Sewing Revisited

I don't enjoy sewing. Twenty five years ago, I vowed I would never sew again. The incident that preceded this oath was my attempt to make curtains for our little boy's bedroom. I was pregnant with our third child and we were moving Dave out of the nursery. We were in the midst of decorating his new room in primary colors and the curtains that came with the house when we moved in weren't going to fit the bill. I first tried dying the original curtains (an important fact in the sewing decision). They came out looking faded. So, I bought some red fabric, and decided to try my hand at sewing. Instead of measuring the windows, I measured against the old curtains (another important fact). I worked hard on this project. I even lined the curtains and put those little weights in the hem so they would hang right. I was so excited to see them hung up. Unfortunately, my husband had been dilly-dallying with the wallpaper and he didn't want to hang the curtains until he had the paper up around the windows. Late one evening, after much nagging, I mean, encouragement, he told me to go to bed and when I got up in the morning, those curtains would be hanging. When I got up the next morning, I ran to the room to see my handiwork. Oddly, the door was closed and there was a note that said, "Stop! Do not enter this room unless it's an emergency." I opened the door and saw my curtains hanging. They looked great, except for the fact that they were 2 inches too short. Apparently, when I dyed the old curtains (in hot water, like the directions said), they must have shrunk. That was when I uttered my vow.

My children had heard this story many times, and knew how I felt about sewing. When they were in high school, they had a "pops" choir concert coming up and needed to sew a simple tunic for one of their numbers. They didn't mention this to me until I happened upon their costumes in the family room. They had taken it upon themselves to make their tunics. Annie had stapled hers together and Dave had actually gotten out needle and thread and basted his.

Also my husband never asked me to mend anything; he had the cleaners sew any missing buttons on his clothing.

Fast-forward to 2011. I recently read in Real Simple that orange is big this year. Perfect. I have an orange dress that I've had for two years and never worn. I don't like the sleeves.

Original Sleeves

Since both my daughters have gotten into sewing, they've inspired me. So out came the seam ripper, needle, and thread, and I tried my hand at refashioning the sleeves.

Taking out the elastic.

Gathering the top of the sleeve.

First Design

Second Design

I was thinking I liked the second design best, but after looking at the pictures, I'm not sure. Any thoughts?