It's Tutorial Tuesday - recycled wool shoe/boot insoles!

A couple of my readers mentioned that they make these, and it's a fabulous idea... and easy! Why buy expensive insoles for your shoes & boots, when you can make a pair for the whole family out of one sweater? Wool has natural anti-fungal and antibacterial properties, wicks away moisture (aka sweaty feet!), is insulated (will keep your toes toasty in the winter), and comfy! I hate wearing socks, so these are great for me!

You know that sweater you had planned for a project, but it felted up too much, and you set it aside? Go get it!

Just trace a foot (yes, I am wearing Christmas socks in February), and cut it out. I like to use my son's washable markers for stuff like this.


Now take that piece & flip it over to use it as a pattern to cut out the other foot. If you have 2 different sized feet (some people do), I recommend tracing each foot separately.


Voila! Now you have insoles, at a fraction of the price of the ones in the store, but are better because they are all natural & recycled to boot!


Now you can just place them in your shoes, like they are, or you can secure them down somehow. For the people that have already made these... what do you do? I personally just stick them in my shoes as is, and hold them down with a thumb as I slip my foot in, as pictured below.

It's What I've Been working on Wednesday! Guess what it is!

Guess what I made?

Wow Kris, that's the ugliest purse i've ever seen! First wool underwear & now this? Maybe you need a vacation... or 2.

Nope... it's an insulated grocery bag liner for frozen/cold foods! Yes, it's ugly, but it will always be inside of a grocery bag, so who cares! I don't know about you, but I always have one more stop to make, or a kid to pick up from school, and sometimes those frozen foods don't go straight home & into the fridge/freezer. This will keep them cold/frozen much longer, because wool is naturally insulating.

I made it in the basic shape of a paper grocery bag (sides & a bottom, though it's hard to tell from the picture), so it will stand up like one, even if you place it in a floppy bag, like the one I used below. In the next ones I make, I will use basic rectangles for the front & back, but for this one I tapered it toward the top, so I could incorporate the piece of cardigan I had on hand for the closure.

How do you use it? Just put the insulated liner in your grocery bag, put your cold/frozen groceries in....

... button it up...

... and you're ready to go!


This is a great way to use up those sweaters that felted up a bit too thick for it's intended project. For these, the thicker the better!

As always, I love to see what you've been working on, so feel free to post your finished recycled wool projects on my Facebook Page!

It's Tutorial Tuesday! Wool underwear!

I am sure some of you are shaking your heads & saying "yep... Kris has finally lost it!", but I made wool underwear! I wanted these mostly for running, since you need your underwear to be made of a moisture wicking material, but they can be worn any time.

You'll want to use lightly felted merino wool for these... felted enough that the edges don't unravel when cut, but is still stretchy & drapey. For your pattern, use a pair of underwear that fit you well, but need to go (I won't be showing you the underwear that I used!)! Take your old pair of underwear & cut off the waist band, then down the center. These pieces will be your pattern.

Take your pattern and cut out 2 pieces, making sure to add 1/2" on each side, for seam allowance, and because your regular underwear material will most likey be slightly stretchier than the wool is. You should end up with 2 pieces that look like this:


Now sew the ends together, wrong sides out.


Now turn it, so the seams are down the center & sew the bottom pieces (the crotch) together.

Now to make the waist band, cut 2 piece of wool that are a little shorter than the underwear (you may want to measure your waist & take it down a couple of inches to account for the stretch). Your waistband will end up being less half the width of your pieces, so make sure they are wide enough. In hindsight, I could have used a little more waistband on mine, but they are fine as is too.

Sew the ends of your pieces together, wrong sides out.


Now you will take this & fold the width in half, seams in, right side out & sew this to the waist of your underwear. Your underwear should have seams out still, and you will be sewing the waist band to the inside of the underwear. Since the waistband is a little smaller, you will need to be stretching it as you go. When you are done, and flip them right side out, they should look like this:


Now flip them back wrong side out, and repeat the waist band process on the legs (only smaller, obviously). When you are done with that, they will look like they are done, but you have one more step, adding a panel to cover the crotch seams.

Just cut a small piece to the shape of the crotch, and sew it to the seams on either side.


Now you are done!

I took mine for a test run last night (went jogging in them). The only con to wearing these that I found, is that they are slightly more bulky at the seams than regular underwear, so where they are fine under jeans, I had definite panty lines under my tighter fitting jogging pants. I think i'll work up a pattern for a more "boy short" style, using the original seams, and that should eliminate than problem. The pros? There is no sweat smell on my wool underwear (or even on the synthetic jogging pants I wore over them), that is usually on my clothes after I run (I can't believe I am telling you all this!), there was no unpleasant dampness from sweat while I ran, I was the perfect temp (neither hot or cold) in that region while I ran, and they are really cute looking! Of course these can be worn for everyday underwear too. I would imagine these would be fantastic for any mom that has to sit in cold bleachers!

It's What I've Been Working on Wednesday! Heart trivet potholders

I starting making these a few weeks ago, and oddly enough it wasn't because Valentine's Day is approaching. It just occurred to me that a heart is the perfect shape for a potholder trivet. Here's the backs. I'll explain why they are all different.

I started out with this one... a pain in the you-know-what to line up the finger pouches. I pinned them in place before sewing, but they still managed to move around on me. At least they were still function, or at least I thought, until a friend with smaller hands than me said they were too big & her fingers slipped out of them.


Next I made these. The finger pockets are closer together, so good for small & big hands! .... but they are still wonky & unsymetrical :(


Then, I saw this design on a craft website, and voila!... a little sloppy on my stitching here, but symetrical pockets! I just need to make them a little closer together now, for the small of hand.


Jack has been loving his cashmere solar system pillow, but informed me that I really needed to add Pluto (it's a dwarf planet, you know!), and it made him sad that Pluto wasn't there. See the smallest brown circle at the end? That's Pluto. I added him last night, and all is happy again in Jackville.


Here's a sneak peek at what i'm working on, but haven't finished... a blanket made of my favorite scraps. More on that in a future What I've Been Working on Wednesday!


So, what have you been working on? Feel free, as always, to post your finished recycled wool projects on my Facebook page. I love to see them! :)

It's Tutorial Tuesday! Make a baseball style shirt

This ones for the boys... and girls that wear baseball style shirts! When I saw the super cutie below over at the Make It and Love It blog, with this adorable shirt, I knew I had to make one for mine! I was about to make mine, like hers, out of t shirts, thinking what a shame it was that he wouldn't be able to wear it until it was warmer. Then the light bulb went off, and I made one from lightly felted merino! I just made the sleeves longer.



Unfortunately, my model isn't as eager as her model (ok, i'll do it, but i'm not going to look at the camera), but here it is. I though I would like the bottom edge with no hem (pictured below), like some baseball shirts have, but it just looked unfinished, so I made a simple hem (first picture).


Ready to make this awesome shirt? Head over to Make It and Love It's tutorial!

It's What I've Been Working on Wednesday! Pillows, pillows, pillows!

Making those pillows last week were so much fun, that I made more! What do you think? I think i'll be selling these throw pillows at my craft shows this year. Any advice or suggestions on these is welcome! What other animals would you like to see?

My owls...



my sheep....


This is a red winged blackbird that did not turn out well. My husband refers to it as "the black bird in flames", lol. I think if I do a red winged blackbird again I will be making the wings more subtle & off to the sides, like the owls' wings.


I had a sweater that I know is alpaca, but didn't have a tag on it, so into my personal stash it went. My feet were extra cold yesterday, so I made myself another pair of slippers (I think I have enough now, lol). They are SO soft & warm!


I also starting making a batch of dryer balls, and here they are in their various unfinished stages...


Boy am I productive during blizzards! What have you been working on this week? Feel free, as always, to show off your finished recycled wool projects on my Facebook page!

It's Tutorial Tuesday! Recycled wool ruffle scarf

You can find this fab tutorial over at at Craftzine, thanks to Brooklynn! Thanks Brooklynn!!


Now the one I made was a bit too thick... I knew this going in, but I really wanted to use that sweater for some reason. I didn't end up liking the ribbon on mine because of the thickness, but I do like it without the ribbon! Now I have a super long scarf with wavy edges, and there's a dozen ways I can wear it, so I am happy with it :) Sorry for the weird pictures, but I had to use the timer setting on my camera & the bathroom mirror to get these!