365 Dresses Follow-Up

Jeannie Crockett finished her yearlong daily project 365 Dresses on January 27, 2013...

What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project? 

1. Doing something every day builds skill, and inspired my creativity. Pleasing myself was more satisfying than trying to please others. I resolved to not take ideas other suggested, as I wanted this to be completely my creativity in action. (I made one exception to this when a friend suggested I create a maternity dress. And I liked it! 
2. Time involved in making the dress was not directly related to my satisfaction with the posted dress. Sometimes the quickest pleased me the most.
3. Ideas generate more ideas. I considered going for an even 1,000 but decided to pursue other directions instead. I still think about little dresses, and the temptation to create more of the same is strong.
4. Recognition and praise are addicting and terrifying. I was featured on some other blogs, and even in a hard-copy magazine. It blows my mind that with little to no effort on my part, my blog was looked at nearly a 100,000 times. 
5. A little glitz makes me happy. Maybe I need to glitz up my life a little bit.
6. Every dress gave me ideas for other projects. 
7. 366 is a lot of little dresses! Mounted on 5.5" x 7.5" cardstock they take up a lot of physical space!
8. Blogging about a commitment is a great motivator. There was no way I was going to let my blog friends down! Moving from Baltimore to Paris in the middle of the project was a big challenge. It was the only time I made dresses ahead of time, and I did two weeks ahead before we moved. When I discovered I'd left a bag of ribbon and trim pieces out of my luggage, I nearly quit. However, a dear friend sent me a care package and the pieces in there lifted my motivation again. Near the end, I thought about quitting. Sort of like hitting the wall in a marathon, I think. But I couldn't quit. Not that close to the end! So I carried on. 

In what ways did the project change your life? Doing the project changed the meaning of "happy hour." Happy hour was the time each day when I made my dress. The project also made me more creative, more observant, and more tolerant of variances---by that I mean that I realized that every dress was NOT going to be the best ever!

Now what? Well, I presented my project and what I learned to a work group last week. The reception of my dresses and the recognition and appreciation were quite gratifying. I have another speaking (paid!) engagement in England at the end of February, and another back in the States when I return. I'm writing a magazine article presenting the idea that these little dresses are a better design tool than sketches to try out ideas and combination. A book? Yes, I think so. Other products? Well, cards are obvious. How about fabric? These days it is possible to design and print your own fabric. Lots of other ideas.

Read Jeannie's original 365 interview HERE.

See all of Jeannie's dresses HERE.