grow benzie sewing studio fundraising veggies

Next sewing bee at the sewing studio at Grow Benzie is Friday, May 13 at 7pm. Come join us for some wool veggie production to help raise $$ for new sewing machines! Veggies are available for $5 each at Mecca in Benzonia.

Hope to see you there!

introducing katwise, a crafty recycling gypsy!

While browsing on etsy one day, I discovered some gypsy jackets that are amazing! They are made from recycled sweaters and the serged edges are part of her design. If you are going to a festival, it's an important thing to bring along, to keep warm and create your persona. Katwise has a website too, with more photos and other stuff to check out. She is quite a gypsy herself, it seems.

My first gypsy jackets were made from recycled fabric scraps, so they are heavy, warm and almost royal looking, fit for a sorcerer or wizard. The next round were made from recycled beach towels, one of which is still in my etsy shop.

Recycled bears looking for good homes...

If you can provide a good, loving home for a sweet, striped bear made from recycled materials, please visit Millie and Hazel!

While I tried to think of all kinds of great things to say about these bears, the photos really say it all, with their little handmade expressions and personalities. There are many more, so check it out!

recycled wool goodies for little elves

Sounds like it's going to snow here one last time this weekend, so I'm featuring some nice woolly goodies! Selena makes all kinds of sweet things for little elves, and few for the pixies too.
I love her sense of imagination.

This is brilliant! No more pants falling down. It reminds me a lot of some pants my friend Jen wanted to make. Somehow, it's much simpler when made out of a felted wool sweater.

Again, for my friends with girlies, I checked out the sweet offerings in pink. The tunic is featured, but the ideas for the outfit are so fun I wanted to show you both! This one is a small size for little girls, but wouldn't it be great in cashmere in adult size?

custom recycled wool jacket for Evan

It started out as a fleece hoodie and a few felted wool sweaters...

old kids boot to slipper revamp with wool sweaters

These boots were in a bag of things from a friend. They are a little worn, especially on the bottom, so I decided to convert them into slippers.

Since there's a stash of wool sweater scraps in my closet, it seemed the perfect choice. By holding pieces up over the boots, and following roughly the lines, I duplicated the boot by stitching the sweater pieces together. For the bottoms, there was some "jiffy grip" in my fabric stash, just for this kind of project, I guess. By tracing the bottom of the boot, I was able to get just the right shape. After I sewed it onto the sweater pieces, the tops needed some finishing. The ribbed edges of the sweater seemed like a good choice, so I cut pieces long enough to go around the tops and folded them in half before serging them on. By stretching the ribbing a bit, I was able to get it it roll in over the top of the boots, once I slipped the whole cover over the top. Now I'm working out how to affix the whole outside to the boot on the inside so it won't be slippery. I might have to visit my shoemaker friend...

children's recycled wool sweater jackets!

What's new? Some warm wooly goodness on my etsy site. I made five of these last week, somehow. Fyn played in my studio so patiently while I snipped and stitched to get ready for a show this weekend. One two are left, so I posted them in my etsy shop.

river side cedar



yellow finch

dragon halloween costume made of felted wool sweaters

Happy Halloween!
Roooaaaar!

Last year, a friend helped me out at the last minute and I made Fyn a bat costume, converting a furry one-piece brown outfit. So it's been a year, and I remember so clearly how I felt unprepared for the halloween festivities.

This year, I was inspired. A stack of felted wool sweaters looked like the perfect material. There's also a pile of fleece vests, which are waiting to be made into sweater vests or jackets. So it made sense to use a vest. It's easy to take off and put on as we get in and out of the car, changing diapers, going to the bathroom, eating, etc... The wings are from another etsy artist and the spats are inspired by a friend's blueberry costume.

Is promoting a holiday that's all about candy is a good idea? How can we emphasize the festival atmosphere without it? A friend suggested "the candy fairy" who collects the candy in exchange for a little gift. That leave me wondering, what's the point? Why spend money on candy, go to strangers houses asking them for candy, and then eat this stuff which really isn't very good for our bodies? or throw it away?

Maybe I spend too much time thinking about these things, but it's one of those things that has changed now that I'm a parent!

Now, off to party!

revamping the sofa cover

It started out innocently, clad in a tight-fitting canvas cover made from painter's dropcloths. But with a party on the calendar, and an idea from a friend, some recycled office furniture scraps and old wool sweaters merged to make our sofa new again!


special thanks to Kris at resweater for the groovy wool sweaters! I miss seeing her on etsy, but you can find her on artfire now.