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!

Ghost Coasters, or, as I call 'em, GHOSTERS

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!