One of my resolutions this year was to make, thrift, or mend a clothing item if I need a new one. I hadn’t sewn a garment since I was in college (20 years ago), and that was pajama pants (not a difficult thing to make).

I’ve started attending a new church (OK, fine, “sporadically attending” would be a better way to phrase that). People at my new church dress up on Sundays, and I don’t have many dresses. I decided to go crazy and make a dress.

I made the Fen Dress by Fancy Tiger Crafts. Is it perfect? Hell no. Is it done? YES! I’m looking forward to wearing it for the rest of the winter. I used flannel, so the dress is nice and cozy. It’s basically pajamas I can wear in public.

I made lots of mistakes while making this dress, several you can probably see in this photo if you are an avid sewer. I have a hard time loving crafts that I’m not immediately good at. I did enjoy the process enough to want to sew more. I would like to get to the point where I’m OK at sewing. I don’t know if I’ll ever advance to zippers.

The Fen Dress pattern comes with a shirt version of the dress. I think I’m going to make that next. I want to see if the process goes better the second time I make the pattern.

Do you sew? Do you have any easy sewing patterns you would recommend? What is your favorite thing to sew?