Not My Worst Mistake

This past spring I tried an experiment of fusing interfacing to silk charmuese. It turned out well enough that I bought enough silk to add the gathered skirt to the fused bodice for a potential cocktail dress. Here's the skirt attached to the bodice, none to expertly:

It was okay. I wasn't thrilled, but it turned out okay. I really don't like gathering - it never seems to go well with me. This skirt is really poofy, with a whole lot of fabric, and it was a huge PITA to get all that skirt on that bodice. I managed. But then I got cocky: I used my serger to finish the waist seam.

So of course for the very first time ever, because I was using an incredibly expensive fabric, I ran my garment fabric in the bodice into the serger blade. Arrgghhh! There was a small triangular cut in the bodice, but I was not to be deterred. I figured a little fusible interfacing might hold the tear together enough and maybe I could cover it with a sash or some other imaginative fix. But when I went to apply the fusible interfacing, my iron was still heating up. So it was on super-heat, trying to achieve the right temperature and it just melted the interfacing previously (and carefully) applied to the bodice fabric. Arrrghhh! Here's the mess I ended up with:

The triangular piece of interfacing is the fix for the tear, the mess above it is the melted interfacing caused by the iron. Here's another shot:

And here it is from the right side of the dress:

Ick. No way to save this at all. But strangely enough, I was hardly bothered by it despite the expense of the fabric, and despite all the work with no dress to show for it. I couldn't believe how not-upset I was. And then I realized: this wasn't the dress I wanted to make anyway. It was actually a relief to have it ruined beyond repair. If I had just listened to my muse in the first place, I would have been working on the dress I really wanted to be sewing and I would have avoided this sartorial disaster. I keep having to learn this lesson over and over and over; I just don't seem to "get it". Sewing is fun - work on what you want to work on, not what you think you should be working on!

Parting Shot: A visitor that showed up on my deck this evening; I got to watch him take a nap while I ate dinner. I have no idea where he came from or where he went to later, but it was nice have a kitty around, even if just for a little while.