Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Patch it up, Part 2

Since I first blogged about it a few years ago, I've been all about decorating my old, boring stuff with fun, festive patches and appliqués! It's a great way to refresh your wardrobe while still reducing your consumption.

Sometimes I get super-creative and make my own appliqués from scratch (see my llama shirt post for an example), but mostly I just use embroidery patches that I order cheaply online and embellishments I've harvested from other garments. Call me lazy, but I haven't been doing much in the way of really ambitious refashions lately, so I figured I'd share a few of my more recent low-effort projects—who knows, maybe if you've been feeling lazy like me, an easy appliqué would be just the thing!

The puppy

My dog's "great aunt" gifted him a homemade dog bed with a puppy face on it when he was just a young 'un. Of course, being a young 'un, he ate most of the dog bed. I salvaged the cute puppy face before it was demolished.

Its eyes weren't filled in, so I colored them with black crayon and ironed them to set the color (Warning! I don't know how this will hold up in the wash). Then I lightly glued the face to a plain sweatshirt to hold it in place while I hand-stitched it on. 
 
 
All done! A fun shirt I can wear to the dog-themed events I love to bring my "son" to! You can tell he's thrilled about the idea.

The Peacock

I used basically the same process on a sequined peacock patch that I bought online, attaching it to a well-loved black dress. This time I omitted the stitching and just glued the peacock on (with water-soluble fabric glue). 
 
 
 
When I was done "peacocking around" in the dress (after just one wear—turns out the appliqué was too heavy and was deforming the neckline), I washed out the glue (it took a long soak and a few washes to get it all out of the dress), and now I can use the peacock again in perhaps another project.
 
That's my favorite thing about appliquéing: the pieces that you use can be easily separated and used again.

The Suitcase

For example, a few years ago, I gussied up some old combat boots with embroidery patches.


They lasted about a year, but eventually the faux leather deteriorated to the point where even the patches couldn't hide it...so I washed off the glue and reused the patches on an old suitcase. Now my nondescript black luggage is easily recognizable at the baggage return!

2 comments:

I Can Work With That said...

I love the appliques. And your dogs face is cracking me up! I'm not sure he likes it, but it's super cute on the shirt.
Chickie

TheRefashStash said...

Love them all! What a good idea for the suitcase too!

-TheRefashStash