I have scissors

I finished the sewing project from hell today.

I was making a pair of bathrobes as a wedding gift. That right there made me less than thrilled because bathrobes aren’t usually all that creative. They are just huge boxy things and the only good thing about making them is wearing them in the winter.

Then I couldn’t find the fabric I wanted to use. In my mind, these robes were going to be made out of a white, sort of waffle weave material—what you’d see in a spa. Only no one carried anything remotely like that. So I chose two different materials that complimented each other without being identical.

However, that leads us to my second major area of woe: the material for his robe was a one way stripe with a nap and more stretch than I realized. And it shrank like crazy. So between the nap , the stripe and the shrinkage, I didn’t have enough material. Not to worry, I am creative so I bought a solid contrasting color for his robe’s lapel and a different, contrasting color for hers too. Only hers ran and ran. I washed that stuff three times and it still kept bleeding. OK fine, I set it aside and figured I'd finish his damn robe first and then solve that issue.

Only the pattern I used has the stupidest shape for the collar and neck—basically a curved piece of material has to be sewn to a piece of material that’s cut as a right angle. Normally this is not an issue but remember the stretch? Yeah, it became a big issue. I tried using parts from a different robe pattern as a work-around but the pieces were shaped far too differently. So before I ruined any more material, I set it aside too.

Then Kent proved he really does pay attention to my blathering and he suggested I order material from one of the online fabric places I found. What? Really? Just start over? Well yes, it’s not like I wouldn’t use the original (really secondary) material for other things, right? Right! So I ordered 10 yards of white terrycloth, which was a lot closer to my original vision.

Have you ever tried to wash 10 yards of terrycloth in a compact stacked washer/dryer? It doesn’t work very well. And the fabric took probably two hours to dry. And then I had to cut the damn things out. I’ll tell you what I want for Christmas—a cutting table that’s closer to 40 inches tall so I don’t turn into a hunched old lady.

They sewed up OK, although I had some fits along the way. The fabric actually came with some flaws in it and working around those was awful. Plus I used my new marking pens—one side has the disappearing ink and the other side has the stuff you put on the disappearing ink to make it disappear. Only it didn’t disappear. I was really afraid I was going to have to dye the damn robes to make them be OK but thankfully that stuff came out when I washed the finished products.

The robes are all done now, washed and folded on my dining room table. I need to wrap them and then figure out when the lucky couple is actually home so I can get the robes out of my sight forever.