scrap and button flora. no fauna.

eons and eons ago, i worked in a furniture store. not a stuffy, everything-comes-in-dark-cherry-and-chintz furniture store, but not anything too modern either. let's say it was a furniture store for young, hip families who wanted to push tradition's boundaries and still wanted something comfy for mom to sit in when she came to visit. but that's not the point. the point is, it closed and i ended up with shit tons of fabric swatches. not really enough of any one piece to do anything grand with, but they were big enough to make some fun little accessories or patches (we were supposed to ship them back to the company, but i did what any rebellious crafter worth her fiskars would do and stole all of them). by now most of them have big chunks cut out, but i still have tons of scraps left so i decided to make a "flower" pin for my little grandma cardigan that i picked up the other day. it's pretty self explanatory. cut out some gradually sized circles of coordinating (or clashing, if you prefer) fabrics, layer them, and sew a button in the middle. i hand stitched around the edges for a little embellishment and to stop any hardcore fraying. i don't have any felt at the moment, but i'm just going to sew a pin backing to a piece of felt the same shape as the back circle and fabri-tac it to the back. it's about the size of my palm, and i'm pretty damn pleased with the cool, elderly lady effect.

ah. and now i'm off to break into a pet store, liberate some canaries.

i cannot knit, but i can fake it.

a few weeks ago i found a super cozy and adorable sweater at the thrift store nearest my house. it was in the children's section and the sleeves were a bit short, but i decided to spend money i didn't have and get it anyway. i chopped the sleeves off and made a cute sweater vest, but i was left with two sleeves of fabulous sweater that i could do nothing with. until...i saw all of the neck warmers on etsy and decided to upcycle my dismembered sweater into something a little more useful that a cat pillow, which is what zed had been using it for. i cannot sew, or knit, or do much in the way of fabricy or yarny things, so when i say this was super easy, i mean it. i hand stitched it all, and it only took about an hour or so. it's a little snug (though not uncomfortable), but i have a fat neck. (plump? rubenesque?) perhaps if i get the urge to hack away at an adult's sweater the result would be a little roomier.

first, i cut the upper arm part into a straight line (as in the first picture), then flipped the edge in just a little bit and sewed it shut, with just a little bit of a cinch so it wouldn't be huge compared to the cuff. then i grabbed two buttons and sewed them to the edge of the shoulder. cut two holes in the cuff (i did this lengthwise along the ribs) where your buttons will go and do a quick stitch around them. i would show pictures of this, but my needlework really is embarrassing. if you do want to see some pictures i can easily take some more though! and that's it, easy as pie. a warm neck wrap and a smart little sweater vest to match. i'm now ready for winter, though it seems that winter may just skip over the south this year. i was driving around with my windows down today and enjoying every weird moment of it.