Little Pieces of Me

Have you ever had a piece of clothing that seemed to be cursed? I once had a white cotton tuxedo style shirt - all small tucks down the front - that was truly cursed. Every time I wore it I got something on it. Pasta sauce. Chocolate. Gravy. Ink. The mystery stain. You know. I think I have another cursed clothing item now… I had a remnant of white stretch lace that I bought thinking it would make a frothy shabby chic scarf. The fabric was so lovely that it sort of intimidated me. I've had it hanging up in my sewing room for ages. Every time I walked by it I'd eye it and think "this week". That went on for about a year. Finally this week  arrived. Mostly due to the fact that I was avoiding starting my next sewing project. But I digress. I cut a 10 inch wide strip of the fabric - as long as the remnant would allow. I knew I'd need to pieced for the length I wanted, but first I needed to finish the long sides. And this is where the curse first showed itsel...

I've been doing some dyeing and that means that for one afternoon all the patio furniture on the deck was draped in drying fabric and trim. Lovely day for it too. For some reason all this was of great interest to the gold finches. When I went out to check on things, several males were sitting amongst the black and purple items. Not that I was expecting purple... but such is the nature of dyeing. I was preparing some materials for a black scarf in the shabby chic mode. The grey linen that I dyed came out nice and black. But the white and off-white cotton trim and recycled lace items from the doily department at Value Village all came out a very dark purple, even after a repeat soak. What was to be a black on black scarf is going to be purple on black. More goth than shabby chic ... So it was once I had these bits dyed and hanging out to dry that I discovered The Unexpected Legacy. When I was a kid my grandparents lived next door, and my grandmother loved to dye...