scanned from Vivi Magazine November 2011 (I think). SLY sweater.
Over the weekend I was working on a DIY tutorial for the above SLY-brand sweater. Hey, a sweater covered in puffy spores…I thought it was cute!! I started photographing the steps, placing the craft store pompons onto my thrifted teal sweater with Aleene’s Jewel-It! Embellishing glue.
I put a little too much glue on some of the pompons and it spread out beyond the pompon edges. I thought, “No biggie – it’ll dry clear and won’t be noticeable.” Little did I realize it was QUITE noticeable.
And then I decided I didn’t like the look of the sweater with the pompons after all, regardless of the glue issues. They looked too much like craft store pompons – i.e., krrrrrap glued onto a sweater – rather than the pretty felted wool puffs of the original.
So after gluing pompons onto both the front and right sleeve…AND waiting for them all to dry…I made the snap decision to undo all my work and rip them off to resurrect my sweater. I don’t know why I changed my mind so abruptly. Normally I am very sure when I embark on a DIY project. But it seemed a pity to do this to this pretty sweater. And then…
O.M.G. This Jewel-It! stuff is so permanent, I couldn’t get it off. Hours of peeling, washing, scrubbing, and more peeling ensued. I gave myself a blister on my thumb from all the scraping and peeling. And still I cannot get the glue off.
From the advice of the company’s customer service line, I have spent most of today applying Goo Gone! to all the glue spots, and further rubbing and scrubbing and peeling and blotting.
I want to cry just looking at what I’ve done to this soft, pretty sweater that I was so thrilled about when I scored it at Goodwill. In just the perfect on-trend teal, too! In a nice, roomy, comfy size!! Ugggggghhhh…
I managed to get one spot off (mostly)…so now I have 16 or so to go…
And my whole sweater reeks of petroleum now…
Theoretically, my black-spore-sweater-DIY would work OK on maybe a different kind of sweater, maybe one that doesn’t have any cabling and is stiffer like the one in the photo. Totally DIY-able by gluing craft store pompons onto it, people! And be careful with Jewel-It! cuz you just can’t get it out once it’s applied!! Lesson learned.
Do any of you have any spectacular DIY FAILS like this one??? Do share! I’m just heartbroken over what I’ve done to this poor, innocent little sweater…:-(
xoxox
Carly
Oh no… yes lot’s of fails, but I hide them away & pretend everything I do is (almost) always perfect.
Thank you for sharing, & good luck with the glue stain removal (that or really big pompons to hide the stains).
Geneviève
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Hi, I think you can put felt circles on it, ant it would look better! for example: http://img1.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.216017437.jpg
Oh no, can you re pom pom-i-fy so you cans till wear it?
I tried to glitter up a pair of oxfords but without modpodge, I clerly didn’t use a glue stong enough. Sticks of anything my foot!
I walked around and the glitter fell away, leaving a snail trail behind me 🙂 Well atleast I know what to wear if ever in a Hansel & Gretel situation
Bright Green Laces
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Oh no! Seem like its time for a DIY tie-die party ; )
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http://www.RocksPaperMetal.etsy.com
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Yes, of course! I have a whole collection of failed DIY’s 🙁
Carly, I have attached craft pom-poms to a tee before. I have a little etsy shop and you can view how it looks. It’s a cotton tee with chocolate bunny and as a tail it has a craft pompom attached with a safety pin. Have you tried safety pins? If you do, get the nice golden ones… they are easier to handle. This way my little bunny tail is removable before washing:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/65863830/easter-bunny-girlboy-baby-toddler-shirt
Soccer Mom Style recently posted…DIY: Forget-Me-Knot string ring dipped in gold tutorial
this is a disaster…but…try to dry that jumper, then freeze it- maybe the white stuff will become dry and you will be able to scratch out some of it. Then what you can do is to dye it (but you have to dye the white spots first- otherwise colour will not be even) or play with pom poms and ribbons- make a bow under every pom pom. And next time put away that glue- especially when you are working with wool and take a tread and the needle instead- this way you are never going to have such a major failure (yes, I stitch almost everything or use double tape for things that I cannot stitch on – like very thick leather, plastic or metal; it takes time, but is worth it)
So sorry to hear this happened to you, the sweater looks super cute and comfy. I believe that’s very common thing that almost everyone gets over-excited an over-fascinated by using glue when crafting, glueing everything on becomes an addiction and that’s what happens. Lesson for all of us.
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haha! sometimes things just go so wrong! but those things sometimes just give you such a great laugh! xx
Alice Barton ♥ The Mow Way
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Oh yeah. Many screwups.
Bromeliad recently posted…Random round things
i have five thousand DIY fails and more, but i just keep movin on. craft fails are part of being real!
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this just made my day so funny! thanks for the lolz. sorry about ur jumper n i hope u managed to ressurect it =)
Oh no! So sorry to hear about your DIY experience on this sweater. (I’ve been pinning DIY projects on Pinterest like a madwoman but I’m afraid to try them because I’m so worried about creating a major pile of DIY fails!) I hope you are able to resurrect it somehow 🙂
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I wished I read this post before I used jewel-it glue. I tried to embellished a t-shirt. When I put too much glue, I thought it would be easy to clean it later. But it’s been a week and I haven’t been able to clean it. Oh well. Sorry to read your story. I contacted the customer service, she told me to try to clean it with 100% acetone. Wish me luck.
Yeah, Jewel-It is super-durable once dried! I’ve tried acetone on glue that was stuck on fabric before and had almost no results. I found that using glue on fabric is pretty much a no-no because the end result usually looks cheap 🙁 Good luck with cleaning your shirt!! Hope the acetone works for you.