My focus on finding wool to craft with all began with this book by Maya of the Mayamade blog. She had a few projects that looked like fun, one being coasters. I dug through my stash of fabrics and found my tub of wool but I thought it would be fun to add more to my stash. :)
You've already seen my blue sweater, felted, here.
You've already seen my blue sweater, felted, here.
So, at another garage sale this weekend, I found these old men's shirts. They were in great condition, just needed a washing. I ran them through the machine twice to get out the mothball/old smell and to shrink them as much as possible.
They turned out great.
This is an Instagram picture I took of them before cutting.
So far, I have a large set of coasters and a tote bag. There is plenty of wool left.
For the coasters, I cut 4" circles and layered two to three wool pieces together depending on the thickness of the wool.
Then I used the blanket stitch with a coordinating yarn to stitch all around them. I bought the needle felted acorns and leaf from Lisa of Lil Fish Studios a few years ago.
The blanket stitch is fairly easy, but if you don't know how to do it, just search a video online.
This was a vintage piece of wool fabric that I had. Perfect fall colors.
Fall.
The bag was inspired by this bag. And, I followed these instructions here for a lined bag except my dimensions were 17.75" tall, 13.5" wide and I made my own straps, by cutting pieces 13" long by 3.5" wide then sewing right sides together, turning right sides out, and pressing the seam in the middle of the strap. I also didn't use any iron on interfacing as the instructions stated as I thought my two layers of wool were thick enough and they are.
You can change your dimensions to fit your shirt and whether or not you want the buttons and pockets involved. You can't see the lining in the picture, but it's a beautiful dark green wool.
So instead of $102 for a wool bag, I spent $3.75 and I have quite a bit of wool left from the two shirts I used for more projects. And, it has it's own personality. :)
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You did wonderful things with the old wool. The bag is great with that line of buttons marching down the front.
ReplyDeleteLove the bag / love the coasters! Awesome finds at the garage sale- my teenage daughters would love those shirts!
ReplyDeleteI love these! Great idea to use an old shirt for a bag, how cool that there's a built in pocket. Great idea with the coasters too. Thanks for sharing at the Vintage Inspiration Party.
ReplyDeletethis is brilliant! I've done a bit of felting before but always with wool sweaters...never thought of using old woolen shirts...now my mind is spinning with ideas...and I love the coasters idea...and that bag...heavenly...thanks for a ton of inspiration...
ReplyDeleteAdorable tote bag and awesome coasters. Those shirts were a great find.
ReplyDeleteNicely done! I'm dyeing boiled wool fabric at the moment, so a similar sort of cloth, although I sadly can't say I've reinvented mine because I bought it.
ReplyDelete