'Tis the Season to Be Felt-y

In all my busy-ness I had almost totally forgotten that I had some ornaments in another Lark book, this one called 'Tis the Season to Be Felt-y" by Kathy Sheldon and Amanda Carestio, those champions of fun felt projects.

I don't do a lot of felt sewing of this type any more but looking through the book made me want to rummage around in my supplies and set aside some quiet time to stitch.

There are lots of adorable and retro-inspired projects in this book but I was tasked with making something a little earthier and muted. Working with recycled garment wool that I dyed, I made little pears and a partridge to hang in the tree.

I'll be taking these little guys into the gift shop at work.

If you'd like a copy of the book, Amazon has it for a great price right now. (and if you choose The Crossing Arts Alliance as your charity for Amazon Smile, a wee fraction of a percent of your purchase price will go towards supporting the arts in my area. Thanks!)

Have a super day, all.

the girl's new goldfinch

Early this week I took a little time to finish one of the unfinished pre-holiday projects on my workbench.  I had this pretty but shrunken wool sweater on hand and have been meaning to make it into something wearable for my daughter.

It was nearly the right size for her already so using a shirt that currently fits her as a guide, I just trimmed a bit off of both sides of the body and the arms and sewed it up.  I also cut some length from the sleeves, leaving them long enough to cuff.

Using the cut-off cuff from one arm, I made a pocket for the front.  I also decided that the pre-finished neck looked a little too "finished" so I cut it off and made a more organic neckline.  I also did an exaggerated running stitch around it and the pocket for the same reason.  I wanted this to look handmade and the previous machine stitches weren't cutting it.

The color of the sweater reminded me of the thistles that grow in front of our house, and reminded me of the joy we get from watching the goldfinches hanging from them, eating seeds in the fall.  I decided that would be my theme.

Using scraps of felted wool I stitched on some thistles and a goldfinch.  The girl got a big kick out of having a bird on her belly.

She got an even bigger kick out of momma filling her new pocket with birdseed so she could feed the birds.

Naturally, the chickens love this new pocket too.

Have a good day, everyone.  Extra points if you fill your pocket with birdseed and feed the birds today.

Monday's Mushroom

I'm starting this week with a teeny tiny mushroom brooch, made of recycled felted wool. Measuring just a wee 1.5" wide by 2" tall, it's a bit smaller than some of my other brooches but I kind of like this little niblet of a pin.

It just made its way into my Etsy shop.

Happy Monday!

A wooly giveaway

I've been spring cleaning lately, going through the studio and putting excess supplies in my "extras" shop, and through the closets and donating bags of unworn clothing. I found, tucked away in a closet, my wool dress coat. It is several sizes too small (sadly), and not really my style anymore but holding it in my hands it was clear that it wanted to be useful to me somehow. It was begging to be cut up and used for crafting, and that's just what I did.




Because the weave of the coat was so dense, there wasn't really any felting that needed to be done. I cut it up at the seams, pulled out the liner and cut off the buttons, and washed it on hot for two cycles to make sure it was clean. After it dried and I ironed it out, it was a beautiful pile of felt - 2 and a half pounds worth - that was remarkably similar to commercial 3mm wool felt. Making your own wool felt is remarkably easy and if you're a wool lover I encourage you to try it. I'm so pleased with how it turned out that I'm offering a small giveaway to celebrate and share the recycled wool love.



I'm offering a small stack of recycled wool pieces and a little blackbird brooch made from the wool to one random reader. All you have to do is comment here and make sure I have a way to contact you should you be the winner. I'll be randomly drawing a name on Monday and will post the winner here.

Good luck!