DIY: Saving your Stuff with Embellishments

I am all about camouflaging imperfections in order to renew things to better serve their purpose. From curtains covered in doilies, to clothing, throws, lampshades or purses covered in lace ruffles or fabric rosettes, there are many options out there to save that coveted, ruined object. Have you thrown something out that you later regretted, something that could have been saved by a tiny embellishment? Do you go thrifting to find a shirt that is perfect, except for a small stain or rip? Well, there are plenty of great options to fix that! Fabric rosettes are easy to make and can simply be stitched or even glued on. Over 40 great flower tutorials here!

 

Doilys can be tea stained for a vintage aging effect. They are easy to handstitch, or can be ironed on using stitch witchery.

retro doily window covering by enchanted little pixie 

embellished throw using ribbons, ruffles and lace salvaged from old clothing tutorial by nester

lace ruffled shirt tutorial to hide a stain by me, littlelovables

flowered embellished dress to camouflage ink stains by in the fun lane

 

Homefront: DIY Rag Garland Window Cover

I did a quick little fix during the week. Our front door has a window (and no peep hole) that lets in some light, but I feel exposed not having it covered, like any tall creeper can just peek in looking for me so they can sell me something. So my wonderful husby added these lovely taped up papers a long while back.

I wanted to make a curtain or faux roman shade, but couldn't hang a rod on the door, nor did I have any fabric laying around for that. I also saw a really neat cellophane/tissue paper tutorial for a stained glass effect, but didn't have the energy for finding the glue. But I did have an old piece of white fabric that I tore in strips, and some jute and command strips, I decided to make a little rag garland. I tied them like this easy tutorial here via Yesterday on Tuesday.
 

 

The fabric scraps weren't long enough to cover the whole window, so the little swag will have to do. To hide the command strips, I just made some quick fabric rosettes, kind of like this tutorial here, and hot glued them on, so they will peel off whenever.

It's not perfect... but compared to the alternatives, creeper peepers or ripped papers... it's an improvement in a shabbily charming sort of way. Have you ever made any last second, functional  fixes that turned out okay?