[galligator]

Thanks. A lot of the time I think of myself as an enthusiastic amateur who never knows when a project is too difficult. Anyone who spends enough time sewing also spends a fair amount of time ripping out seams sewn in wrong.

The hope/goal is to lose a good portion of my pregnancy weight by next Christmas so the dress won't -cross fingers- fit by that time. Luckily, my shoe size should stay the same from now on. So I should be able to keep my shoe collection for a good long while.

It's funny for me, both shoes & fabric - I have more than I realize of both items (my daughter counted about 100 shoes this month on a walk through my closet & I know I moved at least a dozen plastic tubs full of fabric to our new home this year). But, somehow each piece of fabric or shoe still has it's own distict personality for me. Yes, I love making something that I could never actually find in a store - and clothes are cheap enough right now that I really only want to make something impossiple to buy - but I also love sometimes just checking out a fabric for it's beauty or possibilities. Probably the same way some of us consider our shoes, actually.

Lets just say I could probably survive quite well without actually stepping foot in a shoe department or fabric store for years - But what fun would that be?