Sewing and the Plan

If you know me, you probably know that I really enjoy sewing. Over the past month, I've been working on a dress for myself for Ben and Emily's wedding. Because life is really busy right now, the only day I can sit down and sew is Sunday. As I've been sewing, my thoughts have kept coming back to the same thing - making a dress has so many parallels to the gospel and God's plan for us.

First, we have to understand how the pattern fits together and cut out all the individual pieces in the correct size. To me, this is like knowing about God's Plan and how it works in my life. Patterns or plans provide order to what would otherwise be chaos. Take a few yards of fabric, some thread, and a zipper and try to make a dress out of it without a pattern or a plan. You probably wouldn't be successful.

Over 80 pages of pattern pieces had to be carefully taped together
and then cut out and pinned to the fabric

I snapped this picture before I realized that I'd placed the pattern pieces on the fabric with the floral pattern running the wrong way. I'd cut out three pieces before I noticed. Life is like that sometimes. We don't realize we've started down the wrong path right away and have to go back fix our mistakes

Then the pieces need to be put together correctly and in the right order. If I were to sew things out of order, the dress would never come together. There is an order to our lives as well and as tempting as it can be to skip steps, I'm reminded of what King Benjamin taught: "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order." (Mosiah 4:27)

There was no way to machine baste the layers together, the fabrics were too silky and slippery. So every part of this dress that was lined (which is every part of this dress) was first hand-basted. We have to put a little extra effort into life if we want the best results. 

This particular pattern was more complicated than anything I've sewn in the past. I really had to slow down to keep from making mistakes. The construction order was actually kind of unusual or at least not what I'm used to or what I expected. There was also a lot of hand stitching in the lining of the dress. I didn't get it at first. Why spend so much time hand stitching something that no one would ever see? Now that the dress is completed, I get it. You end up with a dress that is beautiful outside and inside. That's an easy connection to make - the work we do to become more like Christ will be different than what we expect and sometimes we'll really have to slow down and focus so we don't make mistakes. The end result will affect every part of our lives, inside and out.

Details matter. This is the neckline facing and it took me three tries and
plenty of unpicking to get it right. 

These pintucks on the bodice were another detail that took more than one try. Sewing has helped me learn that it's okay to mess up, especially when those mistakes motivate you to learn more and try harder so you get it right the next time.  

Altogether, I probably spent twenty hours on this dress if I include cutting, interfacing, sewing, and hand stitching. It was worth every minute and I feel proud of myself for not taking any shortcuts. I've heard before that there are no shortcuts in life, and I think that's true. However, there are ways that we can make life easier and one really effective way is having a pattern or plan to follow. I'm grateful for God's plan for me and for the hope it gives me as I make my way through this life.