sweater dismemberment

I am finally able to post about my adventures in sweater dismemberment! My brother is going to become a daddy for the first time next month. I am so excited for him and my sister in law and really wanted to give them something special. They live in the bay area (San Francisco) and are surrounded by amazing crunchy people and artists and I didn't want to get them any old gift from WalMart.....not knocking WalMart, I should be offered stock options at this point with the amount of money I spend there......I digress. I decided that whatever I gave them was going to be made with my hands and filled with Auntie Gina love.

I started out with some basic onesies and a few bottles of dye. I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon tying the teeny tiny onesies up and tie dyeing them. I thought the colors I bought would look pretty neutral, but they dyed a little darker than I planned and kinda look boyish. Individually they could look good on either a boy or a girl, but as a collection they look like boy clothes. Oh well. Soon we will find out what this little peanut is and if the parents to be are correct in their assumptions then everything will work out perfectly! After I tie dyed the onesies I put the appliques on. I like the elephant and the monkey ones the best, but they all turned out really cute! I think this is a project that I will repeat if we have any more babies.....I think a tiny tie dyed onesie would look adorable on a baby, and the process was FUN!







After I finished the onesies I wanted to make something else, but wasn't sure what. I had seen a picture of a stuffed owl made out of old sweaters on-line and I thought "I can totally do that!" maybe! :) So I went in into my closet and rifled through my old sweaters. I found two that I didn't think I'd be wearing again and spent an entire day looking at them, holding them up against me and second guessing my decision. Finally on the second day I took my scissors, bit the bullet and cut the arms off my sweaters. The rest is history! I didn't have a pattern or anything other than a picture to work from so all of the construction was trial by error. I used 100% recycled/re-purposed items that I already had around the house. I used lots of small bits of my sweaters and pieced it all together little by little. One thing I would do differently is NOT use a chenille sweater next time. It's a wonderful soft fabric, but it unravels so easily and I had to go back around and do a whip stitch by hand to secure all of my zig zag stitches. I had a really great time making this owl and I think the finished product is really cute. I'm always surprised when I make something new and it turns out well! With an owl success under my belt I'm going to attempt to make more sweater animals for my girls for Christmas. But this time I went to the thrift store and bought sweaters so I don't have to cut up any more of my own wardrobe! Hoo hoo hoo!