Decoupage casualty – refashioned trousers

They do say on the bottle of Shimmer-effect mod-podge I was using for decoupage, that once it is dry, it doesn’t wash out. Silly me just figured if I got any on the fave pair of trousers I was wearing that day, I would just wash it off while wet.

Except… I didn’t see it till it was too late.

And then discovered what is strangely not mentioned on the bottle: if you spill it on clothing it dries to look like … not putting too fine a point on it, SNOT.

Good thing I like refashioning, right? They really are great trousers. And SNOT dried shimmer-effect mod-podge right over the right knee is just not a good look.

The trousers long before their encounter with Shimmer Effect Mod Podge.

I made the inside yoke of the trousers with some green/grey floral craft fabric left over from a long-ago pair of shorts. The colours work well with the soft khaki green and beigey green. I found some more of the same fabric left over in the back of mum’s quilting fabric drawer. YAY! It has quite clear flower motifs in amongst a vague leafy background. Perfect!

Deciding that one flower might look lovely but a whole lot of them would not only look awesome, but less like I was covering SNOT shimmer-effect mod-podge and more like I had designed it this way, I made 7 flower motifs. I’m pointing to the all-important SNOT shimmer-effect mod podge-covering flower, for the record.

(Just as an explanation, I HATE ironing, hence all the wrinkles :-P)

What I did:

• ironed bondaweb (well, mum thinks that is the name of it) onto the back of the motifs
• used my beloved stork-scissors with their narrow sharp point to cut the flowers out
• played around with placement
• ironed the motifs on, including the all-important one over the mishap on the right knee
• hit my mum up for instructions on how to set my machine for appliqué as she does for her quilts
• asked her for a quick rundown on how to do said appliqué
• appliquéd the motifs on

This so totally restored my trousers as a useful member of my wardrobe, while making them slightly more casual, I have been wearing them probably more than I used to.

Including the other month when the tide was really really low, and I went out with some friends and people from work to look at the reef in Darwin harbour.