Over dying

My lovely friend Nyree gave me some clothes that her daughter had outgrown.  They were 'kindy' clothes, stained, but still very wearable.  P couldn't care less about stains on her clothes and was just super excited to have some new things.  One of the tops that Nyree gave me was this lovely hand knitted vest.  It had a green paint stain across the front.  I gave it a go with some sunlight soap, but it didn't shift.

 Then I had a fabulous idea.  I decided to overdye it.  This is exactly the same process as for wool, but using the finished garment.  I used the same process as I do for dying wool.

I chose a purple colour because I thought it would cover the green the best, while still being true to the base colour of the vest.

 Unfortunately, Murphy's law meant that when I dyed the vest, I managed to miss some of the green stain when I put the purple dye in.  Still its much less visible than it was before.

Also Murphy's law is that I prefer the colour on the back to that of the front.

Check out more creativity over at Natural Surburbia.

Art on the walls

Or at least in their frames.  This is a bit out of order, since I realised I hadn't posted about my art project.  I did find frames for my artworks, and they are on the walls. 

I had planned to put the smaller pictures up together to create a kind of naive art look, but P asked if she could have one on her wall and I couldn't refuse.  She also asked for it to be really low down on the wall, so that it is in her line of sight, which is very cute, but also a really good idea for kids.

The pictures don't actually look all that good on the wall, mostly because my wallpaper is very busy, and it detracts from the pictures because they don't have any borders on the frames.  Once we finish wallpapering the house, they will stand out better.  I can definitely appreciate white walls for showing off art works.  I still haven't worked up the courage to sell any other pieces yet.  Maybe next time.

More UFOs

My project this week is to finish the other project that has been languishing around in my house.  More on it when I complete it - and I'm sure that I will.  Actually if you read through my recentish posts it should become pretty obvious what it is.

Finished project!

I'm so excited to finish one of the two projects that have been languishing in my home for far too long.  Some time ago (actually quite a long time ago) Marie from Softearth posted about her lovely needle felted nativity set.  She asked if someone wanted to swap for it.  I have been on the lookout for a nativity set for many years.  My parents have one that is about as old as I am, its just a little plastic figurine set, but they bring it out every Christmas and set it up.  I've been looking for something similar - not in terms of plasticyness, but in terms of something that I can treasure and that the girls will remember as fondly as I remember my parents set.  So when I saw Marie's beautiful set, I said I'd love it. 

She asked for some of the baby dolls that I made in my Steiner toys post.  Well she sent off the beautiful nativity set, and I got to work on the dolls.  And then I didn't finish them, and they sat nearly finished for ages.  Until last week - when I pulled them out of my sewing basket and completed them!

So they will be winging their way to Marie.  Who I have to say has been incredibly patient, and has not hassled me about when she is going to get these, even though she would have been perfectly entitled to, given my embarrassing delay in getting these finished.

Unfinished projects

Due to some personal circumstances, I've had to slow down a little at the moment.  So I've rejigged my one project a week to finish off those things that definitely need doing (and which I am too embarrassed to blog about until they're done), and then take a break over Christmas.

So my revised list for the end of the year,
For the weeks beginning:
7/11/11: Unfinished projects
14/11/11: Unfinished projects
21/11/11: Birthday prep
28/11/11: Christmas presents
5/12/11: Christmas Tree
12/12/11: Christmas Decorations
19/12/11: Christmas food

I know it still looks like I've got alot of things on, but trust me, this is way less than I had originally planned.  I think next year I will knock off my projects in mid November if I can manage it.