transmogrification

in which our plucky heroine does a happy dance in the health and beauty aisle...

It was warm enough to ride my bike today. I stopped at the big straight grocery store to get some matches, since neither the local stores or the local drug store had any! The big supermarket only had the tiny boxes, and no big boxes of kitchen matches at all. And no canning jar lids (I always check). I then went to my local New Seasons to share my completed project with my friend who gave me the shirt:

~ creativity challenge ~

My friend Aeolus gifted me with a gorgeous tie dye tee shirt, which I decided to turn into a long sleeve knit top. The project took about a week+ of somewhat obsessive spare time hand stitchery to complete.

The front and back of the original tee shirt were transfomed into the long sleeves, with pieces of the front and back fitted into the neckline spaces, (photo shows the original vee neckline at the bottom edge, filled with assorted jersey pieces prior to hand stitching) so as to be large enough for the sleeve pattern pieces. The neckline binding, removed from the shirt, was just enough to bind the cuff edges of the new sleeves...

The body of the new transmogrified shirt was made from teal cotton lycra jersey. My plan was to use the rest of the tiedye jersey to decorate the neckline area to create a more gradual transition between the colorful sleeves and the plain teal fabric. I used more scraps to bind the neckline edge, and the bits of jersey from cutting away the sleeves was pulled into cordage to create the stems and vines. Aside from serging the body of the shirt, all the piecing and applique work is done with hand stitching, as was the fill on the ends of the sleeves (former neckline)

>

stitched a tiny sample to make sure that my idea for leafy vines was going to turn out the way I imagined

The completed front, designed to fit nicely in the neckline of my everyday pinafore

There were enough leftover pieces of colorful jersey that I added some leafy vines to the center back

I had to go show my finished transmogrification to my friend who created the beautiful and colorful dye job. They were quite delighted, and suggested that we might have to collaborate again sometime in the future!

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Tiedye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	-	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - possible movement forward on one of the many Aged Parent issues. We are trying to arrange for a cleaning service to do regular housekeeping for them, and if they agree to it*, that will definitely improve their quality of life...

* the big issue is that they really do not want "strangers" in their home, a challenge that has become much worse because of aging, the gorram pandemic, and my mothers dementia. There are no easy answers, since my father is still of quite sound mind, although becoming more frail as the years go on...