“If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”
So said my calendar last month. I laughed when I first read it but it proved to be good advice,particularly for someone who doesn't like to give up. I'm quite pleased to have turned the page: all I need to do this month is laugh at myself and I do that already, as a good friend once said, "you can't be our kinda crazy without laughing about it!"
And so it is, with August's wise words echoing about the brain, that I have decided to call it time on the Mermaid costume as it currently stands. It has been wonderful, but deeply frustrating, project from the day I started and it feels like it has fought me all the way. With only a few weeks to go and left feeling, once again, as though I'm going backwards, not forwards, I am calling time on it. Life is too damn short to be swearing at my sewing, it's my "go to" not my "get away from".
The nail in the costume-coffin was a disastrous afternoon this weekend spent trying to make the pannier hips which would have started the skirt. After three attempts, the second of which involved 2 broken needles and a damaged bobbin case (all the same incident, I managed to leave my seat and duck at the same time) and more wasted fabric, boning and materials than I care to contemplate, the only good thing I can say about the experience is that my sewing machine finally got a much needed mini-service. I was left with one pannier, that looked like I'd thrown it together (truth be told, by that point, I pretty much did) and just didn't/couldn't/wouldn't follow the line I was trying to create. I was getting grumpy and when the lovely boyf stuck his head above the parapet and dared ask if maybe I shouldn't stop for now, I realised that yep, it's time for me to stop.
So I have a blue wig, a bag of blue fabric, shells and other assorted wotnots, and a lingering desire to still make it as a Mermaid in time for Halloween. For now though, I'm going to listen to Mr Fields, have a good chuckle with myself, take a couple of weeks off and, for Round 2, the strict instruction will be to "keep it simple".
And so it is, with August's wise words echoing about the brain, that I have decided to call it time on the Mermaid costume as it currently stands. It has been wonderful, but deeply frustrating, project from the day I started and it feels like it has fought me all the way. With only a few weeks to go and left feeling, once again, as though I'm going backwards, not forwards, I am calling time on it. Life is too damn short to be swearing at my sewing, it's my "go to" not my "get away from".
The nail in the costume-coffin was a disastrous afternoon this weekend spent trying to make the pannier hips which would have started the skirt. After three attempts, the second of which involved 2 broken needles and a damaged bobbin case (all the same incident, I managed to leave my seat and duck at the same time) and more wasted fabric, boning and materials than I care to contemplate, the only good thing I can say about the experience is that my sewing machine finally got a much needed mini-service. I was left with one pannier, that looked like I'd thrown it together (truth be told, by that point, I pretty much did) and just didn't/couldn't/wouldn't follow the line I was trying to create. I was getting grumpy and when the lovely boyf stuck his head above the parapet and dared ask if maybe I shouldn't stop for now, I realised that yep, it's time for me to stop.
So I have a blue wig, a bag of blue fabric, shells and other assorted wotnots, and a lingering desire to still make it as a Mermaid in time for Halloween. For now though, I'm going to listen to Mr Fields, have a good chuckle with myself, take a couple of weeks off and, for Round 2, the strict instruction will be to "keep it simple".
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