Friday, May 24, 2013

monkey feet and silk scarves


As well as an awful lot of sewing this week, I have made FOUR sets of monkey slippers.  If you have never made knit, then felt, slippers, this pattern is fun and easy.  
It is a free pattern, once you register with the site.  I made the smallest a couple of stitches smaller and the length an inch shorter.  Then just wash them in hot soapy water until shrunk to size you want.  I hand sewed the non slip sole to the bottoms.  This is good because they are slippery slippers otherwise, and the bottom of the slipper will wear out too quickly without that protection...

 Then I made some new dryer balls. These ones are so pretty with silk fabric embedded into the surface!  In case you have never used dryer balls, they are thrown into the dryer (I use four at a time) with your load, and WITHOUT dryer sheets.  You get no static, as the wool balls bump the clothes apart and reduce static naturally.  You also get about 25% less drying time with most loads, because the wool absorbs some of the moisture.  Just towels seem to need the full drying time for me.  It is easy to find uTube video on how to make these.  I use extra felting wool, rolled into a tennis ball size ball, then cover with merino roving, and silk fabric, and mohair yarns.  Place in panty hose, tie off, and wash in full speed hot soapy washing machine.  One or two cycles works!
 And here are the newest nuno-felt scarves.  I rescued several vintage silk saris from India, and used pieces from at least three different fabrics to build a new silk and wool fabric that is crinkly and shiny and amazing.
 bits of wool, yarn, and silk fibres, and laid out on the patchwork of sari silk.
 Navy, red and orange pops.
 Close up of wool, yarn, and silk fibres.
 Tan, burgundy, black.
 shimmering silk and wools
 Brights.

These scarves are so light weight and one of a kind.  Way better in person.  About five feet long, and 18 inches wide, they can be a shoulder wrap, or circled around the neck as a cowl.  This item can be used year round!

1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

I've used plastic dryer balls for several years and never realized I could make my own. Thanks for the great idea.