Surprise! It’s me on a late Wednesday night.

How’s your week so far? Mine has been great! A very productive week for my real job.

So… one of my dearests, Megan of Maison, filled me in on a weekend DIY today. Hilarious. So funny, in fact, that I begged her to allow me to share.

So, without further ado, meet terribly fashionable, astoundingly beautiful, always hilarious Megan.

{a message of hope}

I do not sew. You should know this right up front. However, until this past weekend, I was oddly unaware of this fact. Don’t get me wrong, I love to craft. Glue guns, beads, stamps, I love it all. And I’ve made some great DIY projects in my day, if I do say so myself. Funky popsicle stick Christmas ornaments? I got that. Friendship bracelets made from embroidery thread? Coming right up. Sewing…well, as it turns out, that’s a touchy subject. I thought my pillows with crooked seams were adorable, quirky, homespun if you will. And the fact that pillows are the only things I can sew is a choice. Duh: I’m specializing. None of that means I can’t sew very well, ok?


My mother is a seamstress and a very talented one at that. She made tons of clothes for us growing up, costumes for plays, even my sister’s wedding gown.  Her grandmother taught her to sew when she was a little girl and so my mom minored in fashion design in college to strengthen her skills (along with a double major in French and Russian…decisive she is not). It makes perfect sense why these same subjects interest me. I’m very close to my mom and sewing was always something I wanted to learn, especially after my interest peaked in fashion (Reader’s note: Wanted is the operative word here. Notice how there’s no sentence like “I learned to sew.”).


After making a basic pillow in my 8th grade home-ec class I thought I was good to go. I even made 2 more pillows in high school (note how the word learn is still absent).  Well, I got news for ya friends: 3 pillows a fashion designer does not make. My husband bought me a sewing machine for Christmas last year (upon my request) and it has lived in harmony with the dust bunnies in my guest room since its removal from the box. This past weekend I decided enough was enough: I was going to make a leather handbag (hey now, try to control your laughter).


It’ll be easy, I thought. I’ll pick a very simple design (note: I said design not pattern), I’ll buy pleather since I’ve never actually worked with leather before (or ANYTHING other than cotton), I’ll line it with canvas for strength, then with a cute little giraffe silk fabric to be the lining, I’ll stud the bottom just like Alexander Wang, it’ll be just great!


You see where this is going.


Now, to my credit, I did in fact end that day with a handbag made out of pleather. Was it lined with canvas for strength? No. Was it then lined with silk giraffe fabric? Kinda. Is the bottom lined with gold studs? I don’t think so. Is it great? Uh, no. But wait, here’s the kicker: IS IT SEWN AT ALL, IN ANY WAY?


Nope.


About half-way through this project (and after some choice words and a lot of puckered pleather) I realized there were a few holes in my plan of attack. I wanted to finish the project, but was starting to realize that I was out of my league. Enter Guerilla Super Glue.  If you don’t know about this stuff, go to the hardware store now and pick some up. Believe me, you’ll use it. It will bond any 2 materials together including, that’s right, fabric. That pleather bag is ENTIRELY constructed with super glue. And what a bag it is. I gotta tell ya folks, it’s ugly as sin, but you know what? On Sunday night, when all was said and done, I had before me a pleather handbag.  
{mission: accomplished}
The best way to learn and improve is to fail along the way.
Do you have a DIY Fail to share? I have more than a few! Send me your stories to rachelhgarza(at)gmail(dot)com.