Felted argyle hoodie

I have been saving the green argyle sweater for just the right project. It was just a little felted when I bought it at the thrift store, a little too small for me to wear as it was but just right for a sweater-collage. I think it's been sitting on my shelf for about a month, waiting for the right supporting sweaters to come along and inspire me. Yesterday, finally, I had the time, the inclination, and just the right materials to forge onward.

It's made entirely of felted lambswool sweaters (except the hood, which is cashmere), hand sewn with Persian wool yarn. The body of the sweater took me one day to complete; the hood took me another half-day. In all, I used four sweaters and have a fair number of scraps to be used, probably, in a wool blanket.

The hood was the hardest part to do because I had to draft a pattern, and my initial pattern was entirely too large; I had to un-sew my first hood, cut it down and re-sew it to fit my head. Then sewing it into the V-necked sweater was challenging, and when the hood is up it doesn't look particularly graceful. It doesn't look bad, but it could look better. It is unbelievably cozy and soft, though, so I'm leaving it in place and I will definitely use it.

I love this project because it is such an easy way to obtain a sweater that is just the right size and shape for my body, in a color and pattern that I love. I will be interested to see what other people's reactions are when I wear the sweater in public -- will they like it, or think it's curious, or shake their heads and smile at crafty Jennifer? I'll wear it anyway, because I like it, but we shall see.

Something old, something new

K cuddles on the couch with the completed cashmere baby blanket:

It may be kind of tricky getting her to give this one away!

The blanket is far from perfect but it is done as neatly and carefully as I know how and it is made with much love, and I am going to try to keep those things in mind and hold my head high when I present it to the recipient's mother.

Things I learned while working on this project:

• If you take a picture of your layout to help you remember it when you're sewing your blocks together, refer to it when sewing your blocks together. Observant readers will see that my finished blanket does not quite look like the one in the previous post. Oops!
• When working with stretchy fabrics, be careful not to let them stretch out of shape as you sew. Lowering the tension and extending the stitch length can help, but going slowly and carefully is most important.
• It's okay to start over. My work got stretched beyond recognition and I ended up cutting cutting around the outer edges and re-sewing the top to the backing. I'm glad I did, because now the edges have a much cleaner finish.
  
• Using a walking foot seems like a good idea to feed multiple layers of stretchy fabric through the machine, but it is not; things just get too slippery. Use a regular foot and see above.
• Fusible web is nothing short of a miracle. If you have ever been afraid of applique, this stuff will get you over your fear in the 10-15 seconds it takes to fuse your first piece of fabric. I always told myself that I preferred not to embellish, that I liked my work plain, but let's be honest, who was I kidding?
  

I can't think of a project that I've enjoyed working on as much as this one. There will definitely be more to follow.

Note to myself

I've finally found the time to start working on the cashmere baby blanket. I love, love, love these colors and am pleased with this arrangement, so here's a picture to remind me of how I want the blanket to look, just in case things get turned around in production. Stay tuned for further stages (maybe) and a photo of the final project (definitely.)

(Below is another arrangement I played with for a while. In a way it's more balanced but I just don't find the look as pleasing as the one above. Feel free to weigh in -- I have lots more blankets like this one to make so I'm coveting advice -- but I think I'm going to start sewing the blanket as shown in the first picture.)

Soft and fluffy

Meet the newest additions to the cashmere collection!

These fluffy bunnies are courtesy of Betz White's tutorial, and they are even more fun and satisfying to make than the baby hats. I especially like the cables that give the white bunny a bit of extra character, and the zingy Amy Butler fabric on the pink bunny's ears. More bunnies will certainly follow, and I imagine there could be other critters made from cashmere as well. What would you like to see?

I'm thinking that this red hat with the big stretchy cuff will make a cozy Christmas present for some little one's melon come December. So unbelievably soft!
I have so many projects in the works -- including a quilt that must be finished immediately, the recipient has been waiting months for it -- but I want to get started on the luxe cashmere throws right away. My stash of pink, blue, purple and green sweaters is screaming to be made into a heavenly baby blanket. I really need to focus and get some work done on the old so I can move on to the new. Patience! Diligence! Onward and upward!

Cashmere!

What could be more perfect to warm a brand new baby head than a cashmere sweater, washed and dried until it's extra soft and fuzzy, sewn into a tiny tasseled hat?

The pattern comes from Sewing Green by Betz White, and I modified it a bit by hand-sewing the tassels on (way easier for me than the machine-sewing method she outlines), folding up a double cuff and hand-stitching it in place.

I was so lucky to find this fine-gauge sweater with the baby cables, providing enough material to make two sweet little hats. I've been thrifting avidly for the last few weeks, scavenging unbelievably cheap cashmere sweaters (the kind that go for $100+ in retail stores and catalogs) -- sometimes paying as little as $1 apiece. I have about 30 sweaters now, dismantled and ready to become luxurious cashmere throws -- another Sewing Green project. What a joy to work with, and what a joy to give!