Tag Archives: sewing

christmas is driving him to drink

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I started needle felting again about a year ago, and I have to confess I’m hooked. I love it. Its such a zen feeling to sit quietly at the kitchen table stabbing wool and shaping it into anything I want. Often with the clashing sounds of an audio book on my mobile phone and mom’s tv programs… sigh…

I especially love creating little creatures with personalities, giving them more character by adding accessories to tell a story. This little bunny, for instance, started his gift wrapping full of Christmas spirit, but found he needed a big glass of red wine to get through it.

This little guy is the first in a series I planned to make for my Etsy shop this Christmas… the idea is to make little critters who represent different parts of the season. Including the snowmen in my last post, but these critters are all needle felted by hand, not made based on felted dryer balls I’d bought as an experiment.

Of course, the whole tariff thing in the USA has not done my shop any good, cause I sold quite a few of my creations to people in the US. And right now, I have a box waiting to be shipped to Canada but can’t send it due to the postal strike… Its hard enough to sell online without all this.

I’m not very good at promoting my work…

Anyway, I figured that since I’ve been absent for so long, I may as well share some of the things I’m made over the last few months.

One thing that’s helped heaps in making these small creations, is the light I bought on Temu. This thing is amazing. Its made for nail professionals and has enough space under it for me to work my wool comfortably. Its USB powered, and since I don’t have easy access to a power point at the kitchen table (cords are not user friendly to old women (mom) who are unsteady on their feet) I use a fantastic strong and fast charger I also got on Temu.

Needless to say I’m addicted to Temu.

I’m not proud of myself… but I can get so many good and useful things there. And of course some totally useless things, but I won’t mention that here… Unless you’d like me to share the failures…

Anyway, later.

z

new sweaters for vincent

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‘These are MY sweaters’, says Vincent.

Well, after buying 3 different sweaters on Temu and not a single one of them fitting Vincent, despite me having measured and double checked the measurements… I finally decided to make him a sweater myself from a couple of polar fleece throws I had at home.

I generally buy these thin throws to make cat bed covers, filling them with old pillow stuffing, or making covers for dog beds which are removable and washable. I’ve done this for years since I’ve always had multiple dogs with dirty feet, using any sort of fabric I can find – old sheets, old doona covers, throws, scarves etc.

I had two throws this time. One I’d bought to make a cushion for Vincent’s crate and one I bought to put over my white bed linen in summer to protect it from dirty feet coming in from outside and jumping straight onto the bed (not just Vincent, but almost all grooming customers since they have to go through my bedroom to the grooming area. Nope. My setup is not ideal.)

I made two sweaters (you know, one to wear and one to wash…) I used the blue throw for the outside and lined the inside with the pale striped one to give it a bit of extra warmth and contrast.

Vincent modelling the longer one… a bit too long…

This is one of the two I made. One is smaller than the other, both were made the way I usually make stuff – without a proper pattern, just sketching a shape out on paper, what I think the shape should be, measuring using my fingers, hand sewing cause I couldn’t be bothered moving furniture to get to my sewing machine.

The difference in back length.

I love blanket stitch!

The baby doll version of his sweater.

I used velcro on one side for the tummy flap so its adjustable, and used bottons on one to decorate the sweater.

The added bib in front makes this sweater much longer so it hangs out over his tail.

The other simply has stitches, but I though the neck needed more room so I extended it with a contrasting bib in front.

Despite my woeful sewing skill, they worked out pretty well. Not perfectly… one is a bit longer than necessary. The other one is a bit shorter than necessary.

I belong to the school of ‘close enough is good enough’.

As I always say, ‘do as I say, dont do as I do’.

z