A New Life for Old Clothes

Wool Felted Bears
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

These bears were made from a wool sweater that I felted in the washing machine and dryer. I hand embroidered the eyes, nose, mouth, and muzzle as well as blanket-stitched around the body.

There is a fabric square on the middle that I blanket-stitched onto the bear; and hand-sewed two buttons on the fabric.

This was inspired by a picture I saw on a Flickr site. Thought it was cute and wanted to make with the felted wool I had.

The bears are small - they fit into the palm of one's hand.

The blue bear I kept and will give to Olivia on the first day she goes to the homeschool co-op. (Kind of like a teddy bear she can hide in her pocket.) The green bear I sent as part of a "Recycle Your Clothing" swap on Swap-bot.

I also made these felted cat toys this week. These each are stuffed with wool from sheep I use to raise and have a jingle bell inside. Needless to say, the cats enjoy the toy because they can get the bell to make a noise the more they play with it and toss it around.



Another item I made was a coaster for a mug. Saw this idea on the internet, and thought I'd give it a try. Basically, you cut off the hems from jeans you no longer wear. Using a hot glue gun, you glue the hems together to create a very sturdy and dense coaster. I used 7 pairs of jeans (14 hems) to create one coaster. It took a lot more hems than I thought. The next step is to use the fabric from the jeans to create items for the home (a quilt...more placemats...not sure yet).