Murphy's Laws of Sewing

[Hoowil]

You won't notice till the last turn out, on the last seam, when you're trying to french seam, you started backwards, and now you have nice ridges on all the seams. 

time to bust out the seam ripper.......

[Duckie84]

when sewing by hand you run out of thread a couple of inches from the end

[CapnFayeCutler]

When your favorite machine goes out of commission and needs servicing, your backup machine starts getting wonky with the auto-tension, and your third machine is so old the belt has dry rotted... all while you have major projects that NEED to get done. *grumble*

[Genievea Brookstone]

You've sewed all the sides of your skirt to gether and notice that two of the seams are on the right side and two on the wrong side.

[Sabrina Black]

The tiny serger that your mom gave you (cause she never used it) doesn't like the mesh fabric that you're using to make an overskirt, and you have ONE possible evening to drive 40 minutes to a friend's house to use her serger, among all the million and one other things you have to do both faire-related and non-faire related before making the trip to faire two days from now.

Thankfully, it's nice to have friends who are always willing to help

[Taffy Saltwater]

After sweating blood putting a chemise of pleated, shiney, slick-as-snot fabric together, one sleeve is inside out.  I don't care & anyone who has the audacity to mention it will get the rough side of me tongue!

[DonaCatalina]

I finally got the motivation to work on a bodice and realized that I didn't have the black cotton twill that I thought I had.

Murphy must have stolen it.

[Lady Rosalind]

Here's one:

You waited 5 months to get into a new, bigger apartment, with an extra room for a sewing room (squee!!!). You spend hours cleaning the old apartment to make sure that everything is spotless for the new occupants, occasionally cursing under your breath that the people who live in your new apartment will put as much effort into cleaning as you did. You even touch up the paint on all of the walls, to make sure that the nail holes you filled, and any scuffs are covered very carefully. You are so excited to move in, that you wake up at 5:30 am on moving day, and count down the hours until you can pick up the keys. You've been dreaming about setting up the new sewing room for months, and have already planned spending the last part of your vacation working on a new gown, to reward yourself for all of the work and pain of moving.

Then you get into the new apartment.

With mounting disappointment, you realize that the previous occupants haven't cleaned in a year. Crusty floors, gross cupboards, scuffed and dirty walls, awful bathrooms, spotty carpet... they didn't even vacuum before the carpet cleaners shampooed the carpets. You realize that you have a full day's worth of cleaning before you can even begin to unpack, and your mom is leaving at noon the next day.

I guess I'm not making a new gown for the Des Moines faire this year... 

[Margaret]

You are in the midst of a sewing frenzy!!  Yay!

You are nearly finished up with a skirt, but you need interfacing for the waistband.  OK - run to JoAnns for that tomorrow.  Set skirt project aside because you can pick up the sleeve you need to finish.  Dang!  No black thread for that.  However, that's still OK because you can pick up the cartridge pleating you put down some time ago.  Oh yes, that's why you put it down, no floss.....

The caul?  Nope - no small hooks and eyes.  The hat?  Need to buy some large enough plastic canvas.  Finish up the chemise?  *sigh*  Need elastic and a draw string.

[Sabrina Black]

You are in the midst of a sewing frenzy!!  Yay!

You are nearly finished up with a skirt, but you need interfacing for the waistband.  OK - run to JoAnns for that tomorrow.  Set skirt project aside because you can pick up the sleeve you need to finish.  Dang!  No black thread for that.  However, that's still OK because you can pick up the cartridge pleating you put down some time ago.  Oh yes, that's why you put it down, no floss.....

The caul?  Nope - no small hooks and eyes.  The hat?  Need to buy some large enough plastic canvas.  Finish up the chemise?  *sigh*  Need elastic and a draw string.

That sounds like a great time to make a list and go shopping!

[Taffy Saltwater]

Pattern calls for interfacing so you buy the iron on stuff.  Open pattern - they mean duck/canvas - not the iron on kind.    The good news is I found addition yardage to make the jacket for my Victorian walking skirt at at another JoAnn's.  The bad news is they had the same jacquard in a delicious berry shade that I would have chosen before the black.  Black is classic, right?

[Dayna]

So have it in both!

[CaraGreenleaf]

I still don't know how I did it, but this story needs to be told on this thread.

I was working on a basic 6-panel godeted skirt, and had the front three panels and the back three panels stitched properly. I laid the front right side down and laid the back right side down on top to make sure that all the hem edges were straight. Everything looked right, so I pinned and stitched. Upon finishing the two main side seams, I held up the skirt and realised my mistake. The back was sewn to the front right side to wrong....made good friends with my seam ripper that day. Especially when after I got that all reorganised, I inadvertently hemmed the bleeding skirt inside out! Geh!

[Hoowil]

You finally get the time, money and motivation to do some garbing for the upcoming season, and can find everything but the power cord to the sewing machine.

[Aunty Lou]

You've got the most delicious olive-green velvet.  Not cheap, froma designer's mill-end from Banash's in Cincinnati, bought on Superbowl Sunday Sale.  You've got the best pattern, well, used, well-loved.  You've got a place and a persona to wear it to and with.  Have you the time?  NEVER!