August 12th, 2021

Today is Thursday, which of course means yesterday was Wednesday and normally that means Joy and I were out hiking. Instead we ran errands. So I suppose we did hike, just not outside. Because when Joy and I shop together, we definitely cover some ground. Ok I've made an executive decision. It still counts.

One of the errands was to a fabric store. And contrary to what all of you might be thinking, I love fabric stores. You are correct, I do not sew. I've tried to learn. People have tried, and failed, to teach me. But there is something about a fabric store that I just adore. It is a feast for the eyes! A banquet! A smorgasbord!  

And it's not just the colour and patterns, it's also the textures and sheens and details in every direction.  Cottons and silks and satins and fleece!  Laces and Buttons.  Yarns and Threads in every colour of the rainbow!  There are zippers and needles and stuff I don't even know what is, but I love it all!  So when Joy told me that was one of her stops yesterday I was happyhappy.

As we wandered (and in my case, frolicked) amongst the various aisles and I "helped" Joy choose fabrics for her next quilting projects (oh yeah, Joy sews...big time!) I remembered that there was something I needed that a fabric store might logically carry!  An Iron-On patch.

You would think that walking around a gorgeous fabric store filled to the brim with sewing stuff and populated by sewing people, I would be embarrassed to be purchasing an iron-on patch.  You would be wrong.  It's nearly impossible to embarrass me at this point in my life.  I am who I am and it is what it is.  My goal was to find the perfect iron-on patch.

Oddly we found it not in the section with iron-on patches but a different area called, "appliques".  Of course it was in the kids section.  And that didn't embarrass me either.  The only thing that mattered, as far as I was concerned, was to find a patch the right size that was of something I liked.

​Here is a picture of the hole in question:

It's in the elbow of my blue denim jacket.  My mother always told me that I had "picket" elbows and she must be right because the evidence is clear.  Sigh.  To be fair, the jacket is old and I suppose holes in the elbows might indicate to some folks that it's time to throw it away.  But nope, I'm not giving up my beloved denim jacket that easily.

I was trying to think of how old it was and honestly I don't remember a time when I didn't have this jacket.  Tim and I have been married for 28 years and I've had it that entire time soooooo it's at least that old.  It's a classic!  And a hard to find classic by the way.  Any short girl in the world will tell you that finding a denim (or any other jacket actually) that suits your proportions properly is tricky!  This one is exactly right.  Heavens knows how long it would take me to find another that fits me as well. So I'm not giving this one up without a fight.

So anyway, it's a good thing Joy was there with me because, as a sewer, she was able to advise me on the correct size of patch that I needed.   I was wearing the jacket, holes and all, so that was helpful.  Why was I wearing a jacket?  Yes, you are correct, this is still August in Florida and  it's hotter than the 3rd level of hell outside right now, but inside everyone has their air conditioning cranked to Arctic to "make up" for it which means I'm always way too cold inside.  So I always bring something along, usually my denim jacket.  Yeah, I know, I'm strange. I've been told.

Anyway,  I stood before the enormous rack of hundreds of appliques that I could choose from kind of dumbfounded.  Joy thoughtfully pointed out a half-dozen or so right off the bat that were the correct size.  Which one do I choose?  They were all so pretty!  Mercy!  There were birds and butterflies and hearts and stars and, and, and.... me oh my...it was a lot!  It took me a few minutes but eventually I selected a tiny cellophane bag of multiple patches. Oh yeah, I'm ready now for the next several holes I put in things!   You know it's going to happen.

So we finished playing in the fabric store eventually and moved on to other errands (and lunch!)  But as soon as I got back home, I immediately got out the ironing board and got to work.  I am very happy with the results!

It looks SOOOOO much better than a hole in the elbow.  

A couple of years ago I had the same issue with the other elbow on the same jacket (apparently the left elbow is pointier and sharper than the right elbow).  I solved it in similar fashion. But that time I just used a patch I already had. It was of a dragonfly. And while it was very cute, it was actually too small to cover the hole. Oh no!   So I got very clever and put the dragonfly patch on a plain solid colour patch that I was able to cut to a better size.  It ended up looking like this:

So now we have a dragonfly and a flower!

It kind of makes sense :)  I am sensing a theme here.  If I keep putting holes in my jacket, eventually it will look like an entire garden!  

​I'm okay with that.