I first saw the Fringe Dress by Chalk and Notch on Instagram and thought it was a gorgeous pattern. But I was also terrified of it. It has two views. One has buttons, the horror! And the other has a complicated neckline that means needing facings and the use of fusible interfacing. More horror!

But I remembered that I had read Pema Chödrön’s book The Places that Scare You and I was determined to go there. She says “Live your life as if it were an experiment” and “Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what it needs to”. And I guess I needed to stop being worried about failing or things being hard and start experimenting more often. Maybe button holes would magically disapear if I just learned how to make them.

I bit the bullet and bought the pattern. I also decided to get it printed at a copy shop. I don’t have a large table or space to peice the pages. It is a game changer! I walked out the door, 2 minutes later with two A0 pages of my pattern. Obviously, the person working there had never printed a sewing pattern and was really curious about it, too.

I cut the fabric and put it away for the night. I was totally determined to slow down enough so it wouldn’t get exhausting or frustrating. The next day I started sewing. I had decided to make view A with view B sleeves. I don’t like sleeve tabs in general.

The instructions are so detailed with lots of pictures that I felt someone was holding my hand during the entire process. I didn’t have to second-guess myself or google things to figure out how to do it. I even lengthened the skirt and redrew the pattern because I am taller and don’t like my dresses too short.

I pressed every seam. Didn’t hurry myself at all and tested making buttonholes on scrap fabric. I even tested fusing the interfacing so I knew how much heat and pressure to use. I even undid the skirt because the gathering didn’t look right and did it again. I am glad I took my time. By the end of the day I had a wonderful dress. Sadly, I didn’t have the right buttons for it but when I added them the next day I did a little victory dance.

Here it is!

Techinically, this is my wearable muslin and I intend to make another one. I would lengthen the skirt a little bit more the next time. And use a slightly more drapey fabric, but other than that I don’t think I would make any changes.

I am glad I went to my scary place, because it turned out, it wasn’t even that scary.
And no, button holes still exist. 🙁 But now I know I have got this!