Out, Out, Damned Dress!

Miracle of miracles, it is finally done. And only a week late!

I *never* thought that fucking thing would be done. Everything took longer than it was supposed to. I had a sick kid. I lost an evening of babysitting. It 'shrank' during sewing and I had to fix that. The sleeves did this weird ripple thing. Most of the sequins got totally screwed up during the sewing process and I had to re-sew them all again. No lie.

Now, I'm a self-proclaimed perfectionist. I was even putting more effort into this dress because a) I wanted it to be somethig I could use as a portfolio/resume piece, and b) I fantasized constantly about my dress being voted the best for its category at the museum showing. (Yes, I went so far as to start planning what I would say when I was interviewed by the Chronicle for the article they don't know they're gonna write about the event yet. For the record, I was very witty.) But after getting two extensions from SVdP and still having to pull an all-nighter, even I reached the 'fuck it'. point. It was done enough, it was good enough, and I needed my life back. Besides, I saw what sold last year (coat made of stuffed animal pelts, anyone?), I knew it would sell and SVdP would make $$ on it My dress was a shoe-in in that respect, anyhow.

Once it was on the dress form and properly lit for photo taking purposes and I could step back from it, I actually liked it and was happy. Not thrilled, mind you, because I've not yet come to realize that my level of perfection is not realistic. But, it is still a pretty damned good dress. Oh sure, I can see tons of flaws in it, but I figure what I lose in flaws I more than make up for in ambition, and that's gotta count for something. Satisfaction! A job well done!

Like most of my homework assignments in high school, I completed the registration sheet at the last minute while Husband drove the car, right down to making sure I met the minimum word count for the item description. Not a memory I enjoyed reliving, but it got done. Groggily, I staggered into the office, dress in hand.

One of the perks of turning in your garment last is that you get to see what's already been turned in. The office was filled with dozens of dress forms sporting the latest in thrift store reject fashions. There were ever 6 or 7 that had been pulled aside as an obvious nod to their excellence. These were the first ones I saw. Remeber those good feelings I had about seeing my dress all finished? All gone. Some of these garments were truly stunning and wildly creative. I suddenly felt like I had just wasted a lot of time. Was reminded that designing is not really my strong point. Good bye Chron, that's for sure.

We took my dress to where the bulk of the garments were, and I have to agree with Husband's opinion; my dress at least 'met' if not surpassed this batch. There were plenty of really fun and beautiful things over here, so at least I wasn't being banished to some 'special' scrub rag department. Plus. seeing the other items helped bring me back up to some level of satisfaction with my dress. It was also a good time to remind myself that the purpose of making the dress was first and formost to help a charity, not build my portfolio or become internationally known via the local rag (although those things woulda been nice, lemme tell you...)

So, long story short, its done and gone. Its weird to be at home and not have it on the dress form, or spending every waking moment working on it. There's something missing; its almost like someone has moved out. Now I'm trying to catch up on my life. Emails, calls, doctors appointments postponed while I focused all of my energy on this. I really have never been to good at taking care of myself.

It was a learning experience, and as foolish as many of my choices were surronding this dress, I'm glad I did it. Probably do it again.

Oh, but next year? I'm making pillow cases.