Salvaging stupid

I did something stupid. I burned the fabric of my latest embroidery piece while attempting to iron-on the pattern. How did I manage this latest feat of ingenuity? Instead of cutting the pattern out like Jenny Hart said to in her explanatory booklet, I just laid the whole piece of paper on the fabric and ironed away on high heat. The extra paper that I should have trimmed off got extra hot and burned ugly stains onto the white fabric.

And I was hoping to make something to give to Chris' mom. So now I am all about salvage-mode. In fact, I started embroidering the pattern anyway, the whole time thinking, hmmm how can I cleverly incorporate this latest screw up in such a way that no one will realize I screwed up?

On a totally unrelated note, I'm experiencing an unprecedented stint of adoring and appreciating my family. They're cool people. My dad just needed to retire.