Remember My Shirt with Holes?

Last week I shared the great Holes in My Shirt Problem that I have.  (And maybe you have too?) 

I have pictured here the shirt, which was perfectly good, except it had several holes in the front...directly where the button from my jeans rubs on the kitchen counter.  Last week, I shared a scarf that I made with two t-shirts and some inspiration from Alabama Chanin.

So, I decided to save my shirt.  I used a template to cut a leaf pattern in the shirt, making sure to cut out the part that had the holes.  I used soap as tailors chalk.

Then, I carefully cut out the leaf pattern, that I spread out a bit, and wrapped around to the back of the shirt.

After that, I laid out the shirt on a cookie sheet and carefully outlined the inner part of each leaf, using a Q-tip, with bleach. I used that same template and the same techniques with my scarf from last week.

Lastly, I chose a contrasting knit fabric to line the shirt with, and a co-ordinating embroidery floss.  I hand stitched around each leaf.  I love how the pattern wraps around to the back of the shirt ever so slightly.  You'd never guess that this shirt was almost in my trash bin!