I did it.

I sewed. I cut. I sewed the shoulder seams. I started picking up the neck stitches.

And it started falling apart.

After judicious application of chocolate/chocolate chip ice cream to my wounded self confidence I figured out what I did wrong. Instead of shortening the stitch length on my machine I (deep breath) lengthened it.
I can fix this. I will fix it. Tomorrow morning I will pull my machine out again, fix it so it is *not* sewing six stitches to the inch, and just sew around the neck and armholes again. Then I will knit the neck, sew on the arms, and be done.

Funny. I have to admit that I didn't panic when I realized that the stitches were coming out. Well, not completely. OK, I did swear. But, ya know, this is also the first time that I've ever done this, so I was kind of expecting something worse to happen.
And I did make it through the cutting! It was just like a friend of mine (who is an amazing seamstress) says: "When you're working with a piece of fabric that cost you $30.00 a yard the first cut is the worst. After that you realize that it's just another piece of fabric."

So, with best Scarlette O'Hara attitude in place, I will continue tomorrow, because "Tomorrow is another day".