After learning more about lighting and taking better pictures… I’ve finally made it onto Craftgawker!
This listing picture of my Blue and Green Set of 12 Gift Tags was accepted today! *Happy Dance* It’s my first time being accepted, after several rejections for lighting/composition issues.
For a while now I’ve been using cloth dishtowels instead of paper towels. We do occasionally buy a roll of paper towels for the car or emergencies, but in general I don’t use them. So my paper towel holder has been sitting empty on the counter. It is a nice holder, made from iron and coated, and it is quite heavy. While cleaning up the counter I removed it from its long standing location and tried to think of something to do with it. Just then our son, Bennett, decided to run off with a spool of ribbon he’d reached from the table. Eureka!
Here is a simple way to repurpose a papertowel holder!
I cut the middles of ribbon spools away on both sides.
Then slip them over the top of the holder. Voila!
I also took a spare length of ribbon and slipped it over the small post for safe keeping. :)
Now all my ribbon spools are organized and they won’t go rolling off the table or near the edge where waiting toddler hands can grab them! And I don’t have to resort to buying another plastic bin to keep them in! :)
One of the first shopping trips to search for wool sweaters yielded a large creamy shetland wool sweater made by Columbia. There was this little tag on the sleeve that said “Convert.” I thought that quite an apt label.
After washing this particular sweater it shrank a lot and was quite thick. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Then I thought it would make a great kitty bed for our little Pye kitty. Her crochet mat has kind of been claimed by Sam, our large siamese, so I thought she’d like a new one for the living room.
Here’s how the process went…
First I cut apart felted sweater at the seams and cut away the thick felted seams.
Then I found Pye asleep on the back of the couch and measured around her then transfer the tape measure to the back piece to make the bottom of the bed. I enlarged the circle about an inch to give some ease. She is very much a “cinnamon bun” type of cat, so a circle works well for her.
If I made one for Sam it would be much more oval, he is much more a “loaf” laying kitty.
Then I needed to cut the sides. I used the bottom edge of each piece, front and back, and a second length from the middle. I used my long quilting ruler and rotary cutter to make sure I had nice straight lines. I needed 2 whole pieces and about 3/4 of the 3rd piece to go around the mat.
While digging around google, I found a neat tutorial on how to make socks from wool sweaters. How cool is that! I see cashmere socks in my future. :)
The Tutorial can be found at Grow the Change.
My husband Wargames and he wanted a new case for his minis to travel to and from games with. He showed me what be wanted. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. Just the small one tray case was $50. So after taking some measurements, I decided that I could make one. Famous last words. We went and bought material, a zipper, bias tape and handle strapping on Friday and I started on it that night. After a few hiccups along the way I had the top and sides just about finished and had the zipper on. He was getting a little antsy and then confessed that he was hoping to have it to use today. So instead of waiting to see if we could find some corrugated plastic to make the sides stiff, He cut up a rubbermaid bin. I did indeed finish it this morning in the wee hours, but it certainly wasn’t all that pretty. I learned a good deal about what to do in what order and there was a lot of trial and error. It is functional and what’s what matters. In materials it only cost about $15 to make. In time, it took about 5 hours. No picture yet, he ran off to play with it already.
It was made to fit a 3 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 12 foam tray. Stuart bought one today and it fits perfectly!
I saw a neat idea online somewhere for pot scrubbers made with a wooden button, so I thought I’d try it out. I made these in blues and greens for my Mom, with a dish cloth to match. I also made a set in pink for my Mother-in-law. I like the way the new stripes cotton from Lion Brand comes out. The pattern is a standard, single crochet, chain 1, single crochet.
One of the big Christmas gift projects this year was a quilt for my brother-in-law, Brooks. A quilt is something I thought he would like and appreciate. In October I asked him what his favorite colors were and ran with them… Blue and Black. Here is the result…..
Now that Christmas is over I can post all the things I’ve been working on for gifts. :)
My Mom said that she wanted potholders… so that’s what she got! I made a few for my Stepdad too, since he does a good bit of cooking.
My local fabric shop started carrying Insul-brite, so I snatched up a couple of yards and set to work. I used scrap batting left over from making quilts and an assortment of fabrics that I had mostly on hand.
I made up a pattern from a potholder that I already had, since I liked the shape and design.
The Purple Green and Gold Potholders are because Mardi Gras is coming up and I thought Mom would like them. :)
My Stepdad’s potholders and finger mitt have lighthouse print fabric. He collects lighthouses so I try to give him something lighthouse every year.Note to self… take pictures.
Yesterday I received the clock I custom ordered from Timely Impressions. I love it! It goes wonderfully with Bennett’s room. Here are a couple of pictures.
I think that $18 is very reasonable for a clock like this. And the best part is that it was made by an artisan in New Hampshire!
You can find TimelyImpressions on Artfire.
Taking my charity shop sweater, I tried to make a smaller sweater for Bennett, 16 months old. I realized only after I’d cut down said sweater that I should not have felted it if I was going to make a smaller sweater from it. So while the one I made was about the right size, it was very difficult to get on him.
I also did successfully make 3 cat toys with catnip. A mouse that looks more like a rat…. the cats won’t care. A fish which looks mostly fish like, and a pillow with string hanging off the corners. Sam, our siamese, particularly enjoys string. They are stuffed with the wool scraps and catnip! The kitties need presents too!
Since the sweater didn’t turn out as I would have liked, today I chopped up the arms and made a spiffy pair of mittens. And since there is plenty of the body of the sweater left, I think I’ll make a big pair for me!
I’ve been seeing a lot in online blogs about recycling/upcycling wool sweaters into all kinds of things.
So while I was out running errands today, I stopped in to a local charity shop and picked up a 100% wool sweater to try out. It cost me all of $2.65 with tax, so if I jack it up it isn’t a great loss. It is a rather plain gray sweater but it has some nice red stripes along the cuffs and neckline. I’m pondering cutting it down and making a smaller sweater for Bennett and using the left over pieces to make kitty toys for Christmas. I’ve washed it in hot water and dried it well, so it’s shrunk, felted and ready to go!
I’ve seen so many cute things made from recycled sweaters, this could definitely become a great way to get craft supplies cheap and make some beautiful things. Thanks Resweater for bring neat way to reuse sweaters to my attention!
Resweater’s blog can be found here… http://resweater.blogspot.com/
And her shop here… http://www.artfire.com/users/resweater
Sew the Day 