It's Tutorial Tuesday! Make a dog sweater from a wool sweater sleeve, by Babbles By Brook!

This great, easy tutorial comes from the Babbles By Brook blog. For her tutorial on how to head on over here!

It's Tutorial Tuesday! Make a recycled wool bow in under 5 minutes!

This is such a versatile and easy project. These take me under 5 minutes to make, but look so nice! Ready to learn how to make these yourself? First you cut your pieces of felted wool. You can tweak this to get different sizes, but for this tutorial I used 7" x 2 1/2" for the main piece, and 1 1/2" x 1/2" for the small piece.




Once you have your pieces cut, take the main piece and fold it in half. Sew the 2 ends together. It doesn't matter what the stitching looks like, because you won't be able to see it when your bow is complete.

Leave the needle/thread attached, and move the sewn seam to the center.




 Now fold the width of the bow in half, so the seam is facing you, and the ends are facing away.



 Now, while keeping the center pinched, fold the sides back toward the seam. The middle should resemble a W.



Now, while keeping that "W" pinched in the middle, wrap the small strip tightly around the center and sew into place.

 Now flip it over and voila! You have a bow!



 From here there are endless things you can do with your bow. Sew a hair rubberband to the back for a hair bow...



 

 Sew a loop of elastic to the back and slide it onto your dog's collar. I apologize for the bad pictures... Spots was not being a cooperative model ;) ...

 

 and of course you can use this as a classy bow tie too! Just sew a small strip of wool, or fabric, to the back, to go around the neck, with a little velcro at each end. My child model declined this photo op, so this picture will have to do, but it's much cuter on an actual boy ;)...

 

You can use these bows to embelish purses, presents, barrettes... you name it! Watch out though. Once you start making them, you cant stop!

 I never mind anyone blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, Pinning, etc. any of my tutorials, but please always link back to my blog, instead of cutting/pasting the tutorial to somewhere else. Thanks, and enjoy! :)

Before and after!

I always love to see what everyone makes from the sweaters, but this was too cute not to share! Lisa made this ADORABLE sock monkey costume for her grandson. Thanks for sharing with us Lisa!

Before...
 

and after...


Margaret of Fox Island Fancywork, makes a lot of fabulous things from Resweater sweaters. Here is one before and after:

Though I couldn't find the "before" sweaters on these, she has made all these wonderful things from Resweater sweaters, and I am always amazed at what she can do to a sweater! If you need any warm weather accessories or unique gifts, her shop is the place to go!

Doggie bow tie giveaway!

I had a rusty brown sweater in my stash that was perfect for fall dog collar bow ties, for the dogs at my work, so I decided to use the whole thing to see how many I could get out of one sweater. Guess how many I was able to make from one men's small felted merino sweater, and I will send one to whoever guesses closest!



I'll announce the winner (and let you know how many there were!) on Monday, October 28th, in my Sweater Monday post. Share this contest on your Facebook or blog, and you can enter 2 more guesses/entries (post a separate comment for each entry)! To enter, just post your guess, and a way to contact you, in the comments section of this blog post. This contest is open to everyone everywhere!

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

Since I haven't finished what i'm working on, i'll just give you a sneak peek!

 

I'll tell you that it's not a blanket!

What have you been working on?

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

Yep. More dog collar bows, lol. These are for Halloween. Spookie bow ties (everything things they look like something different... monsters, zombies, bats... what do you think they look like?) for the big dogs, and pumpkins for the little ones.

 

Don't worry... i'll stop with the dog bows ;). I have a bigger project in the works that will be done sooner than I expected, plus a few smaller projects rattling around in my head.

What have you been working on?

It's What I've been working on Wednesday

Well, I haven't been doing much machine sewing lately, but i've been making more collar bows for the dogs at work. These are my latest ones. They are super easy, and I like the way they came out. I just cut random sizes with scalloped edges, and pair them up, then sew an elastic loop on the backs to slip on the collars.

I'm working on some fun ones for Halloween,  which i'll blog about next week. I'm working on a bigger project that won't be done for weeks, but i'll blog about that as soon as it's done!

What have you been working on?