The letters “MTBF” are an acronym for a statistic. As in many things, the larger this number is the happier a person will be.
I learned the term recently in a conversation with my husband. He threw it out casually, as if everyone in the world knows what it means.
I did not know.
Of course, I live part time in the land of Make Believe, so perhaps that’s to be expected.
MTBF stands for Mean Time Between Failure. My number is smallish – unlike my waist measurement – although comfort eating and wine drinking keep the two highly correlated.
Take, for example, Bernadette’s recently completed school dress.
And the bag of potato chips I’m eating while I type this.
Correlated.
And this is why.
After I’d finished sewing, I decided to translate all the French instructions for the school apron. Yes, after. If I had to place a bet, I’d guess I used this activity as a way to postpone something less fun, like toilet cleaning or dusting.
My MTBF for housecleaning is teeny tiny. But I digress. . .
I had made the dress the way it looked like it should be made. I thought it was sort of sweet when I finally tried it on Bernadette. But now that I know how it’s supposed to look, I’m not sure I like it.
The problem is, the sleeves are actually NOT sleeves.
The “sleeves” are “epaulets”.
Yep.
I set epaulets into the armholes of the apron.
In my defense, I had translated a small portion of the instructions before I began. And nowhere was any sort of finishing of the armhole mentioned. Certainly, something should have been said about hemming? But no. The entirety of that area of the explanation says:
“After having scalloped the epaulet, gather it in all the part marked with groups of small lines, three by three, and sew them under the yoke (see the finished model).”
Sigh. There’s only one thing to say in a situation like this: C’est la vie.
To read all the posts for Bernadette’s back to school ensemble project, click HERE.
To follow along as Bernadette’s wardrobe continues to grow, hop over HERE.
Or to see some fun photos of Bernadette’s first day of school (and to find out what instrument she chose) plug your ears tightly and take a peek over HERE.