The biggest project flop......

So I have just finished my biggest project flop of my entire life (adult or childhood!) and since I have no shame I'm posting it here :)

Just for you to laugh at. But be gentle ok?

I bought a new fabric waffle weave shower curtain awhile ago and since we have a claw foot tub I had to hem it to be shorter. This part of the project turned out EXCELLENT.
See:

cutting the amount I needed off
turning up and ironing the hem

Then I sewed it with a zig-zag stitch (white stitches on white fabric do not photograph well so no picture) and hung it up. See? Perfectly hanging and no excess puddling in the tub (one time where you don't want a curtain to puddle)

Now here comes the flop....I had a good amount of that beautiful waffle weave fabric left from where I cut it off....so I took the old vinyl shower curtain and an old hand towel and decided to make a bath mat. We have one that I love but when that's in the wash we have nothing until it's clean.

Supplies: towel, waffle weave fabric, vinyl shower curtain, scissors, sewing machine, pins.

Cut your waffle weave to a little bigger then the width of the towel and lay out all your strips to determine the size of your mat. Cut towel to that size.

Take your towel and lay it on the vinyl shower curtain and cut to size.
(I sewed the 3 waffle weave strips together to make one piece) Lay your pieces in this order: vinyl shower curtain (will be inside the mat) then towel right side up and waffle weave fabric right side DOWN.


Sew around the edges leaving about 4-6 inches open for turning. Turn it right side out by reaching in the opening and putting your hand between the waffle weave and the towel.
Here's where it flops....I wanted to sew a finishing hem around the entire outside of the mat after turning (had to at least sew the opening left from turning closed) to give it a more finished look. Apparently, even after trimming the edges and cutting the corners to reduce bulk before turning there was STILL too much bulk and I broke my first ever machine needle...into THREE pieces!

Now this is where I swore quite loudly because I was 100% sure I didn't have a replacement needle (never ever broken a needle and I use the same needle for every type of sewing *gasp!*) & the little one was napping so going to the store wasn't going to happen. I decided to dig through my mess of a sewing tub and actually found a little packet of 'universal needles' and put one in hoping 'universal' really meant universal....It did. But then I still couldn't sew close to the edge because of the bulk and with 50% sewed I couldn't really leave it. So I finished it by sewing as close as I could without sewing over too much bulk.....and this is what I ended up with:

A waffle-y, rumple-y mess. BUT it functions, is SUPER cushy under your feet and I used my left over fabric, vinyl shower curtain and made a bath mat that will serve us just fine whenever our other one is in the wash.

Big flop in 'professionalism' and 'sewing style' but whatever right?

Hopefully Monday I will be able to show you a project that ISN'T flopping right now but it's not done yet so you'll have to wait. Here's a hint: I de-brassified something that has been bugging me since I moved here! YAY!!

So to make me feel better I think y'all should tell me YOUR biggest project flop (doesn't have to be sewing, it could be cooking, crafty, woodworking...whatever!) and if you kept the flop or started over??

Look forward to hearing your stories,
Kristi