Happy Re-New Year!

Hello fellow crafters! Welcome to 2010!

If you're anything like the crew here at Craft Happy, then you know the after-holiday time is the perfect (i.e. necessary) time to clean out some closet space. Out with the old, in with the new, right?

For those of you who hate to part with anything, no matter how old or, ahem, unstylish, Craft Happy is here to help! This month we take something old (a wool sweater), and magically (ok, not so magically), repurpose the pieces to create something new and cool and totally usable again.

Here's our old sweater:

It's kind of ehh, right? But it's got potential, and it is 100% wool, so we felted it down (cold water, detergent, a washing machine, check out October blog for more felting details) and now we can have our way with it, craft-wise.

First we made some measurements and decided this old sweater could become a cute mini-cardigan with just a little work. Off goes five inches from the bottom- but don't throw that away, we can use that later!

We also are trimming the sleeves to a three-quarter length, making this bulky sweater ready for a new sassy life.
The ends of the sleeves won't unravel (because of the felting), but they look a little unfinished. Needle-felting to the rescue! With a little wool roving, we add a simple embellishment around the edges that matches the neck line (nice, huh?).

Mini-cardi is complete and ready to begin it's new life as a welcome member of your closet!
The cut-off end of the sweater is long enough to become an ultra-warm scarf. Just add a button hole and a large button and you're set!

The sleeve ends are sewn a wee bit around the thumb-area to make matching fingerless gloves. Sweater, you have a new life (or, lives) in 2010!

Projects like this we call 'ReNew Year.' 'ReNew Year' is an ongoing craft class here at Craft Happy; check out our online calendar for more info about upcoming craft classes! Join us and get Craft Happy in 2010!