forgive me friends for i have sinned. 

when the clock strikes 2:00 a.m. (again) and your goal is slipping away, you better get crafty. i mean that less in the respectable diy way and more in the shady way.

i’m still new so i attempted dresses that took twice as long as expected. to make up time, i begged, borrowed and stole—figuratively speaking. now it’s time to come clean. hear my sewing sins:

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✩ cheat #1: pillow talk

this is bad. with only a few days left, i was at work panicking because i was low on fabric and time to buy it. at lunch, i crept over to bed, bath and beyond, shlepped back to the bedding section and i….i….found a couple jersey pillowcases. cut to me at home tearing them open. i shamelessly slit the bottom and pulled one over my head, looked in the mirror and approved. (sigh) i did this, friends. one got a ruffle and one got satin embellishments. they ended up surprisingly stunning.

see this sin in action in penelope james and mia sparrow.

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✩ cheat #2: triple dipping

in the post factory girl, i spilled about this little trick. by layering two pieces each of three fabrics, drawing a simple dress shape and cutting them all out at once, i was able to churn out three sundresses in record time. a beginning sewer could whip one of these out after breakfast in time for a lunch date…with her priest.

see pollyanna post-grad, betty blue and firecracker for evidence of this transgression.

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✩ cheat #3: playing god

finally, under the cover of night with my dog and husband snoring happily in the next room, i plundered my closet. i searched desperately for shirts to sacrifice for my experiment. three shirts were forced into marriages with other fabrics. two will forever be connected to curtains parading as skirts. one will live life adjacent to a sheet. yep. i did this.

see an unholy (but awesome) union in sailor june, soda jerk and mix tape.

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judge me if you must, but i feel better getting this off my chest. this isn’t how featherweight clothes will ultimately be made. it’s just how these designs came to be and it did get me to my goal. maybe these sewing sins with inspire you to create some quick frocks with bits of time and scraps of fabric. if so, i will have redeemed myself.

amen.

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