a laundry disaster

a few weeks ago, i posted about this dress. promptly after i posted the entry, i thoughtlessly threw the dress into the laundry for its' first wash. when i retrieved it from the washer, i was dismayed to find that the floral detail had completely unraveled into a mess of furry thread.

apparently the dress was hand wash only. normally i read labels on new clothing (actually, typically before i buy it), but since the dress was knit, it didn't even occur to me to check.


so what was a girl to do? naturally, i pouted. for the rest of the night. i hadn't gotten a chance to wear the dress- not even ONCE. when i finally could bear looking it over again, i decided my "ruined" new dress could be salvaged. i could replace the flowers.

i bought some matte satin (at least i think it's satin...) from the fabric store, mainly because it was the only fabric i could find that matched the color almost exactly. i cut different sized circles, and burned the edges over the candle. you've probably seen this method elsewhere; it's an easy way to seal the edges from fraying, and also nicely makes the edges curve inward. perfect for making flowers. oh, and as a side note, i'd recommend doing this somewhere far away from your smoke detector, especially if yours is sensitive...

i unstitched the frayed mess from my dress....

bare dress....

and stitched my new flowers on.

fixed.  with a new look.

so the moral of this story is, don't forget to read your clothing labels, even if  your clothing item seems obviously machine washable. you may have some shabby chic floral detail that, while cute, will be completely destroyed in the washer.