Oh, yeah, got my degree in that

Even got a t-shirt

I used to sew a lot when my kid/step-kids were younger.

I made a beautiful Easter dress for my step-daughter. Really expensive fabric. Lot of ruffles and ribbons. When the thing was all done, it was WAY TOO short-waisted. Still don't don't know how the heck I managed that. The pattern was right. Apparently the operator of the scissors was wrong Since there was a vertical stripe in the bodice, I would have had to buy more material and re-do the entire top of the dress just to make the bodice longer. What I ended up doing was cutting some additional fabric with the stripes going horizontally and put that between the waist of the dress and the bodice. Every time I look at the picture of that dress, I see it as "screwed up" but everyone absolutely loved it, including my step-daughter and she was not big on wearing dresses.

The other time that comes to mind was the time that I made my son a winter coat. Out of fake fur. Matching Russian-style hat. The lining of the coat was coordinated quilted material.

The first time I screwed up, I didn't allow for how much room the lining was going to take. So, I had to increase the pattern and re-cut everything. So ... already I've wasted a ton of expensive fabric.

I really wanted to do this

Then I made the hat and the coat and they were absolutely adorable and gorgeous. French seams. Very expensive fabric.

Except,

The lining had two sides to it -- a light side and a dark side. I forgot to pay attention to that fact when I was putting in the sleeves. So ... the body of the lining was dark brown and the sleeve lining was beige.

I was mad But, I was determined that I was not going to waste anymore fabric. Darn kid could wear the coat with backward sleeves.

My husband's uncle was living with us. His uncle used to be a tailor. He looked at the coat and told me that I had done an absolutely fantastic job. I'm beaming Then he says -- get this -- "you even put in variegated sleeves". I told him that was a mistake. He said no-no, people pay more for that

So, Marilyn, I figure based on my own experience, if you finish your purse (leaving off the duct tape, of course), you're probably going to have something that's gonna be an absolute award winner

Now, you have to be sure to show us pictures when you're all done. You've got us all waiting here with baited breath to see what the final version will be -->> with or without duct tape

Big hugs.

Barb