I made the bodice of this dress from 15.5 micron merino wool and the skirts are 8mm Habotai silk. The silk was hand dyed on my stove top each layer a different color of jade. The bodice was felted over the hand dyed silk then dyed the deep rust color. It took me three times to get the deep color I wanted for the bodice. I love the ombre effect that flows from the jade/turquoise of the skirt to brown to rust on the bodice. This happened when I dyed the bodice. Some of the skirt got in the dye bath and made this lovely effect. I am quite happy with the way it came out and I will be wearing it at my craft festival this August, I will also probably put it up in my etsy shop for the fall. I am about a size 6 or 8 so I would say this dress is a medium. I hope you like it too, I will probably be making more dresses using this same template over the summer. Maybe I will like one of those better then wear that to my craft festival instead. I just really like making dresses.
I am calling this scarf the Bulls-eye scarf. Made from 19.5 micron Australian merino. Each skeleton leaf is surrounded by the Copper to Verdigris colorway by Fiber Optic. I love the way it came out, perfect for the fall. However it won’t be going up in my Etsy shop, I am going to be taking it with me to my craft show this August at Shaker Village.
Another Sheep Bag! This one was made with Lincoln locks. I am calling it Two Sheep Hill, that is the daddy sheep teaching his son all about being a good little wool factory and how someday his wool might be felted into something beautiful! At least that is the conversation I see them having in my head. You won’t see this one up in my Etsy shop, I made it for the Shaker Village craft show this August.
So I spent the morning at the Emergency Room b/c I was needle felting and accidentally pierced the tip of my pointer finger with the needle. It went through the top of my nail and came out through the pad of my finger. Then it was good and stuck b/c of the barbs.So here are some pics of when the needle was stuck in my finger. It didn’t hurt until you tried to pull on it. So the Doc gave me like 5 or 6 shots of numbing stuff all over my finger and then yanked it out. It was kinda cool. But in the end the visit cost us 100 bucks so not so cool actually.
I went to my local home improvement store yesterday and bought a huge piece of birch and some chalkboard paint. I painted, seasoned, and drew this message on the board. It is for my craft show coming up in August. I am hoping people will see it and inquire about the felting classes I will be teaching. Usually a huge chalkboard like this would cost 80-100+ dollars. Mine? About $25. Nice! I love DIY!!
I have been accepted into the juried craft show at Shaker Village! I am very excited, I feel so honored that my work was good enough. So if you are going to be in KY this August 3rd & 4th come by and see us in person!
My new friend from the Fiber Festival gave me the idea to do this sheep bag, thanks Benita! The bag came together super, but in the middle of felting it my sander died (literally fell apart) so we had to make an impromptu trip to Walmart to get a new one. Other then that this bag came off without a hitch. It has two inside pockets and is super thick and sturdy. The sheep’s body are some lovely mohair locks I bought back in Aug 2011! So I have had them for a while! Glad I finally got to use them and for such a cool project!
The 2013 Kentucky Fiber Festival was AWESOME! I got so much wool and made a few friends along the way. I found a bunch of wet felting wool at a booth called “Dyed in the Wool”. I was so excited that I went home and got straight to work. Late that night the fox bag was born. I took the bag back with me to the festival the next day to show the ladies who sold me the wool the bag I had made with their wool and they wrote about it on their webpage: http://www.basicallybenita.com/
Another cool thing I found out about while at the festival is Fiber Mills. Well I sent all that wool I bought from the ladies at “Dyed in the Wool” out to a Fiber Mill called Ohio Valley Natural Fibers http://www.ovnf.com/ They are going to turn all that lovely wool into batts for me so it is easier to work with when I make them into bags. So excited to get it back from them!!!
I spent a lot of money but I am fulled stocked and ready for a long summer of felting. Which is good because I have the fall and craft fair season coming up!
I whipped up this necklace last night, it took a long time to make each chain! But I am so happy with the way it came out, I got the idea of doing a chunky chain necklace from a Pin of a jade link necklace on Pinterest. I though “hey I bet I can do that with felt!” it was a experiment that worked out, which is good because some of my experiments lately haven’t been panning out.
