So, a couple of weeks ago, I was browsing a local sportsman's shop with no intention to buy anything (just to give you some idea of how foreign that sort of place is to me, I was eyeballing the fly-tying feathers and thinking, "Wouldn't these be great for Mardi Gras masks!"), and just as I was about to head out the door my other half pointed out a stack of shooting socks and garter ties. I left with two pair of hose and three garter ties, in light blue, yellow, and rusty orange.

When I got home, after trying on the one pair that I bought on sale and couldn't be returned, I was crestfallen when I realized that the garters were going to be too short. The other two sat in the sack with the receipt with the intention that I was going to return them, sell them here, or give them away.

But today I decided to see what I could to to salvage them for my own use. So, I popped into Hobby Lobby and picked up some spools of matching thread and some no-iron adhesive, tear-away stabilizer for embroidery and stitched them up into flashes that I can use with my elastic garters. All I did was apply the stabilizer to the outside of the garter, about four inches from the tassels, folded them over, and stitched a heavy satin stitch across the width to form a loop. I tore away the stabilizer and cut the new flash free of the rest of the garter and voila! The scariest part was cutting the garter - I had to triple check that I was holding the fringe end in my hand away from the scissors.

I know - it's probably a horrible thing to do to wool garter ties, but I just made the best of the situation. In the future, I'll be calling Matt for the long ones.

Regards,
Rex.