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Monday the whole family (plus the dog), my aunt and uncle, cousin, wife and 2 mini cousins packed up and headed to a local pumpkin patch. The kids had a great time, BUT it was COLD. It feels like winter here.
Already dry chapped winter skin is making an appearance. My hands hurt with cold all afternoon. It got me thinking about felt (remember I found felt last spring), and how even though I am the NON-crafty sort, the one who said, “craft schmafts“, I was desperate to turn old Salvation Army wool sweaters into mitts and slippers for the kids.
Did you know you can ‘felt’ old wool sweaters by washing in hot water and rinsing in cold? Make sure you add soap :)
Here are a few of the sweaters that I felted. I think this batch went through 2 cycles in the machine. These started out as adult larges and are now about a kids size 4 (I know because they fit Georgia).
Once felted, I cut the sweaters up into usable pieces. Mostly this means cutting out the seams.
I decided to make Sam a pair first. Mostly because he was the only one who DIDN’T care about color, design etc. It was nice to be able to do whatever I wanted. He wasn’t bothered in the the least to get the dark gray lambs wool. I traced his hand, added a 5 mm – 1 cm seam allowance and then cut out two templates.
I pinned the paper templates to the fabric and then cut out the fabric. I did two layers at a time … mostly because I am lazy like that. Also note, that you can use the ribbing of the sweater waistband as the wrist area for the mittens if you cut them as above.
I then turned them inside out and sewed them together. I sewed these by hand, because I don’t own a sewing machine, and have no clue how. No worries though … hand stitching works just fine.
Woohoo –> one down and one to go.
Once the two mitts were sewn, I used other recycled felt pieces, buttons etc. to add a cute design. I think these turned out sufficiently boyish.
I am working on some Chihuahua mittens for Georgia (her newest obsession). Lizzy has now decided she wants ‘girl’ Skulls. Then I am going to get started on some felt booties.
Do you have any projects on the go?
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MK xo
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