skirt project fail

i promised a while ago that i would post about a failed project that i had completed. i'm finally getting around to it. my niece has a really cute skirt that i decided i could replicate on my own (i should have a picture of it, but i don't). it is a reddish wine color and has three different fabrics in ruffly layers. very cute. i went to the fabric store and couldn't really find three different fabrics that matched in color, so i decided that i would just do it in white and dye it when i was done.

skirt production did not go as planned. satin is a pain to work with (renew my vow never to work with non-cotton fabrics), especially to ruffle. the layers turned out shorter than i intended and i actually ended up going back and taking out a couple layers to fix them later. there were some other major mistakes that i won't point out, but it was bad. i got fed up with the skirt pretty quickly. 

but. beth urged me on and i finished it and i was actually okay with how it looked (from a far) as an overall product. i figured that it would still be a fun skirt for her to wear, even if it wasn't perfect. 

and then i dyed it.

i don't have a picture of the whole thing, but this is it close up. it is supposed to be red. and trust me, i left it in the dye for a LONG time. much longer than the instructions. now, i knew there was a chance that the satin would take the dye differently than the cottons, but not that differently. and the cottons aren't even close to red. can we say coral?

needless to say, this project was a flop. fortunately, i had priced it out beforehand and decided that even if it did flop, it was worth trying, but it was still disappointing. especially with how much time i ended up putting in to it. madeleine still loves it though, and dances around the house in it like it's the best thing in the world. she still doesn't understand why i don't love her going out in public in it.