Tuesday, August 30, 2011

It's Tutorial Tuesday! Easier recycled wool/cashmere baby hat ever



I posted this 2 years ago on my blog, but I wasn't doing Tutorial Tuesday then, so I thought it was worth revisiting. This baby hat can be made in seconds, with no sewing! For my full tutorial, go here!


(much cuter on a real baby!)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

It's Tutorial Tuesday - Recycled wool Waldorf dolls




I was so happy to run across this fun tutorial! These are easy and adorable! Thanks for sharing with us, Sara! For the full tutorial, go here.


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

It's What I've Been Working on Wednesday




Well, I said I wasn't going to post about the camper this week and get back to wool. How about campers on wool? Does that count :)? I wasn't thrilled with how the first camper pillow turned out, so I made another. This one I liked, so I made a few more to sell at my fall shows. I love how the lavender cashmere one looks!

This is the one I made for our camper.

I didn't center it, so there was too much room at the top. I embroidered "Happy" above the camper to fill the space, but it looks sloppy. I think i'll seam rip out the embroidery & use applique letters instead.

I had an email from a reader last week, asking me how to avoid waviness, especially with serging. I don't have a serger, so I am not familiar with it, but when I use a tight zig-zag stitch, I get plenty of waves! One of the things I do is steam iron it. I thought i'd post an example, so everyone can see the difference.

Here's the before ironing...


...and after ironing...


Big difference, in my opinion! Anyone else have any anti-wave tips?


This is not wool, but my son outgrew a favorite t-shirt last year. I would have passed it on to a friend, but it had some stains on the bottom of it. Since my son loved it so much, I incorporated it into a new shirt.

I cut out the rectangle that the graphic was on, cut a slightly smaller rectangle out of the front of a bigger shirt (picked it up for 40 cents at the thrift store!), and sewed it on the inside. It looks cooler now that I washed it, with the edges curling, but here it is...

My son's really happy with it :).

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Resweater customers, please read!


As you know, my shop is on Artfire. Arfire has made some changes, mostly minor, like the general look of my shop, but there is a big change that will greatly affect my shop, and how I do things. As you may know I have a shipping max of $6 for orders going to Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan, and $10 for all other states. Since there is no way to set up my shop to stop adding shipping after $10, you have had 2 choices up until now: 1. "check out" through Artfire without paying, email me, and I would send a revised invoice, or 2. pay the full amount, and I would refund the shipping difference (ie: shipping totals $25 in my shop, you pay that, then I send you a refund for $15 for the difference in shipping). Artfire just changed the ability to check out through them without paying. Now you have to pay for your order at the time of ordering, or the sweaters will remain in my shop. I am in contact with Artfire, hoping for a better solution, but it looks like from now on, you will need to pay for the order, with full shipping amount, and wait for me to refund the shipping difference (I will do so asap). The only other option is to email me with what you want in your order, and I manually remove the sweaters from my shop and send a correct invoice. The problems with that, is that it is obviously much more time consuming for the both of us, and you run the risk of someone purchasing the sweaters you want before I am able to read your email & mark the sweaters sold. Any suggestions? Is everyone comfortable with paying the full order amount & being refunded the difference right away, & I am worrying too much about this, or is this a valid problem for some of you?

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

It's What I've Been Working on Wednesday!



I finished the covers for the cushions for the camper, except for the 2 small ones, but I think you get the idea by now ;) . I love all the bright colors, but I think I need to make a less clashing tablecloth.



I promise i'll stop boring you with my camper decorating now, & get back to my felted wool projects!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

It's Tutorial Tuesday! Recycled wool sleep sacks



This adorable & practical tutorial is brought to us by Christina on her fun blog Tree Huggin' Momma (a great blog that i'm glad I now follow!). Thanks, Christina!!!



Sleep sacks are fantastic! My son wore them from birth, and even still uses the big kid one I made him out of a wool blanket.

I love Christina's sleepsacks! They are so cute, and can be used as an outfit by itself... brilliant! Wool sleep sacks are breathable, can double as a diaper cover, are naturally fire retardant, are insulated (will help regulate baby's temperature), and are naturally hypoallergenic. Why wouldn't you want one on your baby?



Ready to make one of these yourself? Head on over to Christina's full tutorial here!