Well it is that time of year again, time to hang up those stocking so I thought I would re-post my tutorial from last year. Enjoy!

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Last year I threw away the ratty acrylic $0.99 cent stockings my BF had promising that I would make new ones worthy of actually hanging in my living room. But I must say this is one of the brokest holiday seasons I and may other folks out there have had in a long time, so going out and buying yarn or fabric was not an option. What to do?!

A few months back I was purging old cloths, old like from high school, and I came across a beloved red and gray Fair Isle sweater that had developed some holes. Even if the holes had been fixable it was too small, so I tossed it in the washer and felted it thinking I would make a pillow out of it or start collecting to make a patchwork blanket. I remembered the sweater and I knew I had my answer.

So here it is, how to make some fun stockings out of a felted sweater:

Materials:

-One 100% Wool Sweater in holiday colors

Note: those scarry winter sweaters are great if you can find a wool one and they are very cheap at the thrift store

-Some good fabric scissors or a rotary cutter

-A sewing machine, but needle and thread work too, just slower

-A stocking pattern, optional but good for anyone not comfortable freehand sewing without a guide

The Felted Sweater

Step 0: Felt your sweater in a washing machine, just run it through with your regular wash, might take a couple washes to achieve good felting.

Step 1: If you are going to make hanging loops from the neckline first trim it off

Cutting off Neckline

Step 2:Lay out your sweater on a clear table, it may not be totally flat because different areas felted different amounts but that is fine, just do the best you can. See Top Photo.

Step 3: Cut up the center of the sweater. Just be as straight as you can or use a ruler and rotary cutter if you have them.

Cut Up the Center

Split Sweater

Step 4: Cut off the extra sleeve lengths on each sweater half, save these to make fingerless gloves. Turn the sweater halves wrong side out.

Trim Sleeves

Step 5: Sew the curve to form the toe on the sleeves. You may have to try a few different curves until you find one you like if you are not using a pattern or pre-marking the curve, it just depends on how “perfect” you want it to look. If there are any holes you can adjust the curve so they end up in the seam allowance or later you can embellish over them.

Sew the toe

Adjust the curve

Step 6: Once you have the curve you want, trim off the extra seam allowance so it won’t take up room later on.

Step 7: Sew the heel curve and leg seam, stopping just before the end. The heel seam starts up where the neck opening of the sweater is so that the ribbing/edge treatment of your sweater forms the cuff of the stocking when you are all done.

The Heel and Leg

Step 8: Insert the loop to hang it with. I used 1/2 the neckline for each loop. Fold over the strip/ribbon and insert it as in the picture below. It may be easier to sew by hand if it is very bulky, flat ribbon is easier then my neckline bit on the machine.

Insert the Loop

Step 9: Trim off any extra seam allowance from the leg and heel seam. Turn the stocking right side out.

All my waste

Step 10: Marvel at your craftyness!

Happy X-mas!

All in all this took me and Libby about an hour, mostly because we where taking pictures and giggling a lot. If you have any questions leave me a comment. You can click on the pictures to see larger versions.

Have a happy, cheap and eco-friendly holiday!!!

We moved to our first (rented) house last month. The most exciting part (for me at least) is that there is a basement, I will finally have a studio space all to myself!

The Berkeley Knitters all headed out to Meridian Jacobs Farm for another Shearing Day.

Will took a week off and went to Hawaii and he brought me back this fun sampler quilt kit as well as a very cute turtle pincushion.

There has been lots more but sadly the good camera died and my old digital eats batteries in about 10 min so all I have in the way of a camera is my phone which is less then ideal, but I will try to photograph stuff as I can and hopefully we will get the good camera fixed soon (hurray for warranties!)

In the mean time I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!  (Or if you aren’t in the USA a wonderful day)

We started with the first cherries of the season at the farmer’s market.  We bought a big bag and munched on them all day in the warm sun.

There was music and dancing on the quad, we crashed on a blanket and ate more cherries and shared Carrie’s garlic fries.

There were booths with clothes of all kinds of patterns and fabrics and colors.

Patches of color and bikes (of course it IS Davis!)

We wore our Tie-Dye of course. There are more pictures of the low impact fun at my flickr.

The Gloves

By popular demand, here are the fingerless gloves with the stockings.  They where made with the extra sleeve ends by cutting a 1 inch snip about 1-1.5 inches down from the edging. I cut them so the seams of the sleeves ended up on the palm side. Now they are keeping my hands warm while I type this post!

Well it is that time of year again, time to hang up those stocking in hopes that someone will come along in the middle of the night and fill them with goodies.

Last year I threw away the ratty acrylic $0.99 cent stockings my BF had promising that I would make new ones worthy of actually hanging in my living room. But I must say this is one of the brokest holiday seasons I and may other folks out there have had in a long time, so going out and buying yarn or fabric was not an option. What to do?!

A few months back I was purging old cloths, old like from high school, and I came across a beloved red and gray Fair Isle sweater that had developed some holes. Even if the holes had been fixable it was too small, so I tossed it in the washer and felted it thinking I would make a pillow out of it or start collecting to make a patchwork blanket. I remembered the sweater and I knew I had my answer.

So here it is, how to make some fun stockings out of a felted sweater:

Materials:

-One 100% Wool Sweater in holiday colors

Note: those scarry winter sweaters are great if you can find a wool one and they are very cheap at the thrift store

-Some good fabric scissors or a rotary cutter

-A sewing machine, but needle and thread work too, just slower

-A stocking pattern, optional but good for anyone not comfortable freehand sewing without a guide

The Felted Sweater

Step 0: Felt your sweater in a washing machine, just run it through with your regular wash, might take a couple washes to achieve good felting.

Step 1: If you are going to make hanging loops from the neckline first trim it off

Cutting off Neckline

Step 2:Lay out your sweater on a clear table, it may not be totally flat because different areas felted different amounts but that is fine, just do the best you can. See Top Photo.

Step 3: Cut up the center of the sweater. Just be as straight as you can or use a ruler and rotary cutter if you have them.

Cut Up the Center

Split Sweater

Step 4: Cut off the extra sleeve lengths on each sweater half, save these to make fingerless gloves. Turn the sweater halves wrong side out.

Trim Sleeves

Step 5: Sew the curve to form the toe on the sleeves. You may have to try a few different curves until you find one you like if you are not using a pattern or pre-marking the curve, it just depends on how “perfect” you want it to look. If there are any holes you can adjust the curve so they end up in the seam allowance or later you can embellish over them.

Sew the toe

Adjust the curve

Step 6: Once you have the curve you want, trim off the extra seam allowance so it won’t take up room later on.

Step 7: Sew the heel curve and leg seam, stopping just before the end. The heel seam starts up where the neck opening of the sweater is so that the ribbing/edge treatment of your sweater forms the cuff of the stocking when you are all done.

The Heel and Leg

Step 8: Insert the loop to hang it with. I used 1/2 the neckline for each loop. Fold over the strip/ribbon and insert it as in the picture below. It may be easier to sew by hand if it is very bulky, flat ribbon is easier then my neckline bit on the machine.

Insert the Loop

Step 9: Trim off any extra seam allowance from the leg and heel seam. Turn the stocking right side out.

All my waste

Step 10: Marvel at your craftyness!

Happy X-mas!

All in all this took me and Libby about an hour, mostly because we where taking pictures and giggling a lot. If you have any questions leave me a comment. You can click on the pictures to see larger versions.

Have a happy, cheap and eco-friendly holiday!!!

Open screen printing and hand painting

This is a piece of cotton sateen that has been hanging by my desk at work for a long while now and I keep looking at it wondering what I should do with it. Cut it up? Sew into/ onto it? Parts of it I like, other parts not so much, it was my least favorite project from my class back in college (not sure why it ended up at desk really). So I ask, what would you do with it?

Click Me!

A fab Blog/Mag by Erin Loechner, not to be missed! Oh, and a pdf of the mag is FREE and no trees are harmed in its downloading, but some of the stuff is so cool you might want to print a few pages.

Koi Pond

These photos are of a piece of raw silk noil that I printed for a screen printing class back in college. As a square envelop bag it is not that great but I have plans to rip out the sewing and re-work the fabric either as a separate work or into something else, not sure yet. I am still rather “lost” in the what ifs and could be’s to decide just yet. Meanwhile I am enjoying the sections I find most attractive in the piece.

I choose to use the koi pond as a theme after spending several hot summer afternoons at a friends house; her husband has a koi pond in the backyard next to their pool (where I was doing my own fish imitations.) It was always very peaceful  and cool feeling in the hot Central Valley summers that can be so very harsh. I spent a few days studying Japanese prints before developing my simplified version to fit into the assignments guidelines. Whenever I look at this piece I feel calmer and remember those summer days spent with friends knitting by the side of the koi pond, feet in the pool.

Discharged Lily

I love sewing, so this weeks mosaic is images that involve putting thread though fabric to create things, I hope you like them.

1. Sewing machine + bokeh, HBW!, 2. Sewing is Fun, 1958, 3. sewing cat shirt complete!, 4. lifetime sewing, 5. my sewing machine tattoo, 6. Sewing mends the soul 136/365, 7. sew sew, 8. Sew Vac, 9. inheritance and heredity: all sewn up, 10. Sew Kit, 11. sewing ttv, 12. vintage sewing box