~A Formal Affair~

Tony and I had a black tie awards banquet for his work last Saturday. It was really fun to get dressed up and all fancy-schmancy.

Can I just say that it is so hard to find modest and modern formal gowns these days that don't cost a bazillion dollars. But after a lot of searching, I finally found one at Macy's. AND it was on sale! AND I had coupon--er--excuse me-- a 'Savings Pass'. Sounds much more sophisticated, doesn't it? I ended up getting this dress for around $75!! Originally around $250. A 'Super Dress Coo'. I was way excited with my find. It wasn't the color I was hoping to find, but it worked out well. It was a platinum silver column style dress with ruffles cascading all the way to the floor. I wore light aqua, peridot green and bright turquoise jewelry with a silver clutch and silver shoes.

The only problem with the dress was that it had short sleeves. I felt (this is just a personal issue) that it was seasonally inappropriate, being that the event was in January. Hindsight, maybe it wouldn't have been that bad. (Heaven forbid I wear short sleeves in January...) So I took on the task making some sort of arm covering. I decided on this pattern. "Very Easy", it says. Well, maybe if you have a degree in fashion design and construction. It truly wasn't that hard, but confusing. I've never had any formal sewing training so it was hard for me to muddle through the directions in parts. My mom helped me over the phone as best as she could without actually seeing the pattern or the directions. The most difficult part was the material I picked-- an organza type material. The seams kept pulling out (fraying) and actually happened on the collar part while I was wearing it that night. Luckily, it didn't show under my arm. The only way I could solve it was to glue some of the seams with special fabric glue, which made them stiff and pucker-y. Grr. But I did what I had to do. And it worked just fine. (Aside from the ripping seams!) :)

Here is a not so lovely picture of us as we were literally running out the door, 30 minutes late. It's bad of me and it has bad flash reflection, but oh well:

For my next failed craft, I tried to make a coordinating bracelet.

A while ago, I saw this project idea on Micheals.com that looked super cool and unique and most importantly, easy! I banked it in my memory for some occasion and figured that now was the perfect time to try it. So I decided to give it a go. I got some gorgeous ribbon for Christmas that would go perfectly with my dress so I went to Michaels to get the supplies. I found the wooden bangles on sale for $1 and I was pumped! I actually bought a few to save for future projects. So as I progressed into the craft, the glue I used took too long to dry--it would just lift off of the bracelet, not adhering at all. So I had to use the glue gun, which made it kinda bumpy and not flat on the surface. And the bangle I chose was a teensy bit too wide for the ribbon I had so I had to try and cover the edges with another ribbon, but the only one I had that matched was too thin. I used it anyway. And, for the record, it's not as easy as it looks to glue straight ribbon into a circular shape. It ended up looking really 'homemade' so I thought I would add some jewels for sparkle and maybe help to distract from the wrinkles and bumpy ugliness. Maybe a bad idea. My end result looks like something a 12 year old would make and probably love. Not really the look I was going for... To make matters worse, when I put it on my wrist, it was too small and nearly had to break my hand to remove it. So, I didn't even wind up wearing it. What a waste of time. But at least I learned some lessons. Sometimes it's just easier to buy something than make it yourself.

With posting this _hopefully successful_ project on the blog in mind, here are the photos I took of the different stages of the [[disastrous]] craft:

As I said in my first post on this blog, I promised to share my mistakes as well as my successes. So here you have it---honesty and complete rawness.

I continue to promise that I will always present you the truth---no matter how horrible the outcome. :D