Saving a Flailing Project

In the beginning of this week, I attempted to make this sweet retro number, the one with the pencil skirt.

I had wanted to make the dress out of a knit fabric, and since I had some sitting in my fabric box for the longest time, I decided to just use it as a trial for this pattern.
I'm not too attached to this fabric. I think I had bought it very cheap just for trial projects such as this. Anyway, to make the long story short, I made quite a few mistakes cutting the pattern piece. In the end, I goofed up and did not have enough of this fabric to make the whole dress. Sigh!
So, the next evening, I rolled up my metaphoric sleeves and went to work salvaging what I could of the pattern pieces I had cut up the night before.
Not surprisingl,y since the pattern was for a dress, I ended up with a skirt that was too loose. You can't really tell from the photo, but the skirt is falling off me. Also, notice the horrible hem job. It was very discouraging.
The next evening, I fixed the hem, shirred it a little on the sides, and added a sash and belt loops. It is not perfect, but it's pretty enough for casual wear during the day:


Can anyone tell me why I spent so much time on a piece of fabric I was so lukewarm on to begin with?
Maybe it's the stubborn Taurus in me .... hahahaha...