Oops!

I thought I was being so clever the other day...

Charlotte had this little purple top.

And on the front of this little purple top was a bow.

(as you can tell from the photo above - we're a bit too curious about the camera... so instead of sitting still for a photo, we just come closer and closer to the lens!)

It looked gorgeous when it was new... but with every wash, the bow just bunched up more and more... until it reached the point that it was just a weird blob on the front of her top.

So I took it off.

 I'd been meaning to do it for ages, but somehow the simple task kept evading me...

Anyway.

I did the right thing - and used a seam ripper, instead of just gouging at it with a pair of scissors... or using my teeth!

Yet somehow I still ended up with a hole - Aaarghhhhhhh.

(I like to believe that the hole was there under the bow anyway - maybe from all the pulling? Hey! I tell myself what I need to hear)

So here's the top (minus the bow).



And here's that pesky little hole... on the yoke, just above the seam...



Add some buttons:



And here's THE FIX!



Don't tell anyone, but I was actually going to stitch buttons all the way along the seam - but I was bored after the first three...

Rejuvenation Project

Have you met my friend Tora?

Over on Ravelry she calls herself Gypsy Dancer... and she is the artist behind The Art of Notions. Tora makes the most exquisite ceramic yarn bowls. She's taking a little break from it at the moment, but here's some photos of her work which has sold on Etsy.

Anyway, in addition to all of that... Tora is one of my fabulous moderators over at the Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs group on Ravelry. 

At the moment, Tora is hosting the July Rejuvenation Project. The idea is that you take an item of clothing from your 'fix-it' pile, and transform it using either knitting or crochet - into a new wearable piece.

So the first thing on my pile was a pair of bootleg pants belonging to Miss Katie. Check out the left hand side, just above the knee:

Nothing fancy... as you can see...

And here's the problem:

So I've taken a scrap of leather:

And marked out a heart shape, with a crayon of course:

Snip, snip:

Now I wanted to pre-drill some holes, so I could crochet around the edge. I tried it without thread in my sewing machine... but I couldn't see the holes in the dark leather! So I've stitched around the edge, and will remove the thread as I work" 

The plan was to crochet directly into these holes... but I bent my fine hook in the process, so I'm working a blanket stitch around the edge - then I will crochet into that.

Working some single crochet around the edge:

And a few picots, too:

Of course, as soon as this patch was stitched in place.. .I discovered two holes in the other leg!

So I worked up a few motifs:

Plus this:

And we're done!

Now what will YOU rejuvenate this month???