Failure and Re-Group

I've been dealing with project failure lately, and it stinks.  I was trying to made the Dress from B3598, which Butterick had marked as "easy" and I had foolishly approached as such, using my beloved Groovy Jersey fabric that I had been holding onto for a long time.  I measured it and everything. And I just tried to upload a photo, but the blog isn't cooperating.  It's probably for the best, as now I can't link to a series of photos of my massive failure.  ANYWAY, I thought I had measured enough BUT I only had enough for the front, back and ONE yes ONE sleeve.  I really wanted the long sleeves.  :(  So I thought, "Why not cut the dress shorter, make the bottom out of black fabric, and have enough for 2 sleeves??"

So I again cut my pretty fabric to have enough for sleeves, and sewed on a black jersey to the bottom.  I was feeling pretty good about all this, but after I laid it out, it looked....well, ugly. I don't even have a photo of it!  I thought, "Well, I'll sew it anyway and see if I have something to work with.  And I wish I had just cut the great fabric longer and turned it into a tunic!"  Then, the unheard of happened...the machine ATE it, like, sucked it into the bobbin.  I had to cut it out of the machine!

Sooo angry.  I haven't been able to make a garment since the Ren Dress.

I took a step back and a deep breath, and decided to reorganize.  I have several projects started that I need to finish - a faux leather belt, a vinyl purse, and a re-purposed flannel shirt dress.  I've been meaning to teach myself how to make cloth flowers.  I hate working with pattern tissue!  I wanted to make wrist bands!

The flowers have been fun, I've been mixing at matching little bundles of fabric, and I am going to use some of them to make wrist bands.

I'm using the wrist cuffs off the afore-mentioned flannels, they are just the right size, and they have a built in button-hole, which is plus.

Also as I mentioned, I hate working with tissue paper, so I decided to affix some of my patterns.  I used watered down white glue, craft paper and a large brush.  You only have to coat the top of the tissue, as it soaks through to the craft paper.  Be careful and watch for bubbles, and when it dries it is AWESOME.  Just cut around the lines and you're done.  I mark the pattern number and what it is on the outside of the roll, and tie a clip onto the tying cord to hold the smaller pattern pieces.

Pre-cut patterns.

I'm getting pretty good at the rosettes, too.  More complicated flowers to follow soon!

So I am not quite sure where to go next - jump into a project, do some of this smaller prep-work, or what.  Any ideas?