on the 19th or so i FINALLY finished working on natasha's dress. i started it in february and despite some minor glitches (ie. the wedding getting called off), natasha and i both managed to pull our way through our agreement (my dressmaking in exchange for a painting by her). so, i threw the dress in the washer and dryer (which i knew was safe, because i had washed the fabric before i cut out the pattern) to get out some water spots from the iron... and it came out totally ruined. faaack. there were dark spots EVERYWHERE, as if someone had splattered hot butter or something all over the dress. not very flattering. definitely unwearable. so i e-mailed natasha to tell her what had happened. she was very gracious, but that still didn't stop me from bawling (and THAT was probably aided by my PMSing). since the dress was ruined, i decided to try whatever i could to get the stains out, because i really had nothing to lose. my first few tries (handwashing with no soap, machine washing with detergent) didn't work, but i eventually tried some of the "oxi-clean: baby" that was left over in the trailer from the girls last year... and it seemed to work. so after about 8 rounds of handscrubbing the dress with oxi-clean and throwing it in the dryer (WITHOUT a dryer sheet, which appears to have been the problem), the dress is finally wearable. good lord. i hope natasha loves it. she asked me to put pockets onto it, because we both love them on dresses, and i think they make the dress 10 times more adorable. hopefully she will post a picture of herself wearing it when she picks it up (oh, natasha: i left it at nathan's because i won't see you when you get back). and i am looking forward to getting the painting she's making for me. woo!