I read a different kind of organizational book recently. It was Getting Organized in the Google Era, by Douglas C. Merrill and James A. Martin. One of the themes that came through loud and clear was to let your goals be your guide.
I kept this in mind as I was working this weekend on restyling my wedding dress. I am trying to make two items from the dress and leftover fabric scraps (I made said wedding dress, way back in the 80's). This is a significant constraint, as there isn't an endless supply of fabric, and my two intended items (a skirt and a throw pillow) both require large swaths of it. I realized that plans for the throw pillow had it turning into a mish-mash of scraps that wouldn't really be pleasing, and I was getting frustrated with trying to balance fabric needs for competing interests. Then the little mantra repeated itself in my head: let your goals be your guide. What *are* my goals here? Do I really need to make two things from this wedding dress? Assuming I still want to make a throw pillow, what goal do I have for how it looks?
So, the goal for the pillow: show off and preserve some of the construction details from the original garment. There was a nice lace finish at the neckline; the same piece of lace will be prominent on the front of the pillow. Ditto for lovely embroidered button-loops; that will become the pillow's closure in the back. Having a clear goal made this process go much more smoothly.
Now I just have to decide whether to try and update the pillow's dated color (eighties apricot!) with my favorite edge finish: giant piping! Any piping recommendations for a color that will go with pastel orange and help bring it into this century?
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