Before and after!

I always love to see what everyone makes from the sweaters, but this was too cute not to share! Lisa made this ADORABLE sock monkey costume for her grandson. Thanks for sharing with us Lisa!

Before...
 

and after...


Margaret of Fox Island Fancywork, makes a lot of fabulous things from Resweater sweaters. Here is one before and after:

Though I couldn't find the "before" sweaters on these, she has made all these wonderful things from Resweater sweaters, and I am always amazed at what she can do to a sweater! If you need any warm weather accessories or unique gifts, her shop is the place to go!

Resweater craft show right here!

I am not doing craft shows anymore, for a variety of reasons, but I still have inventory to sell, so I am having a craft show right here on my blog! My prices all include shipping (free shipping on everything to the continental US!), and are lower than my craft show prices, so get 'em while they last! Take an additional $1 off each item after the first (example: buy 5 items, and get an additional $4 off)! Please excuse any wrinkles or wonkiness... these items have been in storage totes since my last craft show, but will come back to life with use! :)

If you wish to purchase something(s), please email me ( resweatercontacts [at] gmail [dot] com ) with the item #(s), brief description, and an email address to send the Paypal invoice to. Please understand that I cannot hold these items. If you want them, please pay right away. Thanks!


recycled wool and cashmere ornaments, handmade by me.  $5 for the first one, ($4 per additional, when you take off the $1 per item). Please specify whether you'd like Christmas colors, girly colors, earthy colors, colorful, or "surprise me"...
 Item #1

recycled wool dryer balls. These are handmade by me from recycled wool. These naturally help your laundry dry faster, reduce static, and soften your laundry. These eliminate the need for chemical laden dryer sheets and laundry softener. These pay for themselves in the energy they save, and the products they replace, plus they make a unique gift for those hard to shop for people on your list! I will do my best to fill color requests, but I am limited to what I have on hand. $10 each or $18/pair (pair counts as 1 item for $1 off discount). Using these in pairs is recommended.
Item # 2

Throw pillows (approximately 11"-13" square). All covers (removeable) handmade by me, made from recycled wool or recycled cashmere. The pillow inserts inside are new, prices below pictures....

#3 lavender cashmere with travel trailer (like Scamp) wool applique, $25
#4 gray wool with sheep applique, $18 [sold]
#5 brown wool with sock monkey applique, $18 [sold]
#6 purple owl with feet, $18 [sold]  This one is sold, but I do have a similar owl pillow in taupe/browns. You can see a picture of it here.
#7 aqua cashmere with travel trailer applique, $25 [sold]
#8 red winged black bird [was a bad camera angle- is not crooked], $15


#9  green and plum lambswool fair isle, $10
#10 neutrals patterned merino wool, $10 [sold]
#11 green with stripes lambswool, $10 [sold]
#12 blue/gray plaid merino wool, $10
#13 red/green patterned wool, $10 [sold]
#14 green paisley wool, $10 [sold]


#15 red fair isle lambswool
#16 red/green patterned wool, $10

Recycled wool and cashmere "funky hats". These are stretchy, so they fit a variety of head sizes. Some of the headbands are looser and best for adults only, but I think you can tell in the pictures which ones are. If in doubt, just email me and ask. Wool are $10, cashmere are $13...

 

#17 blue/pink fair isle/green, #18 cream/green fair isle/green, #19 purple/coral/pink
#20 gold/multi/moss [sold], #21 navy/orange/navy [Bears colors!], #22 tan/fair isle/magenta [sold]

 
  [these are all wool, $10]
#23 black/blue snowflakes/gray [sold], #24 tan/orange stripe/green, #25 green/purple/orange stripe
#26 pink/striped/pink, #27 lavender/striped/purple [sold], #28 blue/red & pink/purple


[these are all wool, $10]
#29 purple/striped/coral striped, #30 brown/multi/gold, #31navy/orange/navy [Bear's colors!]
#32 cream/fair isle/tan, #33 tan/fair isle/magenta, #34 lavender/stripes/tan


[these are all wool, $10]
#35 tan/brown stripe/brown, #36 cream/green fair isle/gray, #37 maroon/patterned/maroon
#38 maroon/patterned/navy, #39 blue/striped/gray, #40 rust/brown fair isle/brown


[these are all cashmere, $13]
#41 brown/pink argyle/pink, #42 light orange/orange/tan, #43 magenta/pink/raspberry [sold]
#44 raspberry/stripe/dk. pink, #45 plum/pink/pink argyle, #46 tan/coral/brown

Recycled wool and cashmere mittens. These are one size, and tend to run big, so not great for tiny hands, but great for average to large sized hands. Each pair comes with a pair of "mitten doublers", which are removable inside liners (wool for the wool mittens, and cashmere for the cashmere mittens), or take off $3 if you do not want the doublers. $15/pair for wool or $18/pair for cashmere ($12 and $15 without the doublers). I only have 2 pairs of cashmere doublers, so when those are sold out you can either use wool doublers in the cashmere mittens or buy them without the doublers.

 [wools: shorter style on top row, longer style on bottom row]
#47 coral/tan/green, #48 multi/pink/blue [sold], #49 blue fair isle/green/blue
#50 maroon orange stripe/blue/orange, #51 navy pink stripe/navy/pink, #52 pink fair isle/lt green/green


  [wools: shorter style on top row, longer style on bottom row]
 #53 blue stripe/navy/maroon, #54 purple/pink/blue, #55 aqua/green/purple
 #56 green/maroon/tan, #57 multi stripe/tan/tan, #58 stripe/brown/burgundy



[wools: shorter style on top row, longer style on bottom row. Example of mitten doublers on right]
#59 green/coral/pink, #60 multi stripe/plum/gray
#61 blue stripe/gray/green [sold], #62 gray/green/pink

















[cashmere: shorter style on top row & bottom left, longer style on bottom row right]
#63 maroon/magenta/maroon, #64 green/moss/coral, #65 moss/yellow/moss,
 #66 yellow/moss/yellow, #67 blue/blue/gray, #68 maroon/plum/gray,
#69 yellow/tan/tan

Recycled merino wool runner's mittens. These thin, soft, breathable, moisture wicking mittens are perfect for runners. These versatile mittens are also great for errand running, and can also be used as an inside lining for other mittens. $10/pair

#70 tan, #71 tan, #72 gray, #73 black, #74 charcoal

Recycled wool draft stoppers (place on threshhold to keep drafts from coming in), filled with recycled wool scraps for natural insulation, all 40-45" long. $12.

[***pictures of draft stoppers to come soon***]

#75 scrappy gray/burgundy/fair isle, #76 brown/ends look like cut logs, #77 scrappy brown/gray/patterned, #78 scrappy rust/brown/striped

#79 scrappy with gray bug face, #80 scrappy with blue bug face


Please don't hesitate to email me with any questions... ( resweatercontacts [at] gmail [dot] com ) !

It's Tutorial Tuesday! Make a fun pieced owl (or plain) skirt!

I have made several of these skirts now, and love them! You can leave them plain, or add a cute applique, like an owl, and they are easy to make! Ready for the tutorial?

You will need 2 lightly felted (felted so it doesn't unravel when cut, but not stiff like craft felt) thin wool sweaters for this project. I recommend merino wool. The bigger, the sweater, the more material you have to work with.

Your first step is to make your pattern pieces. You will need these basic shapes, a skirt panel and a waist piece:


Everyone is shaped differently, so you will need to determine what you will need, but here is the measurements of the 3 sizes I have made, child, adult s/m, and adult L/XL, to use as a basic guideline:

child (3-6 years old?) - waist piece - 9 1/2" x 5", panel - 3" across at the top, 7" across at the bottom.

S/M adult - waist piece- 10 1/2" x 5 1/2", panel - 3 1/2" across at the top, 7 1/2" across at the bottom.

L/XL adult - waist piece- 13" x 5 1/2", panel - 4" across at the top, 8 1/2" across at the bottom.

You will need to cut 4 panel pieces of one color, and 4 panel pieces from the other, slightly rounding the bottom of each piece (this will keep it from looking choppy). Next, you will need to cut 2 waist pieces.

Take your panel pieces, and start sewing them together, alternating colors, right side to right side. Do not stretch as you sew.



Open that up, and it will look like this:


Now keep adding panels until you are connecting the last 2. It should look like this now:



Now set that aside and grab your 2 waistband pieces. Face them together, right sides inside, and sew the 2 smaller ends. They should now look like this:


Now fold it over once, so the wrong sides are now inside, and the right sides are out, like this:



Now take that waistband, and turn it upside down, and place it inside your skirt waist opening, so all you see is cut edges, like this:



You should notice that your waist is smaller than the opening. Now start sewing them together, stretching both as you go, but stretching the waist band more. If you are afraid of messing this part up, I recommend pinning it before sewing.

Now it should look like this:


Flip the waistband up, and it should look like this:


You're almost done! Now all you have to do is your seam. While your skirt is still inside out, fold up 1/2" of the edge and sew without stretching.


I have used both straight stitch and zig-zag, and they both are fine. It's a matter of personal taste.



You can even cut your pieces using the existing hems, but I don't like how choppy it looks:


Now you should have a super cute 2 tone skirt! From this point you can be done, or you can add an applique:


You can even make a pair of legwarmers to go with them from the left over sleeves:


The appliques are just felted sweater scraps cut into shapes & sewn on. I recommend not using the lightly felted scraps left over from your skirt though. You will want them to be fully felted, so they don't move around as much when you are sewing them on.

These have been so fun for me to make! Wanna see some of the ones i've made?


My model here is 2 1/2, and she is swimming in my "child" size (the waistband is folded over), but is still so super cute on her!



Here's one I made for camping:


Sock monkey, anyone?


Well, that's it... go make your skirt! :)

It's What I'm working on Wednesday!

Because of Halloween, I didn't get much sewing in this week, but I plan to make lots of owl skirts this week! I've got some fun scraps ready to make owl parts...


and a couple of owls cut out...


but i'm figuring out how I want them. I wasn't crazy about how the button eyes (above) turned out, so I made some wool ones instead.


I tried something a little different with this sock monkey skirt.

I used the hem of the sweaters, instead of making my own hem. I think I like my own hem better. This ended up looking squarish at the bottom. I also didn't have quite enough of the brown heathered, as I did the red, so I made the brown panels a little narrower. I think that turned out ok. I am hoping to have a tutorial worked up for these skirts on Tuesday, so stay tuned!