I have to give props to my friend Cathy. She picks the neatest sweaters for her custom bags and always has the coolest coordinating fabric choices.
I’m not sure what I like more—the beautiful buttons or the purple floral print.
She also requested a coordinating box bag for her knitting. I love making these bags. They give me lots of practice with zippers!
It seems like I can’t stop making felted wool coffee sleeves, so I’ve decided to start a feature cozy of the month!
March is all about St. Patrick’s Day and basketball. I don’t know much about hoops, but I used to be quite the little Irish Dancer. My Girl Scout troop had to learn an ethnic dance and we picked The Walls of Limerick. I remember that we performed on the stage at Golden Ring Mall.* A few of my friends and I stuck with it until high school. We competed, performed at Irish festivals and even walked in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. So in honor of my “Irish” background, this month is all about green!
Two sleeves are available in my etsy store.
*Sadly, Golding Ring Mall has since been leveled and replaced with big box stores.
I’ve been wanting to make a bag like this for awhile, but just couldn’t figure out the pattern. I fiddled around with a prototype that didn’t work out too well and then abandoned it for a few months. (OK, a year!)
Then my friend Christina asked me to do something with her Fairy Jeans. I did a lot of sketching and research and actually got a lot of inspiration from diy skirt and maternity jean tutorials.
When we went shopping for her wedding gown, she mentioned that she liked the color combination of dark blue and champagne. She also asked me to incorporate one of her finance’s blue silk ties. I used it for the lining of the flap and lined the rest of the bag with tan cotton.
I’m going to make one more of these bags to make sure I’ve got my pattern down and then I’m going to offer it as a custom bag listing in my etsy shop. More pics of the bag in my sewing gallery.
Who knew it would be so hard to find a plain gray wool sweater in the winter? When I got the request for this custom order, I had to visit a lot of stores to find the perfect sweater for the job.
I’ve developed a new style strap that I really like, and I’d like to find a way to put a zipper in without hand stitching. I don’t want to compromise the beauty of the ribbing with a seam, though, so I’m not sure there is another way. Suggestions?
While I was looking for this sweater, I picked up some new, spring colors and I’m looking forward to making some more felted bags. It’s time to experiment with some new styles and I can’t wait to get started! More pics of the gray bag are posted in my etsy shop.
I am overwhelmed at the response to my coffee sleeves on etsy. They are selling like hot cakes! I listed my last one yesterday. All of the others have sold out and I just finished up a custom order for three. I’ll be making more this weekend. I’m glad I went out and stocked up on sweaters last weekend. Thank you to everyone who has purchased one!
I think I have officially made use of all of the sweater parts I recycle into felted wool accessories. Here’s my latest, made from the leftover cuffs of my sweater sleeve scarves. More photos in my shop. I have a few more I’ll be posting over the next few days. These were fun, small projects to do after finishing up M’s blanket. I also have one more project idea up my sleeve (ha, ha) that uses the neck ribbing of the sweater. Stay tuned!
So I’ve been trying come up with an idea that makes use of the felted sweater sleeves from my totes and I figured it out. Scarves!
The beauty of these is that they give you all the warmth of wool without having to wear it next to your skin. (I know at least one person for whom this would be perfect.) I am going to make a bunch of these for my etsy shop and will try to keep some of them in neutral color schemes. Dads, brothers and husbands need hand-sewn crafty goodness in their lives, too! More photos over at etsy.
