Felted Wristlets

So, the timing is not ideal for felted wool wristlet making, but since a couple of you asked, I'll tell you how I made them. You'll just have to remember this post next fall!

Okay, first step, find yourself a felted sweater (look at thrift stores), or felt a 100% wool sweater yourself. (Here is a helpful link for those of you who've never felted a sweater before. Just note that she recommends cutting all seams and removing ribbing prior to felting. In this case, I just washed the sweater whole, then cut the sleeves off after washing. If they come out of the wash somewhat misshapen or with the seam in an awkward place, just rewet and reshape, then allow them to dry before moving on. I reshaped mine so that the seam was on the inside of my wrist.)

Sweater found, make sure that the cuffs have plenty of give and fit your hand comfortably when pulled up to your knuckles. If it's too tight, and rewetting and stretching don't help, well, you might want to find yourself another sweater. It would really stink if you couldn't wiggle your fingers once the thumb gusset is sewn.

Next step: cut the sleeves to whatever length you like. My original cut in this picture is longer than the end result. (I trimmed a couple of inches off when Rich said it looked like I had wrist casts on. He was totally right, proving that even a male engineer can possess some form of fashion sense. Go figure.)


Next, turn the sleeves inside out and try them on, pinching between your thumb and forefinger to determine where the thumb gusset should be. I marked a narrow angled seam with a Sharpie. Keep this angle narrow, so your thumb has plenty of wiggle room and there is less bulk once you turn the wristlets right side out. With the sleeves still inside out, pin and stitch through both layers along the lines. (I doubled stitched mine for strength.) Stitching done, carefully clip inside the angle to its point, making certain that you don't clip any of the stitches, like this:




Turn the wristlets right side out and voila! Since my sweater was pretty fuzzy from the felting process, I used electric clippers (sans guard) to "shave" and clean them up. The felted sweater fabric was so thick that I really didn't have to worry about making a hole, but proceed with caution if you decide to use this method.

Finally, the fun part... embellish your wristlets in one or two of so many fun ways. Add some decorative buttons, needle felting, a crocheted trim... all the things I considered doing before I finally decided to keep it simple (and sane), since I made these as a last minute project before a trip.


Do these instructions make sense? Any questions? Feel free to ask and please share if you decide to make your own!

proof

See? Audrey's quilt is actually coming together! It's all over but the tying and binding. I'm leaving it on the kitchen table as incentive to work on it every little bit in between laundry loads, kid conflict resolution, and peanut butter and jelly sandwich making.

Like I said earlier, I plan on tying it with red thread. The problem: I don't want to be kicking myself the first time I wash it and the ties bleed all over the fabrics. I have treated the thread twice with Retayne, as recommended by my local quilt shop, but it stills bleeds a bit when it's wet. Any suggestions?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to finishing the quilt and moving on to smaller projects, like crib bedding, in my sewing room. Aside from the obvious inconvenience of commandeering the kitchen table for sewing, there's also this:

I blame Gertie for my not having finished this quilt yet. I forgot how crazy kittens can be! Here she is completely depleted of energy from climbing the quilt as I'm ironing it, attacking every loose string, and attempting to eat pins. Which she totally would have done if I hadn't intervened. Speaking of kicking myself...

Saturday morning rituals

My favorite thing to do on Saturday mornings is head down to our local farmers' market. Ours is small, but great, with live music (usually bluegrass, zydeco, or folk), some really beautiful organic produce, grass-fed beef, organic poultry and fresh seafood, fabulous bakers, various ethnic foods and fresh fruit popsicles (that's Gage sharing my favorite, creamy avocado - sounds gross, but, oh my!).

What I'm most excited about this season is that one of the farms is (finally!) selling shares of its produce. I've been looking for a local c.s.a. since we moved to this area, so I had to jump right on this one. Here's my first bushel from last week:

Kale, spring onions, radishes, beets, turnips, carrots, tatsoi and red leaf lettuce. Heavy on the root vegetables this time of year, but that's fine by me. I have a favorite recipe for Roasted Root Vegetables that I'd hoped to share today, but I'm doing well squeezing in this short post.

My mom and dad have been here this past week and we've been in serious Baby Prep mode. Washing clothes, arranging the nursery, shopping... Now I have GOT to go work on a certain birthday girl's already belated gift. Oh, and pack up Mother's Day gifts for belated shipping. Not to mention our anniversary Monday, for which I have close to nada planned or prepared.

In the meantime, got any root veg recipes to share?

and baby makes five...

'Cause we got a kitten. Meet Gertie.

One might question the wisdom of entering the world of pet ownership at this stage in our lives, but my mother-guilt finally made me succumb. If you saw my kids dragging around a ribbon with a loop tied in the end (like a leash) and pretending it's attached to their invisible pet, you might understand. Then again maybe I'm just a sucker. Either way, the deed is done and it's been a little like a trial run for having a newborn in the house.

The cat was originally named Gerta by the Humane Society employees. Rich nixed that one right away. Then when names like "Ook" (courtesy of Gage) and "Lovey" (Audrey) started being batted around, the need for quick and decisive action became apparent. So Gertie it is.

A few finished projects...

N'kay. So I owe you documentation that I am indeed finishing some of the projects I've mentioned starting lately.

First, the crocheted scarflette. I'm not sure I'll ever wear this one. But the process of making it scratched an itch for a day or two, so I suppose it's done it's duty. Any scarflette opinions out there? They look cute in photos, but I'm not sure how well they translate in "real life", you know?


Next, a patchwork scarf, inspired by the one in Denyse Schmidt Quilts. I love hers in the book. All brown wools and tweeds interspersed with bits of red and peach accented print, backed with a soft, peachy silk. But, alas. I had a black coat to match. So there you go.

And, finally, a pair of cozy wristlets made from a wool sweater of Rich's that I felted and hacked (thanks, hon!). My favorite kind of project - simply made with what I had on hand and, start to finish, only took about an hour. And I actually wore something I made! Perfect.

In fact, here's proof - a shot of me wearing both the wristlets and the scarf (you can see bits of them, right?). I'm the one in black sitting next to the gorgeous girl in green (my sis-in-law, Cindy) on the subway.


Not a very timely post, I guess, what with the cold weather accessories and all. Ah, well. The scarf and wristlets were great to have in NYC. I love wristlets! So practical. And it was kind of nice being one of the only tourists not sporting a $5 souvenir pashmina around my neck. (Not that I didn't totally succumb to the pressure and come home with six of them anyway. )

I should learn not to make promises of future posts, but I hope to show you some of the maternity clothes I've put together some time this week. And maybe, just maybe, a quilt. Or, at the very least, a quilt top. I mean it this time.

see you next week...

Well, I made it through and accomplished almost all of my goals this weekend. I finished Audrey's Easter dress, supported the husband and got him off on his trip, had a great day of worship and fellowship with friends yesterday, and supplied Easter baskets that, if not filled with gourmet confections and handmade stuffies, more than satisfied the kids. As any collection of sugar-laden, mega-processed, spare-yourself-the-mommy-guilt-and-ignore-the-ingredients food products will.

I did not, however, make Gage's tie. Poor kid. At least he's blissfully unaware of my neglect. The kid really couldn't care less about what he wears to church. Especially since we've established that the Storm Trooper costume is definitely out of the question.

What I failed to realize in my planning for this week was that, of course, Rich would want to take the camera to Brazil with him. So, no pictures of Easter, or anything else this week, for that matter.

I'm using my camera-less state as a good excuse to take a short blogging break. My sewing goals for the week: work on (and perhaps finish?) this, make some of these, and, yes, still try to get around to the tie.

Wish me luck and catch you next week!

complications

Okay, so the plan was to finish the dress and have pictures up for you by this morning, but that fell by the wayside when I ended up having to spend last night in the hospital. Nothing too scary, just some strange pregnancy related stuff going on that keeps all of my pregnancies exciting and eventful.

I'm good now - and most importantly, home - but definitely not up for a photo shoot. I figured out the buttonhole issue and finished the dress, though. So that's moving in the right direction. Except that, true to form, I'm not happy with it and am trying to figure out how to squeeze in some alteration time tomorrow between watching Rich run this in the morning and helping him get off to Brazil in the afternoon. Oh, and Gage is still expecting his tie by Sunday morning.

I think I'll go take a nap.