Creative Mending

I love the excitement of creating something.. the low whir of the sewing machine joining fabric pieces together.

I'm not so big on 'mending'. It's so bad that I could go on for months, not wearing a shirt if the button came off.. *hangs head in shame*

But then they did say that children can really motivate you to do things.

See, when dear husband went to the States, he went on a shopping spree at the outlet store.. Lil Miss and Lil Master were recipients to many wonderful clothes. Out of all the clothes Lil Miss received, she loved this really comfortable salmon pink dress from DKNY. It's a soft stretchy cotton jersey knit.. simple design.. with an A-line-ish skirt. But the piece de resistance was the chiffony tiered outer layer skirt. Lil Miss is all about girly twirly skirts.

Alas, with wear, there's tear.. :(

The chiffony part was beginning to fray too.. When Lil Miss saw the tear.. she came up to me and asked me to sew it back for her. Something about the lil puppy dog eyes made me say OK.. probably a little too fast.

The tear was small.. but yet, how to do it elegantly?

I took thread.. and I handstitched.. satin stitch like stitches.. (and I'm horrible with even stitches).
The end result is ugly noticeable stitches.. clearly patching a tear.

What am I to do...

What else can I do but to ransack my stash :)

I found a thin cotton lining material in red (it was meant to be sewn as lining to a blouse I planned on making for CNY.. but that's another story).

Cut two long strips, folded it together, sewed and ruffled..

I then formed a simple rossette with each ruffled strip. Sewed up the bottom of each rossette, making sure I catch all layers.. and slowly place it over the mended tear on the dress...

Tada!

Showed it to Lil Miss... she approves.. :)