OT - sorta maybe

Hi Shelagh,

Great haul! The handbag sounds lovely.

I have a question for you and anyone else who may care to answer. I have several cashmere sweaters that have seen better days. Could I felt the entire sweater and then cut the fabric and make it into something? How exactly do you go about that? Would I have to stuff the wet felted thing so the fronts and backs didn't stick together? Has anyone felted cashmere before?

TIA

Hesira

Shillelagh wrote:

Good for you, Shelagh! I have to see if there is a Value Village here. I know that they have a great Sally Ann.

Higs, Katherine

Sure you can. In fact, I just got home from the church rummage sale with a bag full of assorted sweaters, some cashmere, some lambswool, some just "100% wool". I toss them into the washer, hot wash, cold rinse, el cheapo harsh detergent, then into the dryer on hot. I do sort them into darks and lights, because you never know what will bleed color. I had one burgundy sweater which, after a few washings, became a lovely pale pink. I keep on washing and drying until they have shrunk as much as they are going to, and discharged all the dye they are going to, then just use them as yard goods. One year I made mother/daughter vests for dd and dgd, just cut out the pattern in dark shades, then cut out flowers in pale colors and sewed them on. The handbags I make are always popular with the recipients, and last year I made felt slippers for ds and dsil which were also well received.

Go ahead and play!!

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

Dead easy!! Finer weight sweaters come out a medium felt, and chunky comes out very thick - great for slippers. Provided you have felted (fulled) them as far as they will go, they will not ravel. I stitch them with ordinary cotton sewing thread, which usually buries itself right into the fabric. Small items I sew by hand with big stitches, larger ones can take a long stith on the machine. To seam them I overlap the edges about half an inch and sew both edges - one on each side so it looks like a felled seam.

You can decorate them by cutting out shapes in contrasting thinner felt and hand sewing them on, I put flowers on my dd and dgd vests, and saved a green sweater to use just for leaves and stems.

By the way, they are also machine washable and dryable.

Have fun!

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

Thanks for the encouragement -- maybe I'll give them a try. I don't know what a felled seam is, but I think I understand the process you describe. I'm not planning to try it right away, but when I do I'll let you know how they come out. Thanks!

Olwyn Mary wrote:

Well, I just looked up "felled seam" and now I'm confused -- but then, you didn't say it is a felled seam, just that it looks like one, so I guess I don't really need to understand it. You overlap the edges by half an inch , sew down the visible edge, then turn the whole thing over (or inside out) and sew down the other edge -- is that right? Doesn't it get too bulky on the thumb?

Olwyn Mary wrote:

Shelagh i love felting [sometimes by mistake] my old sweaters ,,, reading this decription gave me an idea of you cutting it up and crocheting with other colors around the pieces and than assemb le something [vest ???]

Katherine tried your idea [to put some elastics in the back of my sweater]it helped , it looks good again on me ,,,, the vest isn`t helped by it much ,,, Of course since all are knitted downwards i could take out the under side , but i REALLY don`t feel for doing it ,,,[also i might get the lost sizes back -hopefully not ,,,,]

Today it is really cold and rainy , thus i might try on some sweaters ,,, and try and get rid of Summery ironing ,,,, mirjam

Yes, you have the right idea. It ends up looking like (for instance) the seam on jeans. Yes indeed, this would be much too thick for mittens. Depending on the thickness of the felt, I would either just whip stitch closely all around the edges, or else machine stitch around and let the seam show on the outside. Whipstitch - Take your needle and thread and, from the outside, go in one side of the mitten and come out the other, carry the thread over the top of the work, move the needle a lttle way along and do over, so you end up with a look like this on the outside ///////////

If you use matching thread, the stitches will disappear inside the fabric.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Delighted I could help. Good luck with your projects.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Heh - expressions are different in different places. When I learned to sew (many moons ago) I was taught it was a "flat fell" seam.

Shelagh

Me too, but expressions seem to change. I figure there are times when it is more important to be understood than to be correct, although I must admit to a decided preference for "proper language" and correct terms.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Ah, but the advantage of "proper language" is that it standardizes, so one has a greater chance of being understood! But I think the "fell vs. flat-fell" distinction is one of regional or evolution of terms, not lack of correctness.

But then I've been an editor for a long time. :)

Okay then, here's where part of the regional thing might come in - I'm Canadian, and a LOT of our language basics come from England, with the odd French word in there.

Shelagh

And I was born and brought up in England, but have spent my married life in Montreal, various parts of Ohio, Tampa, Florida, and now here I am in The Big (not so) Easy.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

That would indeed do it. I work with Commonwealth nationals and I'm always insisting to my underlings that we have to avoid U.S. usages that don't translate well or are confusing.

I LOVE Montreal - have visited there a few times. Had fun shopping and eating, eating and shopping. Even tried out my high school French. How long did you live there?

Shelagh

Three years.