Baby bootees grow large

You may remember these from last year...

Made as part of my challenge to see how many items I could make from one shrunken jumper, they are based on Heather Bailey's Bitty Booties, which you can find out all about here.

Well, one of the girls in the charity shop wondered if it would be possible to make some to fit her.  I'm always up for a challenge!

The perfect opportunity came when a whole heap of woollies came into the shop recently.  They were well worn - picture threadbare elbows and grubby cuffs - as well as unwashed, and therefore most definitely not suitable for the shops.  I couldn't bear to see them head into the rag bag (all 100% wool, mostly hand wash or dry-clean only) so some came home with me and found themselves given the indignity of a hot wash tied into a pillowcase with a tennis ball or two! 

I found a slipper pattern in a Tilda book I have and used the sole pattern as a guide, then scaled up the shape of the upper from Heather Bailey's pattern.  I decided that one layer of the felt I had created would not have been warm enough, nor indeed hard-wearing enough, so used two different jumper backs to cut linings and outers for the slippers.  

Some embroidery was required to jazz up the slippers. I was hoping the rain would give way to snow if I stitched enough snowflakes so off I went!

In the end, not one flake of the pretty fluffy stuff has fallen on us here in Hampshire, but I did finish the slippers...

The sole and the uppers were stitched by machine first (on triple stretch stitch) then finished with blanket stitch.

I hope the recipient will like them when I take them in for her on Wednesday!

Bunny Madness - Another Rag Bag Rescue

At the charity shop where I do a bit of sorting each Wednesday afternoon, they have now got to know me well enough to humour me by saving holey jumpers and half-made skirts to take home, chop up and create something from.  

And this weekend I was in the mood for a bit of frivolity, as on Friday I had finished my stint at work (you know - the proper sort, where you get paid...) and whilst I had been working, I had found it hard to get stuck into anything just for fun.

So here are (some of) the results of my frivolity...

Some Sarah Moore bunnies!

I had seen these bunnies before, but then I spotted the pattern in this month's issue of 'Country Living' (which I am savouring slowly, due to my sort-of-resolution to only buy one magazine a month) and was reminded of how sweet they are.  

The pattern can be found on Sarah Moore's blog.

I already had a small pile of woolies awaiting the washing machine, and a setting too high for their tender nature.  Two of these had been Mr U-t-B's but the rest had been saved for me at the charity shop.  None of them were suitable for re-sale, being either a tad shrunken, bobbly or having small holes.  There were two 'Blue Harbour' lambswool ones from Marks and Spencer, a Lochmere pure cashmere, an 'H &M' cashmere, a Gap Italian merino wool and an embroidered cardi whose label had been removed, but which felt angora-y. 

I decided to test the 'shrinkability' of the garments by chopping a sleeve off each and putting them through  a 50 degree wash.  After the wash, the M&S lambswools were not felted, but holey and thinned out, and the blue one had practically disintegrated, leaving blue fluff over everything!  The rest however, were more successful.  The two cashmere jumpers had shrunk and felted slightly, but were still beautifully soft; the merino wool had shrunk a good deal, making a super 'fabric' for more baby shoes; and the cream 'angora' had also felted enough to make a useable fabric. 

So, I decided the pretty blue cashmere sleeves would make some sweet bunnies, as would the cream angora.

And here they are...

There was even enough to make another smaller bunny, and a tiny teddy...

I managed to make some other things from the scraps left over from the sleeves, and I still have the large backs and front awaiting a metamorphosis.  Back with those another day!

PS  I am busy packaging up books and getting in touch with people to find out where to send them