"As you sew, so shall you rip!"

[Longhorn]

My mother has a cartoon with this saying framed and hanging on the wall in her sewing room. Ain't it the truth?

Today, fresh from finishing the second slipper for our Crochet-A-Long, I decided to finish the afghan I started last year before I begin anything else. I had last worked on it about two months ago so I had to check out the pattern and figure out what row I was on. In doing that, I realized that I had done the last round (I'm working on the edging) wrong -- two short sides, one long side, and about half of the last long side. I was very tempted to keep going the way I was doing it but there are two more rows on top of that row so the error would be compounded. So, reluctantly, I pulled the last row out and started over. It took me about two hours to redo it but, in the long run, I know I'll be happier with the finished product.

What's the biggest mistake you've made that you had to redo?

[eleny]

1. Makes me think of the past few days

I've been needle felting a head/face. So far, I've felted on and removed just about all the features. Eyes, eyebrows and ears. The good thing about dry felting is that you can remove what you want and "paint over" the offending area with more wool to cover up any color that you want to hide and start over in that spot.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to rip seams. But the worst was sewing my first pair of slacks. They were corduroy. I laid the pattern out wrong on the fabric. When I sewed the pieces together, the nap was going down on the fronts and up on the backs. Oy! I don't remember what I did. Maybe got some more fabric for the backs.

[Sweet Freedom]

2. My most recent mistake

I found this super-cute pink fabric with Superman logos on it. My daughter thought it was dumb, but I thought it was great, so I made myself some pajamas. I started with the pants. Breezed through them, turned them right-side out and realized I had cut the fabric with the pattern upside-down. So now I have pajama bottoms with upside-down Superman logos.

And no, I couldn't get more fabric to redo. I had bought all that the store had x(

[eleny]

3. Well, when you're wearing them and look down - they're fine!

[Mrs Robeson]

4. Rip- it, Rip-it...

I am always ripping something out and doing it over!!! If I can stand back and look at the item and my eye goes directly to the mistake I usually can't stand it if I don't do it over.

The worst? A few years ago I made a scrappy quilt and put it up on the design wall and thought I was happy with it and put it all together (full size bed quilt) and I didn't like it-so I took it all apart and rearranged the blocks and put it together again!! STILL did not like it so I took it apart again. This time I made cornerstones and sashing to go between the blocks and put it back together. It looked OK then (Queen size by now) I was not totally happy BUT...I was done with it!!!

[AllegroRondo]

5. Cross Stitch mistakes

While working on a Camelot sampler (by Theresa Wentzler).
There is a jousing scene in the top that was over-ones on 38 count linen. I completed an entire horse and knight before I realized it was one stitch to the right of where it should have been. Ouch. That took about 3 days to fix.

[DUgosh]

6. I have a very old sewing book that says in the front cover

"The Lord loveth a cheerful ripper."

[photogirl12]

7. I was crocheting an afghan for a wedding gift.

It was for my cousin who was married kinda spur of the moment. I chose the pattern, chose dark green to match the living room of their log home. Then I started the pattern. I was crocheting like the wind! Heck, I needed to get this done in a hurry - she had gotten married 2 days before I started the afghan!! I thought I was following the pattern. After I was about halfway done with it, I stopped and looked at it. Not only did the shells not line up, but the afghan was narrower at the bottom and wider at the top. I couldn't take it. I put the afghan away. This past summer I ripped out the whole thing (Phew! That was PAINFUL!!!). I finally finished it in January. 6 YEARS LATER!!! I mailed it to her and she loved it. I was just glad to get it out of my house!!