirt from a vintage pattern. I thought I was being cute by sewing a contrast inseam pocket. I mean, I’ve done this successfully on other patterns, why not this? Nope. Turns out, the skirt is a bit too tight across the hips, so the pocket was gaping… and with a contrasting pocket, that’s a big UGH. And because I’d opted to trim and serge all the seams together, there wasn’t really anything I could let out around the hips. (Not to mention the fact that there was no chance I was unpicking a lapped zipper.)

So I angrily sat down to unpick the waistband around the pocket (fortunately only one of the waistband seams was sewn), and unpick the pockets. Which also involved unpicking two serged seams. And with a black linen-blend fabric that was prone to shredding, and black thread, in pretty short order I had a mess. I almost ruined the entire thing! Things were shredding, thread wasn’t unpicking, my goodness. I seriously almost threw a fit. Or cried. I definitely drank a beer.

There was a seriously long time when I thought it was going to stay looking like the below photo forever. I finally got the damn pocket out, and didn’t quite ruin the skirt in the process. (The pocket had used leftovers of the tropical print I used for this dress, if you were wondering what that was at the left.)

I’ve since sewn the side seam shut with no pocket, and finished the skirt. I’ll just wear it with a light girdle and call it a day. (If I wear it much at all; turns out a 6-gored black linen skirt looks more like something I should wear to work. Whoops.)

I don’t have nearly the same relationship with sewing as I do with knitting. I admit, when I start to get down on a sewing project, it can sour me on sewing as a whole. But I’m definitely not like that with knitting. When a knitting project goes wrong, I either fix it, or put it aside and then think, “Oh boy! Now I get to start something else!” With sewing, it’s more like, “Screw this, I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Work and life are really busy lately, and so reliable, fun, stress-free sewing makes me happy right now. And man, these last couple of projects have not made me happy and were certainly not stress-free!

I sew because I enjoy it. Sometimes I want a real challenge, but sometimes I just kind of want to be on autopilot a little, you know? And when I stop enjoying it, it makes me not want to do it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need to get my sew-jo back—it hasn’t gone anywhere. I’m just a bit mad at sewing, that’s all. I’ll bounce back.

So what have you ruined (or almost ruined) lately?