50 Memory Clothes Ideas: #3 – sweater blanket

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felted wool sweater blanket by yellow suitcase studio

Do you have old clothes that you just can’t seem to part with? They might be your own or those of a loved one, or your child’s, but there are memories attached to those clothes that you don’t want to forget. How about using them to make a memory clothes project? Give those clothes a second life will keeping those precious memories close. This year I’ll be sharing 50 ideas using old clothes that you can enjoy or share with family and friends. Here is today’s idea:

Wool Sweater Throw by Peggy on DIYcraftyProjects.com

Continuing our sweater theme for January, I thought some ideas for transforming old sweaters into a cozy blanket would be perfect for these cold winter days and nights. If the sweaters are wool they can be felted first but you can use them even if they can’t be felted. This one was made with a mixture of cotton, unfelted wool and felted wool. Some wool yarn has been treated to prevent felting.

upcycled warm wool lap quilt from fiberluscious.blogspot.com

There are several ways to handling the seams as you can see from the ideas above. Here is another variation on sewing felted seams that could be used on a sweater blanket.

felted seam technique from blog.betzwhite.com

Anxious for more memory clothes project ideas? Check out this Pinterest board.

50 Memory Clothes Ideas: #2 – sweater purse/tote bag

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sweater purse from sew-over-it.blogspot.com

Do you have old clothes that you just can’t seem to part with? They might be your own or those of a loved one, or your child’s, but there are memories attached to those clothes that you don’t want to forget. How about using them to make a memory clothes project? Give those clothes a second life will keeping those precious memories close. This year I’ll be sharing 50 ideas using old clothes that you can enjoy or share with family and friends. Here is today’s idea:

details for sew-over-it’s sweater purse

I never thought of using a sweater to make a tote bag before. When I saw the above idea on Pinterest I loved it. when I searched deeper, I found lots of different variations of the basic idea of using a sweater to create a tote bag or purse. If the sweater is 100% wool you can even felt it first which has some advantages in making the “fabric” sturdier plus felting bonds the fibers together so it doesn’t unravel when cut. The images above and below don’t come with instructions but I found a few tutorials to help get you started on transforming a sweater into a tote bag.

If those tutorials don’t help with your project a google or Pinterest search for tote bag or purse patterns should head you in the right direction. What a fun way to give new life to a beloved sweater and keep memories close at the same time.

felted sweater purse made by GrannyBeansBoutique on etsy.com

another felted sweater purse from GrannyBeansBoutique on etsy.com

Anxious for more memory clothes project ideas? Check out this Pinterest board.

50 Memory Clothes Ideas: #1 – sweater pillow

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sweater pillow from http://www.maidenjane.com

Do you have old clothes that you just can’t seem to part with? They might be your own or those of a loved one, or your child’s, but there are memories attached to those clothes that you don’t want to forget. How about using them to make a memory clothes project? Give those clothes a second life will keeping those precious memories close. This year I’ll be sharing 50 ideas using old clothes that you can enjoy or share with family and friends. Here is today’s idea:

With Christmas decorations gone, sometimes things feel a little bare. How about adding a cozy sweater pillow for a fun new accent? Great to snuggle up with for a nap or reading a good book. If the sweater has fond memories attached to it, that makes it even better. A sweater pillow makes a great gift too, especially if you share a story about the history of the sweater along with the pillow. I found three different tutorials with different approaching to making a sweater pillow. Click on the photos above and below for the links.

sweater pillows from StoneGableBlog.com

sweater pillow from sometimes-homemade.com

Anxious for more memory clothes project ideas? Check out this Pinterest board.

50 Button Crafts: idea #50 – button clock

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button clock via Pinterest made by MasonBee on Etsy.com

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

As 2015 draws to a close it seems fitting to do a button clock for the final of my 50 button Crafts posts. Maybe it is just me but the end of the year makes me realize how fast time is passing and I wonder if I am getting enough of the important stuff done in a day. A button clock could be a nice bridge to stories about times past or each button could represent a ancestor and naturally lead to a story about that person. I found three basic ideas for making button clocks (remake an inexpensive wall clock or buy a clock kit and use a cookie tin lid or embroidery hoop for the clock base.) The two bellow have tutorials. The one above doesn’t but here is a tutorial for making a button clock with an embroidery hoop.

button clock from DoodlebugBlog.com

button clock from MarthaStewart.com

It would be a good idea to document where the buttons for your project came from and any relevant stories or information about that person or family. If you are looking for more button crafts, check out my Pinterest board.

Pupdate: Fable in phase 4

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Fable on recall morning – photo by Karen Fuller

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. I got a great gift today. Fable was in phase 4 on the phase report this morning. Good job little girl! She is moving along at a nice steady pace. Hopefully this will continue, through with the holidays her trainer maybe taking so days off that could affect her progress and the progress of her string. That is what happened over Thanksgiving. But since I’m tracking all the dogs on the phase report it is easy to see if the other dogs that are most likely in her string are moving along the same way she is. Just one more phase report for the year. I’m proud of Fable for making it this far and though I hope she will become a guide dog, it is more important that she be doing something that she enjoys, even if that isn’t being a guide dog.

Pupdate: Fable in phase 3

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Fable at 3 months old

Still behind on pupdates, but Fable moved on to phase 3 last week. Hoping for phase 4 tomorrow in her training to become a guide dog. Here is what they learn in phase 3:

  • 3rd up-curb exercise
  • dog boot intros
  • preliminary obedience & guide work testing (instructor under blindfold)

I wonder how she will take to the booties? Sometimes she can be kind of body sensitive. Kind of exciting that she is doing her first blindfold test too. I wonder if this is a phase that gets many dogs career changed. I think I’ll check it out….

So I checked over the phase reports for 2015 and I learned some things. Not too surprising the largest number of career changes happen in phase 0, the medical evaluation stage. I have 28 dogs who showed up on the phase report in 0 and then were career changed. Only 12 dogs were dropped after phase 1. Then there is a big jump in phase 2 and phase 3 with 23 dogs being cc’d in each of these phases. Phase 4 is 15 dogs. Phase 5 jumps a bit to 18. Then in drops off to 7 dogs dropped in both phase 6 and 7. Another surprise is the number of dogs career changed in phase 8. I had down 18 dogs. Plus there could be more that I don’t know about. Of course there are final tests on phase 8 as they make sure that dogs are ready to be guide dogs before they are matched and train with their new partners for two weeks in class.

So Fable is at a critical point in her training right now. Not sure how the holidays will effect her progress. I’m sure that the trainers take at least a little time off during Christmas and New Years.

50 Button Crafts: idea #49 – cup cozy

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knit cup cozy via Pinterest

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

With all the cold weather that comes this time of year, I was drawn to the cup cozies I found on Pinterest this week. There are lots of ways to make them so I’ll share a few of those I found with buttons. This is a fun way to share some of the buttons from your stash along with stories of cold days and warm drinks from your life or an ancestor’s. I’m a huge hot chocolate or lemon and honey tea. Nothing warms me up when I get cold to the core like something hot to drink. In the winter hot chocolate and graham crackers was my favorite after school snack growing up.

crochet mug cozy from Hobbycraft.co.uk

felt coffee cozy from practicallyfunctional.com

custom sized mug cozy from Hazelnutgirl

It would be a good idea to document where the buttons for your project came from and any relevant stories or information about that person or family. If you are looking for more button crafts, check out my Pinterest board.

50 Button Crafts: idea #48 – miniature clothespin snowflake with button

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miniature clothespin snowflake by Racquel Schroder Bregg

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

The year of button crafts is almost over and Christmas is just a week away. I was thinking I might be done with Christmas themed button crafts but this was too clever not to share. Just combine miniature clothespins (taken apart) and a single button to make a sweet little snowflake. Lots of possibilities for bridging the gift or craft activity to family stories. What about memories of doing laundry and hanging clothes on the line to dry. We don’t do much of that these days. Or go the snow route and talk about winter memories and how deep the snow was when you or an ancestor where growing up. Here is a step by step tutorial. These would make a great January project as well as a Christmas decoration.

snowflake ornaments from MamaOf3Munchkins.com

It would be a good idea to document where the buttons for your project came from and any relevant stories or information about that person or family. If you are looking for more button crafts, check out my Pinterest board.

50 Button Crafts: idea #47 – button Christmas card ideas

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button ornament card from sweetppaperie

Got a box or jar full of buttons carefully saved by your mother or grandmother? For 2015 I’m in search of great ways to put those buttons to use. Here is this week’s idea:

Christmas is just around the corner so I thought I’d share some of the fun Christmas card ideas using buttons. There are so many out there and the possibilities are endless but hopefully these will inspire you to create something memorable from your button stash.

Santa card from imeondesign

tree cards from love-and-lollipops

ho ho ho card from CookieDesignCards

wreath card from hopefulhoney

It would be a good idea to document where the buttons for your project came from and any relevant stories or information about that person or family. If you are looking for more button crafts, check out my Pinterest board.

Pupdate: Fable in phase 2

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Fable’s official portrait for our wall of puppies

I’ve neglected updating on Fable’s progress in formal harness training. On this last week’s report she was in phase 2, after being in phase 1 for two weeks. This was most likely due to the Thanksgiving holiday as only a few dogs moved to the next phase last week. In phase 2 she is learning:

  • Pattern training continues
  • 2nd up-curb exercise
  • distraction route in town
  • responsible lead exercise
  • food protocol continues

I finally got Fable’s official portrait picked, printed, stretched and hung on our wall. We have nine photos up there now. Some how nine seems like so much more than eight. I think some of it is that I had two rows of four photos and now I have three rows of three. It fills the wall up very differently. I put up enough nails when I started this wall above our stairs for the alphabet so it is easy to rearrange the photos as we add more puppies. I need to get on doing a photo shoot for Galaxy. She turned 7 months old this week. I’d like to have her portrait up by the time we have her going away party, not almost 7 weeks after she leaves for training.