Sunday Serenity #265 Family

Mom's 80th birthday bash-- the whole family
counter clockwise: Mom, Jamie, Rob, Carri, Joy

Mom's birthday was actually the 3rd but we celebrated with friends and family today.

Examining Joy's gift

This was what I stayed up all night putting the finishing touches on and even crocheting from scratch one more bow.  I tried for hours to sew the fastener onto the back of a flower and had to give up.  Was going to give her the bows and flowers loose and figure it out later but Carri got her glue gun out and got all of the flowers and one bow done before we had to leave.

The sweater was actually one Mom already owned but it has not been in her dresser since 2004 because Carri accidentally bleached several spots of the dark navy while trying to get out a stain.  She and I had been trying to figure out some way of covering those spots up in a decorative fashion.  Our first plan was to embroider sweat pea vines all over the grid like it was a trellis. I blogged about this in 2009 at the time calling it the Sweat Pea project or sweater. But I could not find a thread or yarn that worked with the lace weight cotton yarn of the sweater nor could I figure out how to embroider on a fabric that would not keep its shape.

Then last year I got the idea of sewing buttons over the spots and scatter a few more around as well.  Almost went that route last spring but around the same time I encountered crocheted flowers in online patterns and tutorials and realized they would serve the purpose.  So I looked for thread that was compatible and soon discovered that the bamboo crochet thread size 10 was not only the same size as the yarn in the sweater it was a compatible texture

Joy's gift--the flowers and bows.  Not the sweater itself.

The sweater is folded so you can't see all of the flowers pinned on it. There are five flowers and one bow pinned on and five more bows awaiting their pins to be attached.  I'm also going to be adding a green and a white flower and a white bow.  I may even add a set of larger flowers--with three rows of petals.  Am also considering trying size 10 cotton thread so I can do a set of bright color.  Aunt Lydia's Bamboo only has whit, pastels and earth tones

They are detachable so they can be removed before the sweater is washed.  Which means they can be pinned onto anything headband, jacket, scarf, coat, bag....

Opening Carri's gift

Carri's gift was hand made too.  She bought a set of plain solid color hair combs and hot-glued on the tiny seashells she'd pick up on the beach in Hawaii during her visit there last month

Carri's gift