Follow Friday: A New Dress A Day

From A Dress A Day

A Dress A Day does not have an about section so this was taken from the About the Author information associated with Erin McKean's new book The Secret Lives of Dresses:
Erin lives in California south of San Francisco and spends her free time reading, sewing, blogging, roller-skating, and arguing about whether robots or zombies would win in a fight (lasers optional). She loves loud prints, quiet people, long books with happy endings, and McVitie's Milk Chocolate Hobnobs.

Sewing is not my craft, but I admire those who do it.  Despite not being able to even consider the possibility of sewing a dress, I cannot stop reading Erin's blog. She shows off fabulous fabric, and great patterns.  The absolute best part is her revelations of what the women in the pattern example images are really thinking and talking about.  She is a grammar advocate with great taste and a wonderful sense of humor.  I recommend everyone check out one of her pattern story posts for a smile, and those of you who like sewing should stick around for a few more posts.

Twitter Bonus: FakeErinMcKean

Out of My Element

There is one other gift this year that I wanted to craft, but this time I had to step out of my element. I decided to make my girlfriend a art/crafting apron. I know absolutely nothing about sewing, but I am lucky to have a quilting MIL. I asked her for some help during our Thanksgiving visit and she sent me home with all of this:

There was not a single part of this project that I found easy. I can't draw or cut a straight line so just getting the fabric ready to think about sewing was intimidating. Thanks to the encouragement of my MIL though, I pushed ahead and even included lining and made each piece double sided.

I would like to proudly say that I only sewed through (yes completely through) one of those cute little flower shaped needle heads. It took all of the Christmas specials I own and two full glasses of wine, but I made a full apron!

Sewing is definitely not my craft. I missed cuddling on the couch with Hubby and bending over the dining room table for the evening made my back feel much older than it should. So maybe I'm not a quilter, but it was nice to overcome my fear of the sewing machine. Maybe I'll reach the point of empowerment where I can do my own hemming and small alterations.