(UPDATE: this blog has changed from itsahodgepodgelifeforus to jennybrook journeys...still same info but if you notice some conflicting labels, that's why. Thanks for stopping by!)
Whatever you call them, if you have a child attached to one and something horrible happens to it, it's devastating. Well, that devastating moment happened in our home the other night. As Anne of Green Gables would say, my daughter was "in the depths of despair."
Let me just preface the story with the fact that the nameless daughter is a tad old for a blanket, I know. Regardless, she loves it and holds onto it when we all cuddle on the couch at night before bed, then carries it into bed. I can't seem to really get onto her about it, for the fact that I had a special little pillow I had from birth until I sadly left it in a hotel room at the age of 21. I was in the depths of despair. Not because I couldn't sleep without it but because I was sentimental and had all sorts of crazy thoughts about wanting to have it forever, to show my future kids, a keepsake, a memento...Anyway, back to the story.
It was bedtime. Often when the kids are being put to bed, they take this opportunity to play a game of "Last Hit"- partially to stall bedtime, and partially for an excuse to hit each other, I'm sure. This little violent game started, the aforementioned special blanket got caught up in the scuffle, I yelled, "Stop it, right now! Or "Flower's" gonna get ripped!" (My daughter named all of her blankets, Flower, Yellow, Dino...). The scuffle continued and the mother who really should be regarded as knowing just about everything had called it. "Ripppp" was the following sound. Shrieks followed. Everyone got quiet as daughter held up Flower. Right in the middle was a large "L" shaped rip about 8 inches by 6 inches. Tears ensued. I had flashbacks of my special pillow and my all too sentimental personality started the all too horrible guilt trip in on the son who was the culprit. "You ruined forever her special memory of childhood!" Maybe I had attached my own sadness of forever losing my pillow. "Ok," I thought, "enough of the guilt trips." I promised daughter I'd fix it. We settled them all in bed.
Thus began my google search of "how to mend flannel blankets" because I am definitely not a seamstress. I saw a whole buncha nothing. I ended doing what I usually do once I've clicked on and read a billion ways to do something. I do want I want. I make it up as I go. I mess up or I totally figure it out and my head swells with pride. So I'm calling this post "How I Ghetto Mend a Blanket" because by no means do I really know what I'm doing and if a real sewer happens upon this someday, I don't want them to think, "She SO should not be posting a tutorial on 'How To Mend'...what was she thinking?!" Plus, it turned out a little ghetto...it's wrinkled, has mistakes, and way too much thread in some spots. But was my daughter satisfied? Yes! So, so am I!
The technical name of the knob is the Stitch Width Knob that you turn all the way to 5 to get the zigzag. The knob on the right on my machine is the Stitch Length Knob and I had it set around a 4 to zigzag stitch the "L" rip together. I adjusted it to a 1 to get a more embroidered effect when I was sewing the heart patch on the blanket.
So now the blanket is mended, my daughter actually loves the heart on it better, my son apologized and did her dinner dishes for a week, except for nights she's on counter (he thought up that consequence all by himself...and he knows she loves to wipe the counter). And I remembered to take pictures of the process so I could eventually make a blog post about it...
No comments:
Post a Comment