doilies and denim

The doily addiction continues...I was just gifted a bunch of doilies from a friend, which was perfect timing because I was about to patch up some shirts. My pretty little flower shirt (that I just freakin' bought) got a hole smack in the middle of the back. After the first patching job, a second hole appeared right next to the first! Che palle...

My first idea was to use the doilies as patches on the back for the hole but their future home was not my favorite. Then I had the idea to do doily elbow patches with the patch to tie it all together. But that led to worries that the shirt would be too busy...as well as ridiculously girly. 

Instead...I changed the plan entirely! I stitched up some vintage lace ribbon I got from my Grandma's sewing bubble straight up the back, covering all previous evidence of the ghastly hole (out you damned spot!) and threw a little patch on the front pocket to tie it all together. 

Now for the doily elbows. I got pretty fixated on making these happen on a shirt. So, after some closet digging, I found another Grandma gem. An old denim button up in need of some love. After pinning the doilies in place with some help and a lot of pins, I started stitching by hand. Not fun. I started in the center and secured it, then started sewing little rings every half inch or so outward.

I was 3/4 on the way through the first one, and through 1.5 episodes of Breaking Bad...with the daunting thought of having to do this a second time. At that point I decided to try it on the sewing machine, which worked surprisingly well but was still pretty tedious. It was completely worth the time to go slow, I'll worry less when I end up throwing it in the wash. And I love it to bits now! I've been wearing it every since I finished it! Feeling pretty snazzy in it too. 

Edit: Just went outside to snap some more photos of the shirts with Fia in this killer fall light!