Summer Project

I finally finished this skirt last week. It was a learning process. I used a pattern, because I wanted to make sure I had good measurements for the waist, since it is not elastic. However, the pattern measurements are just strange. My waist is 30 inches at the narrowest point on a good day (I am much more of an apple than a pear), and according to the pattern, that is a size 16. So, I cut out a size 14, because 16 just sounded really large. Then I realized that I couldn't cut the pattern on the bias because I wanted the design on the fabric to fall (more or less) straight down. And the pattern didn't fit on the width of the material, so I cut out some of the fullness. Then I stayed up late sewing the skirt and struggling to put in a zipper. (Apparently a "unique zipper foot" is not a zipper foot that is unique but a zipper foot for a unique zipper, which was not the kind of zipper I had. Who knew?) When I finally tried the skirt on it was too big. (!) It basically slid down so far that I would have to wear a tunic over it. So, I waited till my mother came to visit and had her take the zipper out, take in the side seams and resew the zipper for me. (I need to get a regular zipper foot, since I don't seem to have one.) Then all I had to do was hem the darn thing. BUT After folding the hem up and over, it stuck out, so to reduce the bulk I trimmed it and just did a one-over fold and zig-zagged the edge. (Excuse my non-technical jargon here, but I am more of a sew-this-together-and-not-worry-about-technicalities type sewer.) So, if you look inside the skirt, you will not be impressed, but now it is wearable! Now all I need is a better top. (This is one of my favorite tops, but since it is at least 7 years old, it is not looking so good these days.)

I wore this skirt the other night when my neighbor dragged me along to a Mar*y K*ay meeting/make-over-thingee. I didn't realize that it was at the MK office, and the purpose was to convince new women that they want to sell the product. The whole thing was quite surreal. It started off with the women singing and dancing to a pink Cadillac song (there were 2 in the parking lot - I didn't realize that those even existed anymore!), followed by one woman explaining a sales technique to help the current sales reps to make their goals. They only had to sell 24 dollars worth of merchandise to 24 women in 24 hours. (Preferably twice in one week.) Yikes. I would be terrible at that. I don't even like to make appointments at the doctor's over the phone! Then the new ladies were sent into another room to get a makeover. My sister did this with me several years ago, so I knew the drill. But it was still surreal. I mean, I rarely wear more than powder and chapstick, and then I get hit with the whole shebang: women wiping off eye make up and agreeing that the product makes their skin feel great, speaking of the addictive qualities of chapstick, joking about putting eye firmer on their bust, etc. Hmmm. After we got all dolled up, we were then paraded in to the other room to applause. In any case, I looked somewhat like a clown because I chose a navy eye shadow, but I thought the lipstick looked nice. And when I got home, I regretted not buying any eye make-up remover, because I couldn't get my eyes clean and ended up looking like I had been in a fight.