#100 and Thoughts on Unfinished Projects

This is the 100th post on this blog and it's going about like I expected. I still don't get to sit at the popular kids table. For a little while I tried to think of something "special" for post #100 but after considering a couple of ideas I decided that 100 posts is nothing. It's just a start. If I make it to post #1000 maybe that will be worth celebrating. So I just decided to post what's on my mind right now, just like any other blog post.

So, a question: How do you feel about sewing projects that are left unfinished for a long time, maybe forever? UFOs, some people call them.

I remember two projects (during my childhood) that my mother started and never finished. Actually, I'm sure there were more than that but there are two in particular that stick in my mind. One was a plain red sheath dress that she was making for herself. I remember at one point she was upset that she hadn't finished it. The other was a dress she was making for me. The fabric had small yellow roses on a white background and it was going to have a solid yellow under-skirt and, I think, yellow trim around the sleeves and neckline. I can't remember the details of the pattern very well. I was about 8 or 9 - maybe as old as 10? Anyway, I was really excited about that dress but for some reason she never got around to finishing it and to this day I still feel sad about not getting to have and wear that beautiful dress and I have even considered making an adult version of it.

Perhaps because of my memories of my mother's unfinished sewing projects, I have a fear of not finishing things. I have always sewn one thing at a time and not even cut out the next one until I finished what I was working on. That has changed a little bit in the last couple of years. I now have two sewing machines and sometimes have a project going on each one but I still very rarely put something aside and move on to something else.

Last week I was working on a dress that I was excited to finish and wear but when I got it to the point that I could try it on it turned out that the fit is way wrong! What is usually my correct size is about 2 sizes too big. (Yes, I know, that's why we make muslins but I don't.) I can fix it but I'll have to take it most of the way apart, including taking out a side zipper. I hate taking things apart and I was so disheartened I decided to quickly move on to the next thing - something simple and quick. I really want to go back to the dress soon but at the same time I feel that it is in no way urgent since it's starting to look like we might not even have a real summer and it's very much a summer dress. I will finish it but I still have this nagging thought: "Hurry and do it now or you might never finish it."