I’m sorry, I skipped Finally Friday this week because I was down at my mum and dad’s for the weekend.  Today it was my mum’s birthday, as well as father’s day, and we had a nice, festive weekend with dinner out last night and then dad and I made linner today (that would be the oversized meal you eat about 2:30 pm, in case you were wondering ;o) )

This last week I have:

Finished 2 dresses (see last 2 posts)
Finished a handbag for my mum’s birthday (which I forgot to take a photo of, mental head slap!)
Got about 3/4 of the way through the Amy Butler Teardrop Bag sew-along
Packed my panda making alpaca and taken it to mum and dad’s for onward transportation to Provence, where we shall be reunited for a beary relaxing holiday next Saturday

Yesterday I started to try and make my final SONP dress (although it officially ended on the 17th).  It seemed so simple, make a big kid sized version of this dress by LiEr at Ikat Bag that I found the tutorial for on Sew Mama Sew.  It has shirring, but every instruction I could find just said wind the elastic round the bobbin and go.  It didn’t mention anything about stitch length/tension/any technical stuff.  I promptly wound my bobbins, adjusted my tension and went, and, errr, it didn’t scrunch up.  Still, the lovely Reader’s Digest Complete Guide To Sewing said I may still have to gather.  And then the elastic seemed to shrink rather than stretch – ARGH!  I have 6 1/2 rows done, and wasted rather a lot of elastic in my frustration.  I’ve realised I’ll need to do about 25 rows, and I was losing the will to live.  Did I mention that with my measurements, the big kid’s version of this dress is 80″/2 metres long?!  It takes quite a while to unpick…

Last night I found a tutorial for a shirred skirt by Jessica of Running With Scissors, and I think I actually heard the clunk as a cog fell into place in my brain,  maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t have cranked up the tension dial as if I were working with upholstery thread.  Turns out my logic (ie, the elastic is thick, just like upholstery thread, therefore must be high on the dial) may have been a tad flawed.  My gran kept telling me it was a learning experience.  I worked on smiling with my teeth gritted ;o)

Anywho, having got back late this evening, I’ll be leaving the test of my stupidity next round of learning until tomorrow night.  And if it still doesn’t work, I’ve entered Jessica’s shirred skirt giveaway, maybe that will salve my frustration if I win ;o)