Simple Fix

What do you do with a hole in knit?

I find myself asking that question at least twice a month. Between kitty and Emmaline, we have quite a few knits with little holes in them. Most of the time, I take very fine thread and carefully stitch up the hole. Sometimes, the hole is just too big for a simple darn.

Take this adorable dress, which cost $3 at Old Navy. It's one of E's favorites, but after a curious experiment with kitty claw clippers, it ended up in the mending pile. I contemplated doing fancy stitch work to cover up the darning, but then, the light bulb came on: wonder under and appliques! Brilliant!

Using heart cookie cutters, I traced out three different sized hearts from knit that was left over from a turtleneck I turned into a regular shirt for Emmaline a while ago. I ironed them on in an asymmetrical line and gave them a quick zig zag around the edges.

I think I may take out the machine stitching and do a blanket stitch in navy thread, to give the hearts more definition, but for now, a favorite play dress is back in rotation. Hooray!

A Birthday Dress

My niece's birthday may have been back in January and she may have just recieved her birthday present yesterday....

In my defense, this dress had a few glitches. First it was going to be a bubble skirt, then a flared aline skirt, then a dress. Second, her first choice of fabric was adorable, but ended up being canvas. Third, she asked for a 14" zipper and was given a 7" zipper. We werent deterred, however, and after a few fittings, Miss WaLa has a lovely new dress.

Using Simplicity 2176, coral and ivory broadcloth and an ivory invisible zipper, I recreated a more modest version of a cute, but scandalously short dress from a major label.

Best part is, both WaLa and I love the end result! Yay for making this sweet freshman smile.