Sheet dress... I hate zippers

New dress, left
previous dress, right
Both repurposed bed
sheets.

I've been reading negative reviews here and there of other crafting merchants, and it's getting to me a bit. Now I scrutinize my projects, nit picking till I no longer feel they're worthy of value to anyone other then my own children, who love their twirling dresses. A fellow angoras rabbit, spinner, knitter, and crafting enthusiast (who passed away last year) once told me to stick to making things I'll be able to use myself, because nothing ever sells very well. She made some lovely hand spun, angora wool hats, gloves, and sweaters and they would sit on her little website for ages. I try and keep her advice in mind when prioritizing my sewing and knitting projects, because it's very sage. My kids will grow up wearing a lot of handmade.

Not being prone to giving up entirely or wallowing in failure, I've decided that I could certainly use some instruction on sewing zippers. I've sort of winged it for years, but honestly, hate how they always look, and am certain there's a better way, I just haven't figured out yet. My attempts a hidden zippers never work out the way they should. The instructions on the zipper package just don't make any sense to me. I'm going to have to google this and see if I can find some tutorials online or something. I get frustrated with folks who never try or choose to turn away from the lessons they could learn. So what if that first knitting project looks awful! Try again, and the next will be better.

 There's also got to be a way to keep more seams tucked and hidden. On my dress I have almost all the major visible fabric seams turned and topstitched, but not all of them. Like the shoulder sleeve seams, and the bodice to skirt, while all on the inside, are still finished off with a tight zig zag because I couldn't figure out a way to have them hidden. A lot of garments just utilize the finish of a serger for these sorts of things, but I don't have one of those, so I zig zag the edges.