Gingerbread Man

My friend brought over an old wool coat.
She thought I could could use it for felting.
I saw Gingerbread Men!

I cut the coat apart and machine felted the camel wool.

I cut out 12 gingerbread men,
enough for 6 ornaments.

While the wool was felting I shaped a brim for my lime green angora hat.
I re-felted it and now she is drying on Hannah, the hat form.
I have been reading about how to wire a brim.
I think I will try it next week on this soft brim.
I also want to do some beading on the crown.

My forced bulbs are beginning to show green.

My tree

My tree is coming along.

I am remembering how to do embroidery stitches.
I am making a braided trim for the edge from the pieces left over from my slippers.

After I make a project
I am using the scrapes for tree ornaments.

There are sixteen panels to fill on my tree.
Lots of space to practice stitches.
Lots of space for soft sculptures.

My tree is a story tree.
It is coming right along.
I have the rest of my life to finish it.

I am in no hurry.

Gift hat

My friend is coming to visit on Friday.
I thought she might like a pretty blue hat.
I enjoy making the head wraps with felted fabric.
They sew up so quickly and are fun and warm to wear.



Making the embellishment is fun too.
I soft sculptured a little something for the front of this one
and added a button from my Grandmother's button tin.

I had so much fun making my friend a hat
I decided to make me one!

More embellishments!

There was just enough blue angora left to make two ornaments for the felted Christmas tree. I will attach those and take a few pictures of the tree.
She is becoming a beautiful story of my felting projects.
We will have two posts this week!

Felted Christmas Tree

I have been looking forward to today.
I have been thinking about how I wanted to make my felted
Christmas Tree.
I cut 14 triangles out of the forest green merino wool sweater
I felted last week.
I sewed them together and refelted the fabric in the kitchen sink.

I created a drying frame from a dowel and some florist foam that I put in a pot.
While the tree began to dry I felted some of the scrapes in my scrap box.

I began to soft sculpture little ornaments.
I did balls for the tree tips. These I hope to needle felt onto my tree.
I bought the small drying frame at the thrift store yesterday. I thought it would be an attractive way to dry small felted things. I am out of room so everything has to be decoarative as well as useable!

A felted rose from a scrap! I think I will add some small seed pearls or beads to Miss Rose.

All this month I will be working on the felted Christmas tree.
I think needle felting ornaments will be so fun!
I also can do some stumpwork embroidery ornaments.
I think making a tree is a great way to learn!

I will share each week as the felted Christmas Tree

grows and becomes

a sampler.

I am closing up the sewing machine until January.

I am bringing out my sewing box.

Out of space!

My hat books arrived yesterday.
I am looking for a class on the art of millinery.

Hannah's hat band form also arrived.
I hung it on the wall. I am out of space!
I need a studio!

I felted five green sweaters today.
They are drying.
I am thinking of making a felted Christmas tree.

I needed moth chasers for the orange wool hats.
I did up three small bags of lavender and rosemary for the hat boxes.
I like to do these for all the wool hats and sweaters.
I also am gathering my craft books.
I need to get organized!

I contacted the Weavers and Fiber Guild of Kansas City.
They met once a month.
If the weather permits I would like to join them in January.
I would like to be with other people who love fiber.

Artful Blogging

I have read about the Artful Blogging magazine
and was so pleased when I found it at the bookstore.
If you get a chance take a peek.
It is inspiring!

Knowing there are many of us crafting
and living the Artful life
just tickles me.



My teal hat is coming along.
Today I refelted her in the kitchen sink
and made a brim.
The felted cashmere is nice for soft sculpting.
Hannah, the hat form, is excellent for shaping.

A man's silk tie is the hat band.

While the hat was drying I made a matching bag.
Cashmere is a lovely fiber to work with.

Soft hat or a neck wrap

Today I crafted a soft black cashmere wrap hat.
I felted the black sweater in the washing machine last week.
The striped wool bow was a left over piece from my
bag and hat project.

The hat wraps around my head and ears
and fastens in back with a large button I found in my
Grandmother's button tin.
I tried it around my neck and it looks cute as a neck warmer.

I am getting ready to take my hat out on it's maiden voyage.
I am going walking.
My ears will be nice and warm.



While I sewed up my new hat I felted
a few more sweaters in the washing machine.

The wool and alpaca turned out very nice.
It is dense and will take a few hours to dry.
I will have to think about what I will craft next week
with this nice piece.

Slippers

I am making slippers today
from a piece of wool I felted last week.



I made a trial slipper from a piece of fabric that was in my scrap basket.
I wanted to make sure my slippers would fit.
Once I get the pattern right and learn the technique
I would like to make a pair of silk slippers.




The felted wool is thick.
These should be very warm.
I will put the binding on by hand.



I would like to learn Stumpwork Embroidery.
I have begun to gather my beads and threads.

I dusted off my embroidery box.
Bees on silk slippers and dragonflies on silk bags sound lovely.

Perhaps I could embroidery a garden scene with butterflies and lavender.

I could wear my garden on my sleeve when the weather is cold and the skies are grey.

Wearable art is exciting!

Artist cap

I made an artist cap today.
Something to go with my bag.




I want to wear my new hat and bag tomorrow
when I go on errands.

I am in the design stage for another felted piece.
I like stripes and dots.



I have saved all the little scraps of felt.
For my hat I made a little decorative piece.

This is so fun!

Felting magic

I felted today!
I took my 100% wool sweater, placed it in a pillow slip
and secured the opening with a rubber band.
I place the sweater and a old pair of blue jeans,
(these are to help with agitation)
into the washer machine.
I added a cup of liquid detergent.
I set the washer on heavy soil, hot water, cold rinse.



Every five minutes I checked the sweater.
After twenty minutes I could see the wool of the sweater had changed.
I bought the sweater up to the kitchen sink and
soaked it for another five minutes in hot water.



I could feel the fibers change.
I could feel the magic happening!

I rinsed the sweater three times.
After the soap was rinsed out I laid the sweater on a towel.
I cut the sweater apart at the seams after I had felted it.
It would not ravel that way.

I blocked the felt pieces flat on towels out in the sun to dry.
I cut the silk dress I was using for lining into flat pieces.
The size of my bag was determined by the size of the silk.

It took about two hours to sew the bag together. Simple right sides together construction. I added a piece of interfacing to the felt to give it extra body. The velvet braided belt made an excellent handle.
I have enough striped felt left to make a hat and a coin purse.
I am smitten with felting!

Hat Boxes

I decided my orange hats needed orange and black hat boxes.
It will be so easy to find the hats if they are in
coordinating boxes.

I spray painted these boxes with a flat black paint
after checking to make sure my two new hats would fit.

After the black paint dried I sponged orange paint on one
and just wiped orange paint over the lid on the other.

I brought my embellishments out to the deck.

I brought out the old orange and black hat box I did years ago
and gave it a dressing up.
I have decided all my hats will have hat boxes.

Bee on my bonnet

I love hats.
I wear them every day.
Often I will decorate my hats.




This little wool pull on has a button attached
that once was on one of my Grandmother's coats.
Today while I was doing a hat photo shoot I placed my hat on the deck rail.
A bee landed on my hat.
I was pleased.

I am collecting orange hats to
wear with my orange October outfits.
I have a few.

I added the bright blue scarf
to the velvet Pumpkin Orange hat.

This burnt orange wool felt hat came with
the peacock feather.

New use

I bought this vest at the second hand shop for $2.00.
It looked like a teapot cozy to me.

It has been years since I sat at the sewing machine.
It has been years since I designed a piece.
Yesterday I found the teapot that would look perfect with the cozy.

This morning I cleared the kitchen table off.
I had no pattern or instructions; just the cozy in my mind.
I pinned and cut and stitched and broke a needle.
I made a mistake and had to take the stitching out and try again.

I am so pleased.
It looks just like the cozy I had seen when I saw the vest.
I had fun too creating her.
I am back with ideas .
I am ready to make hats and bags.
I have a jacket in my mind and a silk skirt to go with.
I need a dress form. I need to redo the office.
I am ready to create again.