My Pinterest Challenge FAIL

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So way back on October 30th I participated in the Young House Love/Bower Power/Our Fifth House/Ugly Duckling Pinterest Challenge. I mentioned in my post on Embroidered Quotes  that it was a back up project because my first project was a bust. I also mentioned I'd be back to detail my road to epic failure. The next day. Which would've been October 31st. It's December 4th. Ahem.

ANYHOW. My original plan was to make a soft white window shade for our living room.

Photo Courtesy of Houzz

This was my inspiration image. Instead of a little square of floral fabric, I wanted to do something inspired by vintage barkcloth with its boomerangs, atomic references, and other Googie shapes.

Picture From Retro Renovation

Picture From Etsy

Instead of heavy, solid colors I kept it light by only outlining the shape. For the fabric, I wanted something nice with a little bit of weight but that would still allow light. So I went thrifting, looking for a good-sized white tablecloth. I found several at Goodwill, including two for under a $1. They had both a large oval and a large rectangle. I obviously needed the rectangle tablecloth.

My embroidery adventures usually involve iron on patterns, where I iron said pattern onto my textile with the help of a ruler, level, and pencil to make sure everything is properly placed. This project needed a looser feel, so I embarked on the adventure of freestyle embroidery.

Some starbursts. What's up with the lighting of this shot? I don't know what I did differently!

Shapes inside of shapes.

Boomerangs! 

More shapes begetting shapes fun.

I really, really enjoyed it. So there I am, getting my freestyle on, when I decided to match up the corners to make sure I distributed the figures evenly. Umm...that's when I realized I'd made a mistake.

See the problem?

I quickly realized I hadn't bought the cheap, white, nice RECTANGLE tablecloth. No, I somehow managed to buy the oval one. I...don't even know. So I proceeded to have quite the little hissy, then got myself together, posted my other project for the challenge, folded this up in my sewing basket and snarled every time I thought about it.

The wrinkles are proof of the bundling into the sewing basket.

After a little reconsideration, I thought I might be able to make it work somewhere else so I pulled it out and placed it on my dining table. My really, really huge dining table. I swear I think we could use it as the base for a double bed. The table cloth is also pretty massive; now I'm thinking maybe I could make it work after all. If I used clip-on curtain hooks? Maybe the rounded edges would just create a kind of waterfall effect? Maybe? I think I'll try a cheap pack and try it out...

What about you guys? Have you ever rescued a project you thought was an epic fail?

This post was featured on Homemade Ginger!