Emily from over here at The Family Trunk Project (link) is ruining my life.

I too would like to make sweet, fluttery spring dresses perfect for eating ice cream on the Pont Neuf with a handsome gentleman with rolled-up shirtsleeves and a wicked smile.  And while I have the gentleman (who has the shirtsleeves and the smile), ice cream is readily available, and could even obtain the passage to Paris with a considerable strain on my credit; I do not have the dress.  Nor do I really have the chops to create such a confection of silk and air.

But oh, how I wish I did.

My Nanny Jo insisted in my girlhood that my cousin and I attend several years of “sewing camp,” which we nicknamed “the sweatshop.” It was a week of rising early and spending all day in the back rooms of a fabric store in downtown Louisville, making quilt tops, scrunchies, beanbag animals, and whatever else the instructors could think to inflict upon us.  We even made, at one point, a skirt with an elastic waistband.  That was probably the last garment I sewed for myself until a few articles of reclaimed t-shirt clothing in the past few years.

Now Nanny Jo is a virtuoso.  She can make anything, and frequently does (link to the pattern she used for her Halloween costume).  I think I have inherited a little of her DIY nature, but most of it seems to be non-sewing-centric.  I suck at following patterns.  I suck at sizing.  There are even some basic sewing concepts at which I suck.  So I don’t think making Vogue 2784 is within the realm of possibility for me.

Right now, anyway.

I think I’m going to try another something for 2011.  I’m going to try to work on my sewing skills.  I have a perfectly serviceable Singer machine that I barely use, and lots of projects that could get done around my home.  There are curtains that need making, throw pillows that would be welcomed, and I’d even like to try my hand at making a set of bed linens.  And eventually, I’d like to work my way into garments.  I have a nice pattern for a simple-ish A-line skirt, out of which I would certainly get a lot of wear.  From there, perhaps more complicated skirts, and even a dress?

The dress?  Perhaps by this time next year, I will have all the necessaries to bring my springtime in Paris fantasy into reality.

Le sigh.  Maybe.

So Lis, come home and advise me.  I think a trip to IKEA for home decor fabrics is in my future.