Sunday, February 24, 2013

Salvaging Damaged Goods

Samantha is usually pretty easy on her clothes.  Usually.  But there have been a few instances of irreparable damage to favorite items, occasionally of the dry-erase-marker variety, about as permanent as a Sharpie, if not more so. 

Remember this sweater? 



The one I got from consignment for $6.00 that I was so excited about?  It goes with so many things, and transitions between seasons, so I really knew I had a winner. 

Until the very first day she wore it.

Dry erase marker.  Or Sharpie. Or something else.  Whatever it was, it did not come out in the wash, and I was sad.  I happened to mention it to my friend and neighbor, who said, "Give it to me, and I'll fix it!"  She happens to be the craftiest person I know with a love of embroidery, and once I'd procured thread of the correct color, she worked magic with a few quick passes of a needle and voila, it went from its original state of this (sorry, no pics of the two marker dots):



to its new state of this, with two new little butterflies in the garden:



So there can be solutions to salvaging damages, you just have to think outside the box a bit.  Patches, embroidery, even just adding a new layer overtop to hide the issue.  And, in this case, the job was good enough that I should be able to re-consign it once Samantha is done with it, provided that the garden doesn't completely overtake the sweater in the future...

Many thanks to Laura for her quick thinking and her deft skills!

4 comments:

Anna said...

What a great friend! I love this idea!

wendy said...

We have a consignment shop here, I need to go check it out! I love this sweater!!!

Anna Theurer said...

Okay, I need a friend who can embroider!

Lisa said...

wow - impressive! With a younger sister who gets less and less clothes each year from damage, this is a tip I need to remember.