Fun Summer Stuff...

Some of the new things I've been making lately :)

Hand Crocheted Skinny Festival Scarves in Silk. I've made different colors & used two different types of silk ribbon. This one is silk sari ribbon, made from remnants of the garment industry that are pieced together by women in India & Nepal, repurposing materials that would otherwise be lost & providing employment for the women of the area. This is black & I've made two other silk sari scarves, one in an ombre red ribbon & one in an ombre lavender ribbon.  Available samsstuff Etsy

This is one of the Silk Chiffon Skinny Scarves, in an orange color. Also made from remnants of the garment industry. These can be wrapped in lots of different ways, made great Hippie Style or Double Wrapped Belts & dramatic head wraps. I like to think of them as free-form necklaces & accessories. These are in an number of different colors, a retro pink, a turquoise or sky blue, a great retro chartreuse green & could be made in others not mentioned... Available samsstuff Etsy

Envelope: Hand embroidered, image from a vintage cookbook, vintage lace & seam binding, hand stamped lips

Front of envelope showing the floral print paper & another lip stamp (made for a Swap Bot Swap)

Two new bracelets: one hand embroidered (hand spun thread from dragonflylotus designs) & metallic look swavorski crystals, the other hand crocheted alpaca/silk yarn (from Firwood Farm Alpacas in Fife, WA Belle & Bella, to be exact) in a great retro blueish green shade & faceted gemstone beads. Available soon samsstuff etsy

How about you? What have you been busy creating lately? SAM

Shiny Newness :)

Lately I've been trying to get back to the balance that all us Librans strive for. (I'm  not sure about the accuracy or reliability of the whole astrology thing, but a little balance never hurt anything, right?) & have been making some new things, trying to preserve bits of the past that aren't up to their former glory & deserve to be admired once again & for the future, their beauty preserved for others to see:

This is part of a vintage napkin made into a little wall hanging. The napkin had little  dark spots, that I was unable to wash out & so was really unusable for its original purpose. I cut about a fourth of it off & hand sewed it (not easy to do on a circular frame, but it gives everything a sweet gathered effect & a bit of movement) onto a steel hoop that was in a bag of vintage embroidery hoops. This was just a little too plain, though it framed the piece nicely & looked better than just putting the whole thing (spots & all) into a frame, so I added the fleur des lis pendant & a black seed bead, that gave a bit of French country charm to the piece & highlighted (without taking away from) the wonderful yellow & black embroidery & the beautiful crochet trim quite nicely. For hanging purposes & to go with the yellow & black scheme, I hand stitched on a lovely bit of black velvet ribbon. I could add something around the edge, but I think it would detract from the embroidery & emphasize the frame, rather than the fabric. I think it would be great among a display of photos, paintings &/or little embroideries...

Key Fob: I picked up this great chartreuse green with dark red dots fabric awhile back at the local  Goodwill, not really knowing what I'd do with it (I still have plenty left. Maybe a nice summer top?) & this mini key fob project came up. The D-ring is from the 70's (not sure what it originally came from, possibly a belt...). The buttons are from a couple of old blouses that are no longer wearable & the lace was in a bag of vintage trims & craft stuff, also from Goodwill. I like how the top became gathered & a bit more girly when I put the fabric through the D-ring. The lace & the side are machine stitched & then everything was hand stitched together. I added a few cross stitches in red to just add to the girly appeal. It contrasts nicely with the fabric. The key ring is new.

Wrap Bracelet: Hand crocheted in pink alpaca & silk/mohair (chartreuse). Antique keyhole (architectural salvage), vintage crystal beads (architectural salvage) & vintage carved bone beads (from an old bracelet)  Available samsstuff Etsy

More nerdy envelopes (so fun): Vintage Band book pages. These are a little more difficult to come by & the pages are of a different type of paper than those of the math book. Available shellseye Etsy

It helps to be able to create something new, even when all is not right with the world, even when they are only appreciated by you & even when spring still seems to be avoiding us, for now anyway. How about you? have you been creating anything new? Has spring arrived where you are? Is it distracting you with its shiny newness? SAM

More Sweater Hackings :)

I bet you didn't think there were so many things you could make out of old sweaters! Sure, there's pillows or you could always make a vest or gloves, but beads? jewelry? Probably not the first things we think of when we think of sweaters. What about book covers? (I just received a nice one, in the mail) or I Pad covers? Ornaments & stuffed dolls? So many possibilities for something old, maybe ready to be discarded...

Since my old sweater was a polo, I had pieces that aren't on  regular crew or v necks, this is the placket piece, with some of the original buttons moved & a bit of added embroidery. 

A snap (vintage, of course) closure on vintage belting trim & little French knots, in teal

A bracelet could be made without a placket, from a rectangular piece of felt & some added buttons/beads

The collar piece makes a great Peter Pan style collar necklace. The pennies are from an inexpensive bracelet & can be detached from the collar, if desired. The teal piping is a vintage thrift store find. You could make a collar necklace from a collarless sweater by cutting out the collar piece from the body or sleeve...

So, have you been doing any sweater hacking recently? What have you made from your re-purposed gems in the rough? SAM

*Bracelet currently available in samsstuff Etsy Collar necklace, available soon.

Sweater Hacking & Other Nonsense

So, among other things, I have been busy sweater hacking & I thought I'd show you some of the little hackings that resulted:

Primitive embroidered felt beads :) I love how these came out, but I may use a different type of glue next time...

Felted embroidered elbow patches in my "Love" design

Felted gloves with a great vintage, thrift store lace find & stitches in embroidery  thread

Spool doll with more vintage thrift store trim & a late 60's to70's wood macrame bead. I added a bit of red check trim to her scarf, not shown here. The spool was from a spool of wire, rather than thread. I like the results & she sure is cute, but I'm not sure that spool dolls are my thing...

Felt beads

So here are a few of the things that I've made with my little felted sweater, that started out as a vintage 80's polo sweater, that I walked away from several times (even though it was less than $3 US) before finally purchasing in a little German (Kaiserslautern, I think) walkplatz men's boutique, many years ago. It had a great run, in its original form, but eventually became unwearable. I think this is the beginning of entirely different lives for this sweet sweater.
Have you tried felting? What have you created? How have you repurposed beloved old things, breathing new life into something that most would discard?

*PS the beads & the elbow patches will be soon available in samsstuff Etsy. Gloves will also be available, in different colors. SAM