Trying Matters, Right?

I've been trying to make some things to take to (and wear at) Burning Man this year.

I started with an oversized random nightshirty kind of thing that I picked up at a big box store in 2013 when Connor told me I'd need something white in case I wanted to go to the "white party" or something that I never actually ended up doing.

I don't even remember if I tried it on in 2013 because I was struggling so much with the heat and nothing I'd though I'd wear worked.  I brought it along last year too but didn't end up wearing it and so this year when I started to think about what I might wear, I thought I'd try to transform some of the things I already have to make them look awesome.

So I took this shirt thing and I tea dyed it.  Which basically meant I brewed some tea with a bunch of tea bags and let it sit in a bowl and then dunked the shirt in the bowl for a while.  And I did that a few times and it had this sort of dark at the bottom, white at the top look that I thought was awesome!  And then I smudged some black stuff from one of my cooking thingies (man, I'm good with words today) that always rubs off onto things and I was like, awesome, now my random shirt thingy looks like it's been worn through the apocalypse or something and I love it!  It looked so cool and I was so proud of myself!

And then I tried it on.

D'oh.

It was... um... not awesome.  Not at all.  Utterly shapeless (I'd bought an XL because I'd figured it would be less warm in the heat if it was loose?) and once I put it on the awesome dye job just seemed kind of... weird and without a point?  So.. I got pretty upset by that.

Like, really quite bummed out.  Because I'd been so proud of myself and thought it looked awesome and there it was looking really the opposite of awesome.  Ugh.  Poop.  Boo. 

Sigh.

Fast forward a few weeks and I gently washed it (tea doesn't exactly set well as a stain, but I knew that) and borrowed a friend's sewing machine (amazing what the brain remembers from high school!) and made it a little less baggy.  It was slightly better.  And then I sliced it up a bit and may still try to do something with it, I don't know.  We shall see if I can get it to look as cool as I see in my head.

So once I got over that disappointment, and realized I did remember how to use a sewing machine (even if I can't remember how to do the bobbin thing) I thought I might try some other stuff.  Which is when someone in my neighbourhood decided to throw out some fabric.  (By throw out, I mean randomly put a box of stuff at the corner for people to look through if they want.)

I grabbed some random white fabric and cut this thing into "straps" and that thing into a random shape and I hemmed edges loosely, and sewed the straps onto the top and then I closed off the top and I was so proud of myself!  I made a shirt! For free!  I did that!  I found it and I put it together and YAY ME!

And then I tried it on.  I mean, beyond the random measuring trying on I'd done.  I tried it on in front of a mirror.

Ugh.

Not flattering.  At all.

And one of the straps falls off.

And that's why people don't just randomly throw things together.

Sigh.

I got all disappointed again, but my friend very kindly pointed out that she's had to "throw out" a ton of material in the 15 years she's been sewing.  And I reminded myself that everyone has to start somewhere.

So I'll see if I can adjust the strap and maybe it's not as hideous looking as I think and besides, as long as it's not hot, there won't be mirrors for me to see myself in and so maybe I'll end up taking my home made shirt anyway. 

Who knows.

It was just kind of disappointing to have been so proud of something I made and then to turn around and discover it really wasn't that good and that it didn't actually look the way I'd thought it would/could.

But I haven't thrown them out yet.  May just keep fiddling with them and see if anything comes out of it.