...but then disaster struck. The first day I wore it, even before I had a chance to take any pictures. I spilled gravy all down the front of it. Now normally I'm not a messy eater. Normally, I'm quite neat. But I tend to have bad luck. The only time I spill food on myself is when it's most inconvenient. Such as, about five minutes before I have a client come in, I always spill tea on myself. Anyhow, about 15 minutes after the gravy, I managed to get red ink on it too. I was carrying a bag with a red logo stamped on it, that apparently wasn't quite dry yet. It was so sad. So, I did the obvious, I washed it.
Normally, I never pre-wash my fabric. I live in a tiny little apartment with a coin washing machine in the basement, but I'm too cheap to use it. It costs about $5 a load, and it doesn't have many wash options, or hold many clothes. With how much I spend on clothes, it would cost me more to wash my clothes than it would for me to buy new clothes. Therefore my parents graciously let me do laundry at their house, and I occasionally wash clothes in the sink. I think in the future however, I need to start pre-washing fabrics. The first thing I did was try to get the stains out with stain sticks, but they didn't quite cut it, and left big clean circles on my dress. I had no idea fabric fresh from the store was that dirty. So I washed the whole thing in the sink, but it still didn't get out the stains. Then I washed it again with dish detergent and that did get out the stains. Yay! Next, I started to iron it and it left these huge dark marks on the fabric. Huh? I panicked and washed it again, and the dark marks came out, but I couldn't figure out what it was... it seemed a little sticky. Then it dawned on me... I USED WONDER TAPE! I've never used Wonder Tape before. And if you had asked me a week ago, before I tried washing it, I would have said I loved it. Wonder Tape is a notion that tapes seams down to hold them in place while you're sewing. It really worked great, it was easy to sew over, it didn't gum up the needle, and with the thin, slightly slippery fabric, it really kept everything together and on track. It's also water soluble so it will wash out when you're done. I should mention... I used a LOT of Wonder Tape... I mean YARDS of it. And since I was being careful not to shrink anything, the water I was using wasn't very warm and I wasn't soaking it long enough to wash all the Wonder Tape out. So I took it over to my parents house and washed it for real, in a washing machine, and now it's back to normal... I'm just waiting for what I'm going to spill on it next.
p.s. I will use Wonder Tape again, but maybe just a little less of it.
T
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And as a bonus post, here's the silhouette I made of myself... only I made my hair style look more a little more Victorian.
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4 comments:
Oh, it's absolutely smashing! I love the color, but the cut and style of the dress-especially around the hem- is lovely! And don't you hate how tragedy strikes at the worst of times?! I'm glad you got it all washed out and looking lovely again: it would have been heartbreaking if you couldn't get the stains out.
I bought enough fabric to sew it twice, (since the fabric was cheaper than muslin) but I didn't need to and I had a lot left. At one point I was so discouraged, I considered resewing the parts that were stained. Luckily, I didn't need to. :)
T
oh my heck, i was so worried bout the pretty dress while reading! :) I am sooooooo glad all of the stains came out. OI!
It's beautiful and it looks great on you! I should have you sew up my dress 'cause the good Lord knows I'll never get to it anyway :) You'll have to wear it to the party tomorrow so we can all ooh and aah over it.
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