Cupcake Pincushion

I was a lucky to receive a craft kit from my Mum recently as a little treat. Its sat on my shelf for a couple of weeks until a had a couple of free evenings to focus on this, and I was thrilled that this was all it took - 2 evenings of stitching in front of the TV and pow - 2 gorgeous cupcake pincushions to adorn my craft table.

Aren't they adorable...

The kit had everything you needed to create these 2 pincushions, in fact it had more than needed as I'm left with loads of stuffing and thread for another project. The felt pieces were pre-cut to size plus really clear picture instructions which meant I was guaranteed a great outcome from these 

Calling all Woolly Jumpers

Yes, you've guessed it, I've failed once more to find any potentially feltable jumpers in the raft of charity shops which fill one end of my high street. Following my previous attempts at this seemingly simple craft I have a better idea of what I'm looking for, I just can't find anything suitable....there just isn't any of this type of stock, it's all.....well how do I say this??? poor quality....never mind the woolly jumpers, where are the Jimmy Choo sandals and Hermes handbags you always see on tv when someone enters a charity shop? I'm seriously looking and I haven't seen anyone leaving the shops with a large bag and a smug grin....So either
a) the public aren't giving this stuff away, or
b) we just don't own pure wool jumpers any more

We've all seen the news reports and documentaries stating that The Devil Wears Primark i.e. Instead of investing in clothing which will last, we are all buying quick fashion fixes which either don't last, or we see as disposable due to the incredibly low prices (there are additional issues relating to the production of these items which I won't even consider mentioning for fear of being sued...)

Anyway... The point I was attempting to make (in a rather round-a-bout way) is that charity shops seem to be bursting at their poorly stitched seams with acrylic, polyester and any other man-made fabric you care to think of. This surely can't be good for the charity shop either...why buy Primark (or any other cheaper high street brand) which has been worn, stretched, shrunk and mis-shapen for £2-£3 when you can buy a similar brand new item from the other end of the high street for £5-£6...

Oops there I go again..rant over back on topic...

So basically what I'm trying to tell you is that I'm going to give up on my search for pure wool jumpers to felt and undertake Plan B

Yes I actually have a Plan B...

...I'm going to crochet or knit a square in pure wool and pop that in the washing machine in the hope that it felts and shrinks. The only problem is I have no idea how much shrinkage to expect...if I make a square 6" square will this come out 4" square or the size of a postage stamp??? I will have a go and report back

Watch this space...

Felting Failure

I've been quite fascinated by the world of felting wool recently, there are some fantastic blogs out there dedicated to this - Betz White and LucyKate Crafts are some of my favourites at the moment. The items I have seen online and in books have really inspired me to have a go at this seamingly simple craft and art-form.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this craft (and I really wasn't only a month ago) Felting is the result of washing knitted wool in the washing machine on a hot temperature and making it shrink or felt....lets be honest we have all done this accidentally at some point....I'm just wishing now I'd kept the results rather than throwing these away.

So I toddled off to the high street this afternoon in search of a wool sweater in a charity shop. I didn't realise just how little wool there is out there, I know that wool sweaters are always more expensive than man-made fibres but thought there would still be a lot of pure wool out there, maybe people simply don't give wool sweaters to charity shops in winter (that would make sense as it is pretty chilly outside right now).

It took searching through 3 charity shops until I located a 100% lambswool sweater that didn't come with the re-assurance that it wouldn't shrink in the wash ... not exactly what I was searching for in this project.

So I came home with my festive red lambswool sweater and felt really quite naughty putting it in the washing machine at 95degrees in the hope that it comes out teddy-bear size.

Well I either the sweater company did something to make the jumper indestructable or I did something wrong as my should-be-felted sweater is in the same dimensions as it entered the machine a hour earlier. I'm sooooooooo disappointed....

I guess the positives to this little project are that I have donated some money to charity and will donating a festive red lambswool very clean sweater in the next day or so.

Will try again after Christmas