Out of the ashes and right back into the fire - embracing failure | This WONDERfilled Life

You can't see it in the photo but I know it's there...a giant mistake...and it took everything to a) wear my mistake b) not make a big deal out of it c) not point it out to everyone at the party...

Let me first say that I have really missed my weekly deadline...and I may go back to my weekly posts just for my own sanity.  I loved having a deadline to use as an excuse to persevere through projects and make things happen.  I enjoyed the time to myself to write weekly.  Since Bubba started classes in January it's been a little more hectic.  We have only one day a week where there is nothing scheduled...unless I have a gig or rehearsal, which has totally been the case this year...so I guess if I am really thinking about it I haven't had a day off or TWO in a row in a while and maybe that's why I FEEL so stinking busy.  I haven't been writing as much but I actually HAVE been crafting...I hand crafted cards for birthdays and made decals as gifts...I made a super cute (and what should have been simple) black Cocoon Cardi (P4P) for a solo performance a few weeks ago...but had to take my seam-ripper out more than I care to admit.  I'll share that story soon (I still need to get some good photos of the finished garment). But what you need to know is that one of the first things that went wrong on that project was that after I had cut out all my pieces I realized I was using two different blacks...it may seem like no big deal but if you dress in black a lot you know about blue blacks and red blacks, about different dye lots...etc.  Even the quality of fabric was different.  I ended being able to save the cardigan (again I'll share how later) but I had an extra back bodice cut out and when I decided the kids and I needed matching shirts for the upcoming Valentine's Day Party at school I hoped that I might be able to use the extra piece.  

My Plan was to use some of my hoarded purple and black, double brushed poly heart print from Knitpop for P and my shirt and the white and black DBP for Bubba's. I was kind of bummed because I didn't have any "nice" black left over but did find some thinner, meh black, that I don't remember where I got it from but worked. I figured that the kids won't wear their shirts more than a year or two, whereas there is a very good possibility that I will wear mine for a few years. Anyways...I have wanted to make the Made for Mermaids (M4M) Mama Stella pattern since it came out. I don't know why but I love love loved the look of the "off the shoulder" option. So I decided that would be my V-day 2019 make. For the kids I knew I would just make Bubba another P4P Jolly Roger Raglan (my usual choice when I want to show off a different fabric on the sleeves). For P I wanted something new. She asked for a dress (of course) but I convinced her to let me make her a shirt and a skirt. I choose the P4P Buried Treasure Tunic for the top and the M4M, Bonny Legging and Skirt for the skirt.*** I want to add that I didn't realize how long the tunic would be, my mistake since it's on the pattern.  I paired this with a skirt so for her to wear both she put the tunic on and the skirt over it.  It worked out perfectly and almost everyone thought it was a dress! But now she can wear it together or each of them as a separate!Pictures are below!***  I've make her some Bonny leggings before but the pattern had been updated to so I had to reprint, tape and trace for this project. I managed to cut out Bubba's raglan and my Stella early in the week and cut and sewed them up in one night (even with having to seam rip out Bubba's raglan sleeves after I realized I had sewn them to the wrong side of the bodice).

Yeah! My new pattern piece totally fit, I was so excited!!

P's took me longer since I still had to tape her patterns together. Once I got them taped I was able to trace, cut and sew up both her tunic and skirt in under an hour!!!

With the sewing done I looked thru my graphic files and choose a simple heart with "LOVE" cut out of it for the Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) I wanted to add to the shirts.  I was so stinkin' excited to find purple HTC that matched the purple hearts perfectly.  I measured across each shirt and kind of guessed at what size would work.  I think Bubba's was 5.5"wide, P's was about 6" or 7" and mine was 9"ish.

The hardest part was putting the vinyl on my shirt because it was so much larger than the kids'.  I've only ever cut and applied HTV on shirts for Bubba.  Then add in that I had a non symmetrical neckline...I think the placement turned out okay and for a few moments I was so excited that out of a mistake a week previously I had made this really awesome shirt.  Hence the out of the ashes...and then I looked at the vinyl on my shirt and saw faint black scorch marks....tears...I've probably been working too hard at several things these past few days and I just sort of lost it.  I read up on how to remove it but it just didn't seem worth it.  And I realized that this would be a great teaching moment for my kids.  P struggles with perfection (both Super and I are perfectionist, especially when it comes to creating art and music).  I laid out the outfits for P to see the next morning and she was sooo happy, squealing with glee when she saw them.  I showed her my shirt and explained that I had messed up my shirt.  She said she couldn't see it and I said exactly...I know it's there but it's still a pretty shirt and even though it didn't turn out exactly like I had envisioned it's still beautiful, still matches her and her brother (which was important to me) AND I learned a great lesson for the next time I make something like this (keep the iron moving!).  

And you know what? No one mentioned the scorch marks (though I admittedly told one person).  Every one just commented on how cute the outfits were.  It was a great reminder that it's okay to want things to be a particular way but we also have to accept things we can't change and sometimes even embrace them.  Last weekend P accidentally messed up her name on a Valentine Card for one of her friends.  She wanted to make a new one, and I explained that her little "oopsie" didn't erase the love and care she had already put into the card.  So we fixed the mistake and moved on.   I hope that by facing my own perfectionist tendencies I can lead by example and help her embrace and learn from her inevitable failures as well.  

With the skirt over the tunic.

Just the tunic...so cute!

BTW, aren't my kids the cutest??