Yesterday I had one of those serendipity moments while putting some fabric away. I was pulling the plastic wrap over a bolt of fabric while standing at the ironing board. The plastic wrapper got stuck on the hot iron and my heart sank (that's the idiot part). I couldn't find my tube of Iron Off since I have re-arranged my sewing room at least two times since the last time I used it. I tried all sorts of dumb things to remove it. I squirted it with cold water thinking it would turn hard and fall off. Then I sprayed it with canned air because that air turns cold and I thought maybe that would do it. Nope.
I started thinking about that Iron Off stuff and it occurred to me that it's just a tube of greasy goop, so that gave me an idea (here comes the genius part). I grabbed a tube of neosporin and squirted some out on a cruddy piece of flannel then ran the hot iron over it a few times. It worked!! Eureka! Clean as the day it came off the factory floor! Look.
After doing some research I realized that neosporin isn't cheap and maybe I should look for something cheaper. Sooooo I found a tube of vasoline and heated up the iron. I stuck some plastic to the hot iron on purpose and then squirted a blob of Vaseline on the flannel. It worked lickety-split too! You know, that's probably all that's in the Iron Off anyway. They just change the label and hike up the price I'll bet. So I'm feeling pretty darn smart except for the part where the neosporin melted through the flannel onto my ironing board cover (idiot part here, see lower left hand corner of the picture) and left a big old greasy spot on it. Then I remembered that I had pre-washed my fabric when I made that cover so I can just take it off and throw it in the wash (genius!). All in all a good day.
I also had a chance to play with some of that beautiful Flirt fabric I got last week. I've been wanting to try this new pattern I got because it looked cute and simple and was cheap because it's a See & Sew pattern by Butterick (B5009).
I changed the straps to ties (about 17 inches long each) so it's adjustable and I added ruffles to the capris (because I needed an excuse to throw some of the pink nosegay print in there). Here's what I came up with.
I thought it was cute but still wanting something. So I added an apron (of course!). Cute, fast, simple and it really adds some spunk, don't you think? They have these beautiful shell buttons at Joann and they're fairly cheap (and have a variety of soft colors) so those worked perfect for making the apron removable.
I also made this little outfit and I really like the fact that it's a summery outfit but not summery colors (kind of throws people off that way!). I've been wanting to use that embroidered lace (on the apron part) for awhile and it looks great with these colors. I'm trying to use some of the fabrics that aren't selling as fast just to see if they really are cute or I'm just imagining they are.
I added the little birdie so it could have just a hint of some pink. I like it.
Now I'm going to go play with some of that Bell Bottom fabric! Fun!
