It’s been three nights now of working on hemming this dress. Night two was when the tides took a turn—the hem started working. I gave up on using the machine and went for hand-stitching it with a back stitch. It is taking quite a while, but is actually working, actually looks good, and is almost done.
I am proud of myself for doing it; two days ago I didn’t know how to hem and now I do! I had never hemmed before and now I have. It is not the best work in the world, I will certainly be able to do better in the future, but this was a solid start. Pushing myself in a new skill did in fact push me, and it did push me to the brink of insanity, but I successfully altered my dress!