Creative Night
Last night I had a very creative night. Yes, most of the reason is because I have an indie craft fair coming up on Saturday (in Ferndale, Mi at The Loving Touch from 12-5 *plug*) but also because I have been feeling another skitzo creative period happening with myself. It's all good. This time I figured I would document it because I know I love to see how other people make things!
Yes, there was plenty of wine and music involved.
I like to incorporate recycling into my work as much as possible and I have aquired quite a few wool sweaters (bags and bags actually). I love to make something new out of something that's been discarded and most of the sweaters I have aquired come from church rummage sales and resale shops. I never pay more than $1 for each one and usually I get them at bag sales where you pay $5-$7 for a bag and fill it up. As long as the sweaters are 70% wool they are feltable. I live near very affluent areas and I have been lucky to pick up quite a few cashmere sweaters as well!
This was a striped sweater I picked up and felted in the washing machine. NOTE- if you try this at home DO NOT- I repeat- DO NOT forget to put the sweater inside a pillow case and tightly tie it up or you can break your washing machine. I knew this yet I forgot once and our machine broke, which resulted in my husband turning it on it's side and taking the whole thing apart. Not fun! Anyway, this beauty felted up really nicely and is very thick. I used the bottom cuff to my advantage and cut a big rectangle out of it, sewed 2 sides, and here you have a nice hat! It looks like it needs a cute owl or something on the front. I'll probably get on that tonight.
Truth be told I am not the best sewer in the world. I am much better at knitting and crocheting! I always start the night off ripping a seam out before I get into the swing of things. Last night was no exception! Sigh.
This sweater is cashmere and super soft and still in excellent condition except for a few holes making it unwearable. Luckily there was enough unholy (ha) fabric left at the bottom to make another hat. I made tassles using felted sweaters too. I cut them into strips with one extra long strip which I tied around the others and you have tassle. Then I sewed them onto the corners. Now we get into the needle felting part of the evening. Did you know you can needle felt one sweater onto another one? All you need is either a big piece of foam (the piece I use is really ugly but it's effective) or a big bristle brush which you lie face up and a felting needle. You can pick them up either at your local yarn shop or JoAnn fabric's carries them now too. They are long needs with little barbs all over them. They are extremely sharp so be very careful when handling them. You basically stab the sweater holding the needle completely straight up and down and it grabs the fibers and meshes them together. Pretty awesome. You can also buy wool roving, which is what yarn is before it is spun, and manipulate it into designs. Here I just cut out hearts from another wool sweater and felted them right onto the hat.
You know it is working and is going to stay put when you can see the fibers coming out from behind.
Finished hat!
Needle felting on my gross huge piece of foam!
I also cut the arms off of sweaters and make them into legwarmer/spats and arm warmers, depending on the sleeve width.
These ones are made from cashmere and are nice and loose at the bottom so they can sit low over your shoes if you want. I added pink trim to the bottoms and I'm thinking about needle felting a design too. Oooohhh--maybe more of a tattoo type design might look good here to cut the sweetness of the pink and gray!
These ones are my favorite ones I have made. The sweater was ribbed so they fit really really snug on your legs. I cut circles out of other sweaters and used embroidery backing to keep them from stretching while sewing them. Then you tear it away when it's sewn. Cool stuff. These work double duty as leg warmers and arm warmers!
The last thing I made last night was this cute little hat. It is made from a cream colored cashmere sweater. This time I sewed the corners and cut them so that it lays rounded at top and fits the head snuggly. It seemed plain to me but I didn't want to mess up the perfect creamyness that it is so I added a simple pink peace sign by needle felting using wool roving. My 8 year old daughter LOVES peace signs so this may end up being hers!