In which she may actually have bitten off more than she can chew in the time allotted...

FINALLY...something in the 'Done' column.  This is the LONGEST I have gone without sewing a garment in years and years and years, I do believe, but it's done.  This is a replacement for a gray cardigan that I think I left hanging in the closet of the bed and breakfast where we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary last August.  I didn't realize it really and truly was missing for about a month;  I just assumed it was in the laundry or something but...nope.  Its funny; the sleeves feel looser and longer than I remember them being on the top that went missing, and it's definitely a wee bit lighter in color (I had a scrap to compare it to).  But I really, really missed having that gray top layer in the wardrobe, so I actually bumped it up in priority above stuff that actually was probably more pressing.  But, then, I didn't realize I was going to have to hand baste all the hems down to keep them from shifting under my no-pressure-adjustment-available presser foot.  So, yeah, it took a minute or two longer than I had anticipated.

The next most urgent item is this dress:

 It is a bridesmaids' dress from Brides R Us  (did I mention that the wedding is three weeks from today?).  I am not sure what happened and honestly, at this point it doesn't matter.  The dress the maid was to have ordered somehow didn't get ordered and then was unavailable.  Some shuffling of dresses occurred and now she has a dress but as the pinned -in red ribbon attests, this one doesn't zip.  I thought of doing a corset back, but as the neckline is high the lacing would end up diamond shaped, which I didn't think would look good.  Next thought was side panels, but with the dress lined and all fabric cheap poly knit, I wasn't sure I could do it.  Then I thought about detaching the shoulder straps, shortening the back to the bottom-of-the-armsceye level and using some of the 3" of fabric I have to take from the hem to make longer straps.  But even that wouldn't get the corset back to not be slightly wider below the top and I don't think a diamond shaped corset will look at all good.  So now we are back to side panels.

I bought some light blue satin (to use matte side out) from JA's today (oh, how I wish we had a legit fabric shop in town) that looks aqua next to the dress but it won't show much on the sides and I will take excess hem to make the drapey side panels to cover some so, we make do, right?  I took it upstairs to put with the laundry to give it a wash to get the wrinkles out of it and laid it down on my light blue satin pillowcase, purchased because satin pillowcases are supposed to be good for curly hair.  I looked at the colors and ran back downstairs with  the pillow and...the pillowcase is almost a dead on match.  

So I will be sacrificing one of my pillowcases for the cause.

But first I've got to hem it.  That gives me a little more time to puzzle over the addition to make sure I have a good plan.

Because I still want to make my dress in the three weeks left...