I Can Read…Really

I had bought this cheap fabric and wanted to make a skirt with it. Simple enough. Except that I made a fatal mistake: I cut the fabric incorrectly. [Sigh.] I suppose it was bound to happen eventually, but it was still utterly painful to realize that I didn’t have enough fabric to cut the piece again.

It was my fault for not reading as closely as I should have read. The instructions’ cutting diagram of the pattern pieces’ layout just wasn’t as clear as I was use to. Lacking fold marks in the diagram, I mistakenly cut a piece of fabric twice instead of using the pattern piece to create one large piece. (As a fairly visual person I focused at the diagram picture rather than the written words on the pattern piece itself—which actually said “cut on fold”). Well, I learned my lesson (as they are generally learned: the hard way). Next time, I will read more carefully.

So I had to make a decision about the skirt: to not make it with the fabric I had bought (and ruined) or to buy more of the same fabric. The latter won out; it seemed wasteful not to use the fabric (especially since I had already bought thread and a zipper specifically for it). I reluctantly bought the fabric again (which was sadly no longer at its lower sale price). [Sigh.]

The second time around I cut my fabric correctly and was able to finish my skirt (with more or less the same amount of problems as I usually do). I think it’s a cute pleated skirt and hopefully I’ll get some use out of it once it gets a bit warmer out.