So after starting this dress well over a month ago... maybe a couple months... I told myself this weekend I HAD to finish it.

It shouldn't have taken long, all I had left was the zipper, the hem and the ribbon (I'll explain why this doesn't exist later). But the problem was that I had accidentally made the dress too big. I know, you're thinking that's a good thing, but not really, because I had to try to rectify the mistake by taking it in.

I am getting all my supplies out, and realize that I have somehow misplaced the portion of my pattern that explains how to do the zipper. I search everywhere, and it is nowhere. So, I will not change my goal, and left without options, I decide that I will just wing it, because how hard can a zipper be?

In theory, not that hard. In practice, when the dress is made too large, very.

I pin the zipper in place, and try the dress on. Too big. I undo ALL the pins, take in the sides, rinse and repeat. Very hopeful, I try it on, and .... still too big. I undo ALL the pins again, take in the sides, try it on, and it is a better fit, but the middle is still too loose. So I take out the middle pins, hoping that I can just re-pin those areas... nope, won't work, I end up fixing all the pins again. It finally fits!

I sew the zipper in place, then I take it off the sewing machine to look at it. I groan. My husband asks, " What's wrong?" I show him that I have somehow managed to sew part of the dress onto the zipper. Sigh. I take out my seam ripper, take that apart, and fix my mistake.

Then I take my time hemming carefully, and that, thankfully, goes well.

I intended to add a ribbon along the bottom, but after all the time and effort the rest of it took, I just wanted to try it on. Overall, I think it looks good, but I am not in love with the top, so I will probably always wear a sweater or shirt of some kind over it (like in the picture).

With that in mind, I decided that if I added any color ribbon, I would need to always match the sweater to that color, but if I leave it plain it is more versatile.

I ended the day being giddy that I actually made a dress that (with a sweater) looks good on me, and doesn't scream out that it was made by hand. Yay! Good day.