That was smart of you to see where you were headed with losing money on the dress and nipping the whole thing in the bud like that. I'm definitely going to give myself lots of extra "lead time" if I do more custom work. I don't want to stop doing it but I clearly need to set more ground rules up front and do it in a way that gives me more control over the process!
Thank you, too! You don't realize how important and much-used thumbs are until you've got a wounded one!!