Frankenknit

I had my ancient Kenmore sewing machine serviced recently, and have gotten into sewing again (after a many-year hiatus, because the sewing machine needed servicing and I was too cheap to fix it while I was a student). I started with recovering our hideous couch pillows. I kept this felted sweater in my sewing stash for the past few years, and always knew it had aspirations for a second life.
It was a nice sweater, until I washed and dried it at the laundromat. oops. I didn't really know how or why (or that) wool shrunk, when I was in college. I got it at Old Navy years ago, before their clothes started being made with that signature falling apart in the wash.

Here is the butt ugly pillow that needed recovering. What the hell was I thinking when I bought TWO of these in college? Who ever brought back animal prints? Or have they just never gone away?

I cut out the body of the sweater, and seamed it all into a square on the machine, then added the zipper. There really isn't a fancy trick to sewing in zippers - you just turn your pillow inside-out, pin the zipper in, and then sew it on. I didn't really follow any instructions or use a zipper foot (as I had lost mine ages ago and recently just bought one).


Voila! Who's your zipper-sewing daddy?

Here he is next to the other hideous pillow on the couch in the den. The other one will be recovered in a shibori-felted blue to go in the living room. When I get around to it.

I can't get the dang picture to rotate!

We also had two ugly pillows in the living room. They weren't ugly as much as they attracted copius amounts of cat hair, which makes them look gross. So, I wanted to make covers for them that could be removed and washed. Here is the finished result:

The fabric is from Jo-Ann. I was impressed to find something there that isn't country kitsch. I don't like to spend very much on DIY projects, because that defeats the purpose for me, so I am glad to see they are carrying some cuter patterns than they were when I was in college. Or maybe I don't just cruise the clearance table anymore now that I am out of school. Gee, could that be it? The pattern reminded me of India, where I traveled in college, and the fabric is made there. Coincidence? I think not!

Next on the list was wanting to learn to quilt, so I started with a rag quilt tutorial on about.com, and decided to start small and, inspired by Paula's kitty's blanket, I made a blankie to put in the sunny spot Ginger, my assistant, likes to lay in.

Just some standard cotton fleece from Jo-Ann

Chopping it up

Piece it all together, snip all the seams, toss through the washer and dryer, and voila again! Rag quilt!

I haven't gotted a picture of Ginger on it yet, but this guy seems to like it:


I think it's hilarous that the mean cat likes the pink frilly blanket.

In other news, I have been studying for the next ARE. Three down, four to go! After I take the next one in a couple of weeks here, I will have tipped the halfway point. Yay! I didn't study very much while my husband was on winter break (he is a PhD student), as we finally had time to hang out. But now we are both back to studying habits. Sigh. And I have all these sewing projects out of my system so I can concentrate on studying more, but it also makes me think of all sorts of fabulous things to sew!