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| Sweater |
When cousin P's daughter gave my daughter some of her clothes, she included a light beige sweater that my daughter loved. It was a mixture of merino wool, cashmere, and acrylic, very soft and warm. However, upon closer inspection, we discovered that there were tiny holes here and there, near the neckline, on the sleeves, and the waist area:
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| Tiny Holes and a Bigger Tear at the Neckline |
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| More Holes |
(Color differences due to light sources - natural light vs. artificial light).
I couldn't tell what made the holes - moths? Kitty claws? (Cousin P had three cats at one time.) Or puppy teeth? (They had a dog, too.) There were about a dozen holes.
My daughter was disappointed. "Can you mend the holes?" she asked. Well, yes, I can. I even found almost the exact shade of embroidery floss, but, the mending showed. There was only one thing to do:
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| Embroidered Flowers and Leaves |
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| My Attempt at Cherry Blossoms |
The flowers are scattered all over the sweater, wherever the holes were and not all of them have leaves (some of the leaves cover additional holes if they were close enough to the hole covered by the flower). I was not sure about the randomness of the flowers, but, my daughter loves it! It's a personalized sweater, she claims!
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| Mended Sweater |
Another mending job completed.
In between mending and embroidering, I checked on the garden plants, took a look in the shed to see what else needed to be done, watered the indoor plants, chatted with friend R, put away a load of laundry, and did the dishes. It was another "finish up leftovers" type of day when it came to meals. I had the last of the egg salad for brunch, daughter had sardines on toast. She had chicken curry with rice and sauteed greens, I had fish curry with rice, eggplant, and sauteed greens. There's leftover ground turkey for tomorrow's dinner.
Today, I am grateful for:
- Gifts of clothing from family, holes and all
- Being able to mend
- Daughter is not only happy to wear mended clothes but, thinks the flowers make the sweater special
- Being able to mend
- Daughter is not only happy to wear mended clothes but, thinks the flowers make the sweater special
- My stash of embroidery thread (I used up all my pale pink thread!)
- A lovely, warm, sunny, day
Today's joyful activity was mending embroidering the sweater.
Plans for tomorrow include doing some paperwork and M tending to the garden in the evening.
How was your Thursday? What are your plans for Friday?
The embroidery looks good and I like the finished effect. It sounds like you had a make and mend day with the embroidery and the leftovers meals.
ReplyDeleteI want to finish moving the rest of the pots today if possible. I'm waiting to hear back from my nephew - I won't be able to do it without his help!
Thank you, Eileen. I hope your nephew is able to help you move the pots, today. Have a great day and a lovely weekend. Looking forward to seeing photos of the new fence!
DeleteWhat a beautiful solution to the sweater holes. A brilliant creative way to give more life to the sweater!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary-Lou. Yes, it will extend the life of the sweater and any new holes can be mended the same way, if necessary! :)
DeleteI'm with your daughter. I love the randomness of the flowers. They are tiny, so they're like little surprises here and there.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what she said! Just little flowers scattered here and there. This way, if any new holes appear, we can mend them the same way without spoiling any design!
DeleteWhat a fabulous (and really cute) mending job!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Anne. I had fun embroidering and daughter loves the end results! :D
DeleteYour embroidered flowers are lovely and what a great way to disguise those holes and give a new lease of life to the jumper.
ReplyDeleteToday I went for blood tests then took Tilly on the beach and discovered a dog-friendly cafe that was so warm and cosy with good coffee and friendly staff, we'll be back :)
Thank you, Eileen. The flowers do disguise the holes, don't they? I know that there is a current trend for visible mending, but, this is a prettier way to mend, I think.
DeleteI hope your blood test results will be good; I'm assuming they are for your upcoming infusion? Sounds like you and Tilly found a really pleasant cafe! :)
What a lovely soft sweater, you can tell from the photo, and well worth mending with your clever flower placements. You may start a new fashion!
ReplyDeleteDH and I were both restless in the night and we both got up for a while to get a rest from not sleeping! But we seem to have got enough sleep by morning as we are still functioning. However I did almost forget an item when grocery shopping and had to run back to pick it up. The checkout clerk was kind and fortunately there wasn't a lineup.
Thank you, Bushlady. There is a current trend for visible mending! The only difference is in visible mending, you emphasize the mending by using contrasting colored yarn or thread for the darning. I prefer to use embroidery to disguise the mending!
DeleteOh, those restless nights of being unable to sleep! I went to bed at 3:00 a.m., last night, got up at 7:30 a.m., turned off the porch lights and fed the cats, then, went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours! Maybe you can have a short nap in the afternoon, if needed. Glad you didn't quite forget that one item and was able to pick it up before you checked out! Can't tell you how often I've done that! One good thing about ordering online is, unless I select to pick up later that day, I have till midnight to add or make changes to my order! :)
Mission beautifully accomplished! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Martha! :)
DeleteI agree, it's a job well done! Did you do the same on the neckline? I had a jumper that suddenly got a couple of teeny holes like that but thankfully that was all. It was dark purple so I made sure I wore a black T-shirt underneath and nobody knew!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lady Ella. Yes, I first darned the neckline (the smaller holes were just sewn up before the embroidery) and then, embroidered a pink flower! It turned out a bit bigger than the other flowers, but, my daughter was fine with it. Good solution to your situation with the purple sweater. :)
DeleteThe mending is wonderful! An excellent idea to cover the random holes. Celie
ReplyDeleteThank you, Celie. It worked out well, didn't it?
DeleteThat sweater will be so soft and warm and now so special. Did it get caught in some sparks or something? They look very odd and scattered. I am impressed at your skill.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how the holes came about, Lyssa, since this was a sweater my cousin's daughter gave my daughter and the holes were already there! I think maybe her puppy chewed on it? But, my daughter can wear it, with the embroidery covering the holes. :)
DeleteOh Wow! I was expecting to see some tiny little stitches but that is such an inspired way of rescuing the sweater. The sweater looks so cosy and the 'mending' is beautiful. I just wish I was as talented at embroidery as you are. X
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jules. It's just blanket stitch done in a circle, keeping the stitches fairly close together; I know you know to do blanket stitch. Maybe something to keep in mind if Lily needs a sweater mended. :)
DeleteLovely job of mending and saving that sweater. Your daughter now has a one-of-a-kind garment thanks to your creative mending.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Debra. That's just what she said - a one-of-a-kind, personalized garment! :)
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