Monday 19 January 2009

Experimental Stripes

A lovely neighbour of ours gave me an incredibly sweet gift a while ago: a big stack of old woolen jumpers, lovingly handknitted by his mother and worn until their elbows had worn away to nothingness and they'd shrunk so small he could no longer fit into them.

I set about washing them and shrinking them down to make felt, and have finally managed to make him a little something as a thankyou - a little lavender sachet made with two squares from the sweaters:I wanted something quite rustic looking, decorative but not "fancy" to match the homespun practical feel of the sweaters, so used some of my new embroidery thread to stitch some simple stripes into the felt. The lines left by the knitting act as fantastic guidelines for straight sewing and the wool is an absolute dream to sew through! The other side looks like this:I was a bit worried that the wool would be too thick for the lavender scent to be really apparent, but luckily the scent comes through nice and strong. This piece has already been given away, and I'm now very excited about all the other things I could make by embroidering felted wool like this (I am such a big fan of stripes).

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely! Your sachet looks so warm and cuddly - if a sachet can be cuddly. I like that it is not fussy and overly feminine, even though I like fussy and feminine. What a great fresh take on such a traditional item.

Anonymous said...

How lovely - clever birdy. xx

Candi said...

Hi Lupin!
Just wanted to say that I adore all your work-you're so clever!
In fact you have inspired me to start my own 365 day challenge...and in making one of my sister's bday presents, I kinda borrowed one of your ideas, which I linked-I hope you don't mind!!!! I have given you a shout-out in my blog:)
Candi aka Bettie
xxx

flowerpress said...

What a fab way to recycle! Happy New Year to you and I love your new website - having a play with felt is high on my New Years list so I will have to choose which felt to buy :-)

Karin said...

Very pretty! I love felted sweaters!

Bugs and Fishes said...

Excellent news - he liked it! Hurrah.

Bettie - I tried to leave a comment on your blog but I couldn't get the word verification thingummy to work (it just showed up as blank for me so I couldn't type in what it said!) I don't mind you being inspired by the Penguin Brooch - it's an homage to the Penguin Books logo so not my design at all! Best of luck with your Crafting 365 project :)

Heather Leavers said...

wish I had a nice neighbour like yours :-) great sachets - not easy to get a masculine take on something like that.

Rhiannon said...

How lovely and nice - on both sides :D
x