In honor of Thanksgiving being around the corner it’s time for some art, Turkey, or turkey art..
“A Respectable Bird” By Awake and Painting
“Ocellated Turkey” by Spring Hofeldt
“Wild Turkey and Flowers” by United Thread
“A big puffed up male turkey showing off for his girlfriends” by Dottie Dracos
A turkey painting by Art By K
Well, perhaps you’ve been looking at my Facebook page, and you see I’ve been crafting my husbands old sweaters into little bunnies for my nieces and daughters. I’ve promised you I’d make a tutorial, so here you go! I will warn you – I am a very ad hoc person – I don’t measure, I live for the moment of making and also I love the freedom to alter things as I go. If you decide to use this tute and blog about it, I’d love a little link love. And if you want to sell something you’ve made using my tutorial, more power to you! Just please give me a little credit when you do and link to my blog, thanks!
Okay!
Take an old sweater, this one is wool/cashmere blend
Cut off the arm of the sweater
Cut that in two
Use the widest part first, this is the bottom of the bunny and sew with a zig zag or serger.
Turn inside out
Stuff!
Then, take an elastic band, and cinch it to about 3/4 of the body of your stuffie.
Keep the rubber band on and use it to hold the shape while you sew around the top of the band. This will separate the bottom of your bunny from the head.
Take off your rubber band, and you have a bottom!
Make a leg or two, I do this by going about 2 inches up the seam of the bottom, stitching straight up, and then pulling one stitch from the top to the bottom, and then anchoring it with a couple of stitches.
Next, sew up the face. I invert the top, so that half of it is inside where the head will be.
Sew that up, and then sew a little across the inside, making a little triangle in the top (see above). You may want to adjust how much you sew up, for the size of your bunnies face.
Turn right side out, and stuff!
For the ears, cut out two pieces of sweater, single thickness. Select a fabric for the inside, I used a pink canvas weight.
Make the liner of the ear almost as big as the sweater ear.
Pin the sweater part so it overlaps. There is bulk here, but it gives the ears shape and tone.
Gather stitches at the bottom, and attach ears to the top of the head.
Sew the ears on each side of the bunny head, make sure to tuck the ears inside the head. I didn’t worry about seams and such since this is a recycle bunny after all and not meant to be fussy.
Here is where you have to get creative and go with your senses – I sort of tuck and stitch the shape of the face, you sort of have to feel it out for yourself.
And lastly? Button eyes and applique nose, and heart on the belly. Also, no arms. Why? Because frankly I like the bunny better without the arms. You can see the bunnies on my Facebook page. But if you neeeeed arms, just stuff some sweater parts and sew them on.
I didn’t take pics of this bc this bunny isn’t finished yet and I’m going away for a few days but didn’t want to leave folks waiting for their bunny tute.
Voila! Finished!
If you have questions or feedback, I would love to hear it!
Peace,
Liz
It’s Get Your Craft On Tuesday over at Today’s Creative Blog!
This is something I made last year, it’s a small bag I made from my grandmothers sweater. If you are looking for a craft for reusing an old boiled wool sweater than this is the one for you! I’m doing this as a repost because I am ridiculously over-extended this year, plus it’s good to have the occasional re-run, right? Nothing like a good re-run…
Here is a picture of the bag, it has needle felted details (I love needle felting, and felt, it’s a fantastic medium),
And here is a link to the tutorial , it’s a good one, with lots of details and great photos, worth the click, I promise.
Hopefully I’ll have more to post over the next 10 days, stay tuned!
Head on over to http://todayscreativeblog.net/ to see some more crafty goodness!
I wanted to update you all on some pretty exciting news for me – I’ve been featured in The Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Presidential Report, in the “Alumni Spotlight.” The report isn’t available online yet, but you may see past issue’s here: http://www.massart.edu/About_MassArt/News/Publications/Presidents_Report_Archive.html
Inside the report I talk about working with Kickstarter – a pretty amazing group of folks who help artists find funding for their work, but with a unique way of doing it. With Kickstarter you pledge the money and you get a reward, so it’s not a charitable donation but rather an investment in the artist and the project – a new kind of collaboration. Additionally the artists only receive funding if they are able to obtain all of what they ask for. This is an excellent way to force some of us artists to really consider the financial side of what our goals need to achieve success.
Meanwhile, I will be taking applications for consideration for another, more in depth project that draws upon my “25 Project.” I’ll be launching the new project through Kickstarter after January 1. I will be limiting this next project to just 5 people to really focus on the items you send. If you would like to see what I’ve made for others so far, you can see them here
http://liznoonan.wordpress.com/25-project/
If you have an item that you may want transformed, contact me at liznoonan@gmail.com with your name, along with the details on your object. I’ll be posting formal guidelines through Kickstarter once the project is launched.
If you are an artist looking to collaborate, I would love to hear from you, too!
As soon as the report is available online I’ll be posting it here. Thank you for reading my shameless plug.
Peace,
Liz
Okay, I’m doing my first craft swap over at Craftaholics Anonymous, over here http://www.diaryofacraftaholic.blogspot.com/ (stop laughing those of you who know I have a problem with too many crafts) and I mailed these guys out yesterday. The idea is you hook up with someone you don’t know and you mail each other something handmade, I think this is a great idea, for many reasons. You get to make something for someone just for fun, you get to meet someone you didn’t know before who likes what you like, and it really does lend to the spirit of making things for people just for the sake of making and giving. You don’t pick what you get and that’s part of the appeal!
So I made these pincushions, and those are little pins in them that I made by stitching over the pin head with felt. They all have a magnet on the bottom to pick up pins, too.
Sew Mama Sew has a fantastic store, and blog, which I utilize often and have contributed to as well for a tute or two. Today they posted a link to a slew of fantastic crafts to make yourself.
