Breaking through the bias-tape-making barrier

He thinks I'm making him a pink
fluffy toilet. I kind of hate him for this.

Ok, so I kind of lied in my last post. I wasn't only holding out on working on Dress #2 because of the heat (though MAN did that contribute). I was being a lazy jerk because I didn't want to cut out all the bas strips. You see, making continuous bias strips is a pretty slow process when you don't have a cutting table. You have to lay the fabric flat on the floor to cut and measure it while also preventing the pets from crawling all over it. Effort! This is best done on a flat, hard surface away from animals. I do not actually have a space like this in my apartment.

Not shown: the little purple bruise
on my thumb that appeared around
hour four. I am a total baby.

I tried to do this on our wall-to-wall-carpeting stricken floor and it took me about three hours to do a passable job on a half yard of fabric because I had to keep re-doing it when the measurements were off. Also, the effort of rolling around on the floor with a yardstick and tailor's chalk was hard enough in the hundred degree heat without being swatted at by the cat and aggressively snuggled by the dog. Thus, I stopped after that half yard and watched three days worth of reality TV while sitting in a deep slouch on the sofa and periodically screaming "IT'S HOT AND I HATE IT!!!" at my husband, who I decided was completely to blame for this horrible weather.

The temperature went down a bit yesterday and I promised myself I would dig in and cut the strips until I was done. My reward would be sleep. Either because I'm extra ADHD this week or because my hands weren't made for hours of cutting with plastic-handled scissors, it was slow going and it took me all day. I cut about 4 yards of fabric, bound each color into its own continuous roll, and passed out somewhere in the neighborhood of 3AM.

Pictured: my entire day yesterday.
Speed and I don't hold hands.

Someone more efficient would have been able to do this more, well, efficiently, but at least I finished it eventually. Now I have enough continuous bias tape to cover several dresses, and I'll likely use the excess to make an apron or something to go with this dress. I don't know if it's the pink or what, but it makes me want to bake cupcakes and do other girly-ass things, and I suspect I'll be pissed if I cover it with cake flour and confectioner's sugar.

More pics soon. I spent most of today applying the strips to the dress and I'm pretty far along. It's PINK, though, which makes me nervous. It definitely looks like a giant piñata, and I can't tell if this is a good thing or not. I'd like for it to be funky, but not so crazy that I look like I'm going to make balloon animals at a 5 year old's birthday party.