Something for the weekend

Recycled t-shirt rug

Something strange happened, I found myself with a free weekend! Well, I could have done my tax return but I decided that spending the time crocheting would be much more productive. I've been planning to make a rug for my studio from my old jersey tops since we moved in a year ago and so this weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity.

No longer worn tops

Making them into yarn

Fabric yarn ready to use

I had a big clear out of my wardrobe fairly recently so I had plenty of materials. I'm something of a magpie and find it really hard to get rid of stuff especially if I think I can re-use it for something else. The problem with this is that I end up with stacks and stacks of stuff and no time to do anything with it! So, it was very satisfying finally getting around to cutting all my no longer worn tops and vests into yarn, winding it into balls and admiring it.

Getting started

Second colour

Progressing

I based my design on an old doily pattern, simplifying it to accommodate the oversized yarn. I had to use the sleeves as well as the bodies of the t-shirts for some of the rounds as this project uses a lot of yarn/fabric and I tried to stick to one colour/item of clothing for each round. For the final edging I ended up using two different fabrics but I think this adds to the quirky nature of the project.

Centre section

Detail

Edge detail

The finished rug is about 80 cm across and used four vests, six tops and some leftover  t-shirt yarn from Harry's cat house and a 12 mm hook. I'm pleased with the finished result, I think next time I make something like this though I will make it a bit more solid as I'm not sure how practical the openwork areas on this one are but it does look pretty!

As soon as I set it down Harry claimed it

Festival

Detail of one of the felt pieces made

I had a lovely day with my textiles group up at The Heathlands Project yesterday. A few weeks ago I asked them what they'd like to do and two of the things they came up with were more felt making (see the marvellous Jimmy Sparks for other felt making exploits) and more exhibitions and competitions. So, we decided that working together the group could make one or two pieces to enter into the Jersey Textile Showcase 2014.

Cutting out shapes

Cutting out shapes

Cutting out shapes

The theme this year is 'Festival' so we began by talking about festivals; what they were about, what they might sound, smell, look and feel like. The guys then produced some designs and then split into two groups where they combined their ideas and made two gorgeous pieces of felt. We used raw Jacob fleece for the base (as we get it free) and brightly coloured merino tops for the top layer. It was great how much the guys remembered from last time and how well they helped each other and worked together. The felt making was last week and I sadly had no camera to record the work but it was good (if a bit smelly.)

Adding machine stitch

Adding hand stitch

Adding hand stitch

This week they decided to each cut a shape from the felt they had made and work into it and then we will combine the embellished felt pieces to create a piece or two of art that we can enter for the competition. I forgot my camera again this week so the pictures are from my (not very good) 'phone but they give you an idea.

Adding hand stitch and sequins

More hand stitch and sequins

Lovely Lacey Birds

New Dress (needs a press)

I bought this dress in the sale last summer with the intention of customising it but it has sat in my to-do pile for a while. A couple of months ago I used a printing block I'd made to print some birds on it but because I used a dark green they didn't show up too well. Then last weekend I was looking at the lace bird cushion covers I'd made and thought that it would be a good idea to use the same technique on the dress. So I did. I used the printing block as my template to cut out the lace birds and I used fusible adhesive web to attach the lace to the dress. I then secured the birds with free machine embroidery and gave them buttons for eyes. I'm really pleased with this dress now, I got lots of comments when I wore it to work this week and I think it will become one of my favourites.

One bird

Halter-neck  purple jersey with lace birds

Another bird

Five birds

Top bird

Caterpillar Costume

Next Monday is May Day. Which means parades, which means costumes. I run an art group every other Monday evening for adults with learning disabilities and for the past few weeks we have been working on our costumes and scenery for this years May Day Parade. The theme is Alice in Wonderland so we've been having fun creating psychedelic swirls, madness mushrooms and mystical flowers.

Psychedelic colour experiments

I've also been busy making a Caterpillar costume for one of the people in the parade. The person in question came to me with a picture of a costume she'd found on the Internet so we made a pattern and (temperamental machinery excepted) I've cracked on and made it. I'm really hoping that it fits because I'm not going to see her before the parade so if it doesn't work we could have a small problem! The body is made from jersey, with clothes line appliqued to the edges to give it a wiggly caterpillar effect. The feet are velvet and the collar, supported by vilene and garden wire, is a heavyweight cotton fabric that I found for very cheap. When I told the shop assistant what it was for she looked at me like I was insane, I then tried to explain which I think made me sound even more crazy so in the end I gave up! This is the costume spread flat, hopefully next week I can show you what it looks like on. If you happen to be in Penrith on Monday come and see it for yourself!

Flatepillar!