Brr, baby! Get Crafty!

I can't warm up lately, and part of it is our unheated basement. There are vents down there but we'd had them closed off as the basement isn't finished. Another problem is the gale force winds that come in through the front door cracks. Ok, that's a little exaggeration, but there is a breeze. Enter in the door draft stopper. Or draft dodger, but that has a whole different connotation for me. I saw one ages ago and I searched all over for it and kicked myself when I finally did find it again. Of course I had seen it at Betz White's beautiful and inspiring site! I should have looked there first. It looks like a wooden log, with cute leaves on it. Scroll down (slowly, because there are too many other gorgeous things on the way).

Not being a stellar sew-er (that is, one that sews), and trying to use up crafty items I already have, I pulled out the felted sweater stash. I bought several at thrift stores over the last couple of years and have started many little projects with them, finishing very few. I never realized the accumulation of grey felted sweaters I had. Knowing that I wanted to make a little log-like draft stopper, I worried that the grey would look bad. I thought about over-dyeing the sweaters to a nice brown. I thought about how I could spritz them with dye to give a mottled look. I thought about how crazy I was and told myself to just buck up and make the darn thing. So, with Peanut as my assistant, we cut arms off sweaters and rolled them up.

Then Peanut helped me sew each rolled sweater so it wouldn't unroll.

Then we seamed the three sweaters together, and I tried to have the bulkiest on the "base" of the branch, and the thinnest on what would be the "end" of the branch.

To make the "end" of the branch look more like the end, I cut the roll in two and sewed the ends so that the branch ended in a fork.

Next we needed to embellish a little bit. Peanut added a flower and chose a nice button for the center

and I rolled up half of a sleeve and seamed it to hold in a small branch shape and attached that to the main branch. I also added an owl with awesome stash buttons that were perfect for some owlie eyes.

Here's the finished project, doing it's job!

We had a lot of fun making this and it took maybe an hour. A bonus to sewing felted sweaters is the stitches are so easily hidden. I just did a running stitch (and just had to look up the name for what I was doing) and a whip stitch (knew that name!) for attaching the branch and owl and seaming the owl as well.

So, if you're feeling cold and can't warm up, break out the stash in whatever form you have. Fabric? Seam up a tube and stuff it. Yarn? Knit or crochet up a tube and stuff that. Or, make it super quick and roll up some felted sweaters. Have fun, and stay warm!