Embellishing Old Blouse For More Use

After stitch witchery

Determined to use up some bits of old white and black lace and a shiny ornament, I went into my closet to see if there was some blouse or shirt that could use some embellishment to get me to wear it again. I found a somewhat worn white and grey printed blouse that I hadn't worn for two years and thought this was a good candidate for some scraps. It turned out I had just enough bits and pieces to make a fairly pleasing square shape out of the strips of lace. I stitched them on with the machine but hand-stitched the metallic diamond shape as I might have damaged it with the presser foot.  I think it came out all right and I've worn this a few times this summer and got some use out of something I might otherwise have cut up into rags or something.

What blouse looked like before

Turning a Square Scarf Into an Infinity Cowl Neck Scarf

Red floral cowl scarf laid out

Finished square scarf next to original red cowl

34"x35" square scarf beside red cowl

Pin sides before cutting

There's a couple of large square scarves in my closet that have been hanging in there, quite useless, for a while.  The trend now is for infinity or cowl neck scarves so I thought I'd convert the square ones. This turned out to be far easier than I thought and I was able to stitch up a couple of these in two hours. First I found the red floral cowl scarf I owned already, to use as a pattern or model. I saw right away that the square scarf just needed to be cut into two halves that I could then stitch together to make the cowl.  So after cutting, putting right sides together, I stitched it together and then stitched the bottom to make it a loop.  I then roll hemmed the long "cut" side of the scarf. Since the square scarf came with finished edges, there was not a lot of other finishing to be done to the seams. I'm quite pleased with the end product and quickly turned another big 35" by 34" printed square scarf into a cowl neck scarf as well. So now I'm ready for fall!

Square scarf cut in half

Roll hem on long side

other square converted to cowl

Damn the Torpedos, Full Speed Ahead!

Not far from where I work is Farragut Square that I stumbled into today and snapped a shot of ole Admiral David Farragut, the guy who apparently said, "Damn the torpedoes, Full Speed ahead," during the Battle of Mobile Bay in the Civil War. I looked him up on the Internet of course -- as who has encyclopedias in their houses anymore? Sure enough, Wikipedia gave me all I needed. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and full admiral of the Navy and is the guy who said this all-American type phrase. His statue had some pigeons napping on his feet and walking on the four cannons pointed in all four directions at the park visitors.  No-one who walked by appeared to notice him in the afternoon sun and he seems to stand there, at least thirty foot high, but invisible.. The statue faces towards the White House and I wonder what they think of him there, if they think of civil war at all. ..