I can’t decide which project has made me happier, the outfit for my cat, or this A-Line skirt for me.

This A-Line skirt was made as part of a 3-week class at Spool. The class used a pattern by Betsy Ross Patterns, and was taught by Aimee Pflieger Dolby, the company’s founder. Believe it or not, the fabric came from Jo-Ann.

I expected darts to be hard. They weren’t. 

I installed a zipper. Badly.

I was convinced that it wasn’t going to fit, and was totally sweatin’ it during class, because the measurements indicated that it was going to be about 5′ too small

I swear, when I tried that thing on during class, and it fit, I think I heard angels singing.

I still don’t understand measurements. They never seem to match what the pattern says.

This whole sewing obsession started with my burning desire to create a tie for my dogs to wear in their Christmas portrait. At the time, the only nice tie pattern I could find was designed for cats:

click image for purchasing information

My dogs aren’t huge, and one of them isn’t much bigger than a large cat, so I figured I could just make the neckbands a little longer and the patterns would fit. 

I’m not sure what possessed me, but I decided to try making one of the outfits from the above pattern, even though I’ve only used a pattern once, and that was with a lot of help and supervision.

Here’s the super cute result:

It’s a bit difficult to see them, but the little “shirt” actually has pleats on either side of the buttons.

Unfortunately (for my cat, Willie), my whole just-make-the-neckbands-longer idea didn’t work out, and the outfit was too small for either of my dogs. So, here’s poor Willie, being the sweet, cooperative guy that he is:

Although I absolutely love this little outfit, it took about 6-8 hours for me to complete it. I had a lot of difficulty with the actual tie, and wound up having to take it apart several times. It didn’t help that the pattern seemed to be wrong in a couple of places, and, if not wrong, then at least extremely unclear. Since I’m a sewing noob, I don’t know how common it is for patterns to be wrong, but this one definitely seemed to have some problems.

The quest for the perfect dog tie continues…