Destructive Fail

I wanted to finish sewing my T-shirt. Did it look great? No. I made a size that ended up being way too big, and because I messed up the collar band and had to rip it out, I had small little holes around the neckline. I'd decided to continue anyway and take it as a learning experience.

So on Saturday, I bought a can of spray starch because I'd read somewhere online that I could starch the hem, iron it, and then throw it in the wash when it was finished. That this would help keep a nice edge.

This was the beginning of the fail.

I don't own an ironing board, so ironing means using an old bathmat on a hard surface. Since I had a lot of ironing to do, I thought I'd do it sitting at the dining room table. This was a bad decision.

My first problem was the can of spray starch kept slipping out of my grasp. I don't know why because I do weights at the gym, I do dumbbells at home, it wasn't that heavy. But I continually had it slip. And then it happened. It slipped out of my hand and hit the edge of my dining room table. It left a distinct nick. A noticeable nick. ::Sobs::

The second problem made itself known when I finished ironing and lifted the bathmat I was using. Now I had a big white splotch on my tabletop. I'm guessing from the starch? Maybe it was the heat? I don't know, but I ran for my wood cleaner and went at that thing repeatedly. I think I got most of it.

Now it's time to sew. With a twin needle. Gah!

My fabric got stuck in the metal plate below the needle within seconds. I couldn't get it out and had to take the plate off. The fabric still wouldn't come out of the little hole it was jammed into. I worked on it, my dad worked on it. No go.

I started using the sewing machine's screwdriver to try and push the fabric out of the hole. My hand slipped. The screwdriver hit the top of my dining room table.

It left a nick.

At least it didn't slide. It just hit and I jerked it back in time to prevent more than a pinpoint nick, but OMG! WTF?

That was the last destructive fail of the day. My final fail, though, was the T-shirt. The hem is wavy and doesn't look right. An online search says to use some kind of dissolving hem tape to prevent this. I don't own any of that. Looks like I have yet another purchase to make before I try a second T-shirt.

This is disheartening and I feel sick every time I think about my poor table. :-(