Mishaps, Miscues, Mistakes

I could not figure out why the two pieces didn't align. The top and the bottom pieces weren't off by a fraction of an inch, but by several inches. How on earth did this happen? Was my seam allowance that off? The measurements were correct. I checked them several times before starting to sew? Oh well, it's time to fix things. I guess I'll rip out stitches, trim the top piece, sew it back together, and move on.

It was only in the midst of sewing it back together that I realized where I went wrong: I misoriented (is that a word?) the pieces! The rectangle should have been turned on its side. The side pieces were the bottom and the bottom pieces were the sides. Drat. {Except my language was more colorful and only in my head.} I'd already ripped up, cut up, and rebuilt the top piece. There was no going back. Except for some more major trimming due the incorrect orientation. Bummer. The reason I chose this pattern was in fact for the other orientation.

Welcome to my mind, circa 4 pm on Sunday. The project that should have been easily finished by then was nowhere near complete. Not only had I messed up -- a combination of poor reading and, most of all, a total lack of thinking as I blindly (mentally anyways) pieced fabric together -- but my mistakes meant that my final product would barely resemble the original I wanted to produce. Having failed at basic instruction reading, it was time to improvise, and improvise I did. I'm pretty satisfied with the final product, though I remain annoyed with myself for my very stupid, easily-fixed-had-I-spent-a-second-thinking-about-what-I-was-doing mistakes.

What was I making? I'll show you as soon as it arrives at its intended destination.