Make n’ Tell Challenge: Day 14

Well this one is late going up because we lost power last night just as we were sitting down to dinner, at 8 pm. Which means it was already dark. Hmmm, flashlight? I guess it's good I'm slow getting the camping supplies put away, there's one just over there on the floor. Candles? Check the box in the front coat closet. We moved 6 months ago & needless to say, not everything has been unpacked and found a permanent home yet. I hope one of the cell phones is charged (we're really bad about that). Yes, call Mom to ask for the power company phone number (I guess we can't look it up on-line). They expect power to be restored within 3 hours, not bad. It did make me realize that we need to prepare a bit for these occurrences.

I whiled away the day yesterday - laundry, dishes, a bit of picking up, putting things away in the craft room. Late afternoon I realize I haven't done a make yet. So I tackled some of the mending pile that was taking over the sewing table. Not exactly creative, but I was making things useful again. OK, so I was still thinking while mending. Six things taken care of! Really, I think they only took me about 15 minutes total, and had been sitting there for a couple of months. Just wait until I find that pile of really old mending.



A very old project caught my eye while mending. How old you ask? Well, I found some cute butterfly toggles when one of the nearby JoAnn's was closing. I thought I'd use them on some kind of sweatshirt/jacket for my daughter. I found a pattern, cut out the pieces and planned embellishments. I cut the size 3, which probably means my daughter was 2-3 years old at the time. My daughter is now 4. Oh wait! That's my younger daughter who's 4, I was making this for my older daughter. She's 8. Sigh. Younger daughter is tiny for her age, I'm thinking it may still work somehow.

To embellish the jacket I enlarged the design of the toggle and layered fabric to match. I made one large one for the back, and two smaller ones to go on the front as 'pockets' (not sure if they'd be functional or just decorative). They were put together with fusible web, so that part was easy. Then I needed to embroider around the edge so it would match the toggles, just a simple backstitch. Of course I had already applied the fusible web to the back of the whole butterfly (to attach to the jacket) before beginning the embroidery. I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. It is more difficult to sew through that rubbery backing by hand, but not impossible. I never finished the embroidery, the large butterfly was half-done. So today I picked it up and decided to see what I could do. Not that hard, it's done. I remember really struggling with this originally. Was I using a blunt needle to do it way back when? (Um, probably. I'm embroidering with DMC floss, and it's entirely possible that the only needle I had at hand with a large eye was a blunt cross-stitch needle.) Use the proper tools for the job!

Here's what I have now.



All the pieces are ready for assembly, I just have to check it against Sarah to decide if I need to do any modifications so that it fits her before beginning. Fortunately I did keep the leftover pieces of fabric with the project, so I have a bit to work with if necessary.