The three most important things in sewing.

I know I haven't updated with the creative side of things lately. I've found that I have a lot of gaming things that I can talk about easily and my Monday posts are more difficult to start. To date, I have thirteen draft posts for Thursdays and only three drafts for Mondays. I think my problem is that I just don't know where to begin.

The wedding itself was a little overwhelming at times, even though it was suppose to be just a small one. None of our family lives in the same state as us so sometimes it was rather difficult as we basically handled all of it.

And I, as I am sure I mentioned before, made my own wedding dress. I know not everyone can claim that and for a while there, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to claim that myself. I was working on it right up until the day of the wedding. It was a little nerve-wracking but to be honest, I was working on costumes for shows right up until minutes before it was needed on stage on opening night. It's pretty much was the same type of stress except that this was for MY WEDDING so the stress level was rather heightened. I will probably not wear this dress again and it will not have to stay out on stage in bright lights but honestly, I think this is the most important item I have ever made.


The dress is not perfect. It is far from it. I know the flaws, I know where it was rushed together and I know I'm going to save it forever. I was mainly afraid it was going to fall apart on me the day of the wedding when I was standing up there giving my vows but it didn't. I knew it wouldn't with all the securing I had done with it but I was still paranoid. It was like I was showing everyone there an example of what I went to college for. If it fell apart, I knew I was going to feel that it was a reflection on my degree. Not to mention that I was so nervous about what my then fiancee was going to think of it. How could I not think that? I had my doubts over if I liked it or not. I had times where I needed to reassess it and it just wasn't doing it for me. How could I not wonder what my fiancee would think or what anyone else would think of it for that matter.

Honestly, I had never made anything that I had stressed over this much but it was made of the three components that I learned about in college that I knew would make it great: Blood. Sweat. Tears. This wasn't textbook stuff that you learned from class. This was in the shop, hands on and working with people who knew more than that textbook had to offer. From them I learned that if an item had those three components, it would turn out great.

Blood.
To be honest, this one is the most noticeable. Inside of the bodice where I was stitching it up by hand, there is a slight mark from my left pointer finger when I had jabbed myself with the needle. Being in such a rush, I did not notice or feel that I was bleeding until I noticed the mark on the lining. When I'm in a rush to stitch, I usually end up putting a lot of effort behind whatever I am doing. I don't know what I think this is going to make it go faster. It's like I go into a superhero mode where my special abilities are strength and speed. Strength is usually not necessary when working with light fabrics but speed is good, as long as it isn't sloppy. If this would have been earlier in the process, I may have only pricked myself, instead of ripping up a line of skin in my finger. It's completely healed now but I'm sure that won't be the last time I get myself with a sewing needle.

Sweat.
Okay, I'm not going to lie. I like the house to be warm. Sometimes, it was just too warm and I would find myself stripped down to a tank top and sweatpants and churning this thing out. And did I mention I was working on this dress all the way up to the day of the wedding too? Talk about sweat putting on the finishing touches. Having family come in for the wedding was great. It was just rather difficult having to balance time between seeing them, working on the dress, working on finishing touches for the wedding and having a moment to do all the daily activities. Also, the room where I kept my dress has no door so I had to hide the dress from my then fiancee whenever he would be around. That was rather tricky.

Tears.
Yes, I cried over this dress. Quite literally to be exact. I remember being frustrated about something in regards to the wedding and seeing tears dropping onto the lining that I was working on. I honestly tried not to work on this dress when I was upset about wedding things because I wanted to be able to look at this dress and have good memories of it. Sometimes, I just couldn't help it though as time was getting short and I was stressed about almost everything wedding related.

I have great memories of this dress regardless of all the frustration that I might have had with it in the past. I love it so much. It's mine. There is nothing else like it out there. I ironed, cut, serged and sewed every piece of it. It's not perfect but I still love it anyway. I've had it sitting on the dress form since I got back from the honeymoon. I'm going to hate to have to take it down in the next few weeks when we start to move but I'm going to keep it safe and maybe I can pull it out and show it to my own children someday.