I bought a long, black, crocheted tank-dress to wear as a cover-up with my bikinis when we go on vacation.

This is actually the second one I’ve bought – the first was for my sister, Andee, when she went to the Dominican Republic for her anniversary a year, or so, ago. She told me she loved it, that it fit well, and she felt like a model in it…of course, she’s 5’11” tall.

Mine arrived, and I was excited until I tried it on and it was  dragged along the ground like the train on a very long, black, wedding dress. Something that Elvira or Morticia would adore.  Then I realized why.  I’m only 5’4″ and these are cut for someone 6 inches taller. Darn!

I decided to hem it. Why not? Save myself $25 and a long drive to the only tailor I trust. I am sure it will be easy, since I have leftover magic tape from Ikea. It is a mesh tape, like a spider web that fuses fabric together when heat (your iron) is applied. I’ve got this!

Easy-peasy: cut 4″ off of the hem, fold it up to where I need it, place the tape between the fabric,  pin it, fire up the iron. Mercifully, at the last minute I thought to put a cotton napkin over the fabric so I wouldn’t  melt the nylon-blend of the dress!

Voila! Except the tape melted through the holes in the crochet, and had melted all over our Teflon coated iron, the linen napkin, and the newish ironing board cover. And the dress was fusing to both the napkin and the ironing board cover!

My dreams of  sashaying poolside in my sexy cover-up were about to go down in flames…

I won’t bore you with the details  (unless you need to know, and I can walk you through it, call me) but, believe it or not,  I was able to salvage the whole situation. The dress is now the right length, and looks as good as I’d hoped.

Now to get packed, and perfect my sashay by Saturday!

XO  Donna