When our son first went on his mission, everything was all brand new...new experiences, new suites and ties, new suitcases, new shoes, and nice new white dress shirts.
He served in Arizona. Being a Louisiana boy, he knew what hot weather was...well, what hot humid weather was. The heat in Arizona is much different. We were told, though, that at least in Arizona you could find some shade and get out of the baking sun....not so much in Louisiana. Hot, wet, humid yuckiness is pretty much a fact of life in the Bayou State.
One difference, though on his mission, was the fact that he was on a bicycle for almost the whole two years. No air conditioned car. With that dry heat baking down on you for that long, your clothes get pretty
trashed
and stained
and holey....
He had seven dress shirts that were ready for the trash. For some reason, I couldn't let them go. When I looked at these shirts, I saw hard work and love. Love for the people he served in Arizona, and love for his Savior...for our savior!.
I folded the clean shirts up and put them with some of my scrap fabric. There they sat for a couple of years, and I forgot about them. The other day, I decided I wanted to make a fabric banner, so I opened my area where I keep my scrap fabric, and came across his shirts.
I carefully unfolded them, and looked through them...oh wow, lol, they really did get worn.
Then I made the first cut....
....and started ripping away...
...until I had a pile of rags.
I then took some rope I had and tied each end to a chair, and started tying the rags from the shirts onto the rope.
I knew I needed some color in the banner. I was thinking I might use this banner for my TappingflaminogBling business, so I wanted some pink. As I dug around the scraps, I came across this pretty fabric, and ripped it up into strips.
And added it to the scraps from my son's old missionary shirts.
I love the way it came out...
...and it will always remind me of my son....
who served the people of Arizona
for his Savior....
for two years!
