Buttons, Bells, Beads and Bows

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about using my dad's old sweater to make Christmas stocking ornaments for some of my family members.  I also made some ornaments shaped like Christmas trees for my siblings (and myself) but didn't want to post pictures until I had given these gifts around New Years. 

I used a cookie cutter as my template and traced the shape onto a piece of the felted wool.  I then embellished the tree by needlefelting various yarns onto the front.  I layered the shape on another piece of sweater and stitched around the traced design.  After cutting around the edges with pinking sheers I further embellished the trees with buttons, bells, beads and bows.

My hope is that each year when the recipient hangs their ornament on their tree they will remember my dad and me.

My Spring Sweater

This spring has been so beautiful.  I don’t know if it is because of the winter we endured or the warm weather so early on but the flowering trees, shrubs and flowers seem more spectacular this year.  This sweater, which I have dubbed my spring sweater because I typically wear it only in the springtime and often as a sort of declaration that spring has arrived, began its life as a store-bought cotton sweater.  I used Evy Hawkins’ Applied Flowers to create the flower blossoms and leaves out of silk organza.  I then used additional elements from her designs to stitch the stems and attach the flowers and leaves to the sweater.  The “grass” is constructed from Lion Brand Fun Fur which I wrapped around a U-shaped piece of wire and stitched down the middle, creating a fringe that I then sewed onto the sweater. 

I will admit this sweater took a very long time to create.  It consists of twenty flowers.  Four are made up of three layers of petals; the other sixteen are two layers for a total of forty-four individual flowers that had to be stitched out.  There are also twenty-four leaves.  I made this sweater to wear one year at Martha Pullen’s School of Art Fashion.  People stopped me in the halls on the day I wore it.  It has continued to be a real attention grabber (too much so at times!)  It does make me happy, though, and I always feel like winter is over when I pull this one from my closet.  I think I’ll wear it tomorrow.