Sunday, August 12, 2012

Another felted sweater fabric craft

Well, you know I've been working with felted sweaters, right? I really like the stuff--it has so many possibilities. I've made bunches of flowers (check my etsy store, btw, I just added some in the jewelry section.) And I have plenty of flower bits still waiting to be used, either as flowers or something else.

But I have all of these sweaters to use (thanks, Carolla, for hitting up those Chicago thrift stores for me!) and so I put my thinking cap on and cogitated about current pop culture. Just about everybody in my circle has an e-reader these days, whether its a nook or kindle or kobe. And everyone who has an e-reader has a case for that e-reader.  Its a necessity, really, to protect your investment. Most of my friends, when informally polled, were not excited with their case (too plain, but too expensive to ditch.) So, I decided to construct an e-reader case.

yeah, you saw that coming, huh? :)

Anyway... I reasoned that I would make more than one of these so I decided to make a template. I've decided on a simple envelope shape.


Here is my cut felted sweater piece. I've carefully centered the cable pattern, of course.







I've folded my envelope shape and it looks pretty good. I did some experimenting with sewing techniques on some sweater scraps and quickly realized that my sewing machine was not going to work.
So, hand sewing was the preferred method of construction along with a little fold at the lower corner to contribute to the depth (sorry, you can't really see it).
Love how the pattern shows on the back.
I had a toggle that I had removed and saved (of course!) from one of my felted sweaters before washing it and I used that as my closure mechanism. I had to hand sew that sucker on too, which took a little while, but I'm pleased how this one turned out.






I'd put my Kindle in that!

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Pig tail thing-a-ma-bobs

 Hi all!

As promised: a bunch of new pics--this time of ornamented pig tail elastics for the little girls among us.



Some pink wool felted flowers.




And some blue wool felted flowers.

















 Here are a couple of covered buttons that I put together employing the hand embroidered portions of a vintage tablecloth. It was stained and unuseable but the embroidery was just to nice to toss so I have been saving it for years. Finally, I have use for all of that fine needlework!


And here is a close-up of these pretty little violets. Such lovely embroidery. So sweet for a little girl, I think.


Here are some covered buttons with a more modern take. This is not vintage fabric, but the whole princessy thing was just to hard to resist.

If my daughter were still 3, I would most certainly be using these on her!


Here's another pair, this time from vintage bed linens. Two little hedgehogs; a boy and a girl.

This cover was my favorite as small child. I would stare at these little hedgehog people and the other critters for hours. Or it seemed so to me, anyway. Brings back the warm and fuzzies for me! :)