Although the weather may say otherwise, it's definitely almost Halloween. My intake of candy says so and my neighborhood supply of pumpkins says so, so it must be almost that time of year.
In order to celebrate Halloween this year, I made many, many things, but the one I want to share with you is spooky coasters. Nothing's scarier than condensation dripping onto your unprotected table, am I right?
Even if your love of tabletops is less than adamant, I think you'll still want to make these coasters. The beautiful thing about them is, anyone can do this!
Taking old wool sweaters and felting them into fabric has become quite a thing in the crafting community. I've done it on accident many times- sorry cool wool skirt. Who knew I was such a trend-setter? Anyway, if you are unsure about how to felt, here are some quick rules to follow:
1) Select a sweater made from at least 80% wool. Combing the Goodwill is a great place to find old sweaters people have given away, and they are usually less than $2!
2) Let the felting begin! Wash those wool sweaters in hot water, add a little bit of detergent (just a little) along with a pair of jeans (to agitate the sweaters and get them all riled up!)
3) Check your felting. Some sweaters felt faster than others. If you pull a sweater out of the washer and it looks like the fibers have felted together into a wool-like fabric, then it's done!
4) Rinse in cold water. Shocking the fibers helps them bind tighter, and we need to get the detergent washed out as well.
5) Lay out to dry. This can take a day or two, but it's well worth the wait!
Now that you've got some cool patterned felt to work with, you can make a limitless amount of crafty stuff out of it! Go ahead, cut right into that sweater! It won't unravel now that it's felted.
I planned to make coasters, but in the 'spirit' of Halloween, I got a little creative. I designed a ghost template out of paper and used it to cut a set of Ghosters from my felted sweater!
Be sure your template has a place that's round and large enough to accommodate holding a glass or cup.
So your Ghoster doesn't end up looking like a melting snowman (which mine did at first), add some details! I took a different colored felted sweater to cut out the eyes and spooky mouth. I then needlefelted the details onto the Ghoster. Needlefelting is a super-fun craft that takes wool and uses a sharp needle to bind the fibers together (do not do this while watching TV! Ouch!).
Now you have beautiful Ghosters to help celebrate the season and keep your drinks cozy. Happy Halloween everyone!
