Silk purse out of a sow's ear ... I hope I hope I hope

What do you do when you come home from attending an auction with a box of garbage?  
Well, first you'd mourn the loss of your hard earned cash. 

 You might be justified in shedding a tear or two when you realize you've blown

 a whole week's grocery budget.

On garbage.

Then you try very hard to explain to your hubby how you thought that the beautiful yarn on the top of the box represented the rest of the lot because you would never dream of a fellow weaver tucking complete garbage underneath the 4 perfectly lovely and usable spools on top. 

Not in a million years.

Then you'd admire the beauty of the completely rotten spools of

silk, linen, wool and cotton - in all their organic loveliness. 

You know you have junk, completely unusable for it's intended purpose but 

still somehow so pretty. 

You might just throw that junk out

or ...
 re-box it carefully and put under your sewing table.
You might even move those two boxes of decaying natural fiber just
because you can't quite part with it.  
Twice. Over international boarders. Twice. 

Then you might just tuck those boxes into the front hall closet and
forget them there for say ... seven years?
 Give or take. 

Well, that's what you would do if you were me!

Flash forward to The Colossal Spring House Cleaning of 2012. 

Slowly but surely I am thinning every room, closet and cupboard.
Oh, and getting rid of some garbage. 

Because we are NOT moving. 

And I have a case of the Seven Year Itch.

Funny thing is that even after all these years, I just could not throw out my rotten
spools of weaver's linen, cotton, silk {sigh} and wool. 

So ...

This is what I did.

With scraps from a thrifted linen shirt - even the button placket, some felted wool scraps, 

and bits and pieces of vintage laces and trim tucked here and there.

And my trusty hot glue gun, of course.

I ripped, twisted, tied, glued and giggled as our sweet Dreamer declared each creation ...
adorable!

Tomorrow I am headed to a wonderful downtown shop called Expressions of the Home 

to see what the owner thinks of my silk purse out of a sows ear idea.

Let's hope she thinks they are adorable too!

If for some reason she doesn't, look for these at Goodwill 

because I am NOT bringing them home.

I told you I was serious about Spring House Cleaning!

UPDATE: The owner of Expressions of the Home liked my creations so they at in her lovely shop!
She bought all 19 of the Weaver's Spools!
Yeah!

I just finished another purse ...

And, I put it in our shop! We still don't have our purses back from our wonderful local shop owner - she hung on to them for her last two days of business (Friday and Saturday) hoping to sell a few more for us! Now she is closed for the rest of January and we just need to get them from her and list them in the shop too! This Etsy Shop is a fun way to do business, so far! Of course, I haven't actually sold anything, but that's o.k.!

Mama, the Business Bear

Did you see something new on my sidebar? Aren't you the observant one! I've started an Esty shop! Surprised? Well, I am too!

The owner of the wonderful local store that is selling our felted wool purses is taking a break during the month of January for some needed renovations and a bit of a vacation. We decided that rather than let our purses get covered in dust, we would take them out of the shop for the month. Since we didn't want to let them gather dust at home either ... we started an Etsy shop!

Tomorrow, my partner in purse making and friend Mrs. M will be picking up the rest of the purses from the shop and we will attempt to list them all! I had no idea how time consuming it would be, but hopefully, I'll catch on soon and speed up!

Just another adventure for 'Mama, the Business Bear',

as our Storyteller would say!

P.S. I forgot to mention that you can click on the picture to find our shop! Thanks!

I have to laugh ...

Or else I just might end up in tears! I don't have time for tears - so I'm choosing the 'live and learn' approach- and having a good chuckle at my own expense too! I think this would qualify for MckMama's 'Not Me! Monday', but it has taken me a few days to work up the nerve to confess my faux pas publicly!

Are you 'just dying' to hear my tale of woe? Of course you aren't, but I'll tell you anyway!

You know I've been up to my eyebrows in wonderful thrifted woolen sweaters - felting to my hearts content and making purses in my spare moments. In my thrifting adventures, I've had my eyes wide open for sweaters in neutral colors, as well as nice reds and true solid black. Those are the 'hard' sweaters to score - or it seems that way when you're looking for them. Anyway - I look at the labels for wool content - not for brand. I've just never been a brand kinda gal. Our kids have never been walking billboards for any designer - it just isn't our cup of tea. I do look at the labels in my search for the 100% wool - and after felting I remove the labels since I am often trying to squeeze the pattern out of what felt I have to work with. Useless information often sticks in my brain - helpful stuff never sticks, but that's another story.

So, a few weeks ago I thrifted a sweater that was still wearing it's dry cleaner tags and on a dry cleaner hanger. It looked a whole lot like the one in the picture above, but it was cream. I threw it in the hot hot water with the old towel and flip flops and my favorite laundry soap! It felted so beautifully. I cut out two purses from it - yeah! Life was good!

Then, one night last week, while looking for more sweaters on e-bay, I saw a picture of a familiar sweater with a label ' St. John'. Where had I seen that before? The auction was about to close - and I saw the price - $299. Gulp! I quickly followed the link - the label was the same! I read about a 'new with tags' wool sweater origionally priced at $699! I had no idea there were such expensive sweaters in this world - let alone at my Goodwill! How could I have felted a $700 sweater???? I cut an expensive sweater to pieces!!! Gulp! Not something I could ever undo. Period.

The sweater was perfect - not New With Tags, but in perfect condition. Oh well! I keep thinking that I wish I was more like Meredith who knows a good thing when she finds it!

Both purses sold today - I made about $60 for the time it took me to sew them.

I've decided that I'll just have to laugh about it ...

Have you ever made such an expensive mistake?

Sales are brisk!

I wish I knew how to put a big old SOLD over my purse pictures like the pros do ... I just have to be content with the other skills I have because my computer skills are sorely lacking!

Of the 12 purses I had 'in stock' on Sunday evening,

I have just these 4 left!!!!

What a blessing! I can hardly believe it! I was really hoping that they would sell so that I would begin to recover our cost. The sweaters are not expensive, but the quality metal handles and beautiful printed heavy cotton linings are quite costly. Did I mention that I critically sort of injured our washing machine with this felting project??? Dad was able to put in a new water pump (thanks again Dad!) but parts are never cheap! All in all, I am not entirely sure we are 'in the black' yet, but I do know there are some very happy ladies with some really pretty purses to enjoy and give as gifts! Too much fun!

A Happy Dozen!

I have one last special purse to complete, but then I am done until after Christmas!
My sweet friend Mrs. M and I now have our purses in two local stores,
so I felt that I needed to get to work to make up a few bags for 'inventory'!
They seem to be selling well, so it's nice to have some more on hand to replenish the displays.
Mrs. M has been working hard on her orders too, so we are both up to our eyebrows in fuzz!
When my last purse is done, I'm planning to de-fuzz the house and pack up the sweaters for a bit! I have Christmas surprises to work on, after all!
Felting can be addictive I think - but I say that about all my current crafting projects!

I am getting much faster at assembling the bags - so that's a blessing!
It's so relaxing for me to just sit down and sew and have something pretty at the end!
Here's a quick peak at what my 'spare moments' have produced this week!



This sweater was a pretty dull lilac when I thrifted it,
but the felting process really brought out the beauty!

It was a bit plain, but than I added a blanket stitched flower!

Pink argyle is just too much fun! Do you see the pretty crystal hiding on the purple diamond?
In real life it adds a nice touch of sparkle!

Winter white - I couldn't resist adding a bright flower pin to this one!
I hope it's not too seasonal!

Matching all those stripes was worth the effort - this bag just says 'fun'!

More of the winter white sweater - though the body wasn't huge,
I was able to squeeze another purse out of the ample sleeves!
The trim on the pocket is chocolate brown!

Felted I-cord make the flower and the center is a hand felted ball with some seed beads!
I love the fresh green!

Black wool felt with a sweet sparkly crystal to make it special!

Happy dancing snowflakes on red!

Made from the same sweater - it was huge! This time in the rounded bon-bon style!

Such a classic - argyle! And in Buckeye colors too!

Pretty in pink with a sweet crystal making a glimmer!

I can't show you the last bag because it is a BIG secret ...

I'll be back when I have done some more de-fuzzing!

I don't want to loose the children in the wooly dust bunnies!

I carried my bag!

I don't get out much ~ not like my friend, and partner in purse making, Mrs. M! She is a great shopper and works at a wonderful job outside her home, as well as being a pastor's wife and friend to many. She really gets around! For weeks she has been talking about all of the great compliments she gets carrying her felted purse.

Yesterday, I finally took a minute to transfer my stuff from my summer purse to one of my felted wool creations - and I actually had places to go and people to see!

Our first stop was Tim's of course - Tim Horton's for those of you who are not Canadian and not on a first name basis with Tim like I am. I needed a hot chocolate and due to a very bad supper time mishap, there were no luscious leftovers for our bag lunches for homeschool co-op. Ahem. Oh well, Tim's to the rescue - they make great sandwiches you know! If you are too far south to be able to drink their awesome coffee and eat their yummy donuts, never fear, the Canadian invasion has plans to continue their infiltration of the Midwest and parts south, I'm sure! They've been hugely successful in our area.

Anyway - I do make a short story long, don't I? My bag got noticed by three women at Tim's - one other customer and 2 young workers! I was so flattered!

Next stop - HomeSchool Co-op, and more compliments and questions! There were even price and style inquiries! I think if I'd thought to put a box of them in the car, I might have had a sale!!! My Mum came to co-op and brought her red purse and she got some nice compliments too. Our last stop was Sam's club where three different women complimented my purse! One lady even asked if I had a business card - and I actually had one to give her! Yeah!

Too much fun!

I'm going to have to get used to all of this attention! I am used to rather blending in, especially if I am out and about alone, which is actually a rare thing. When I have our Storyteller and Dream on board, I rarely have to do any talking. Everyone compliments the Dreamer's beautiful blue eyes or listens politely to the Storyteller tell my most embarrassing secrets or some other long tale. I spend a lot of time smiling and trying to get him to wrap things up! Now, I guess I'm going to have to learn to graciously take a compliment and have a Reader's Digest sales pitch and business card on hand ... just in case!

Show Wrap Up

We did it! Our first craft show featuring tassels, felted purses, soother sacs, Grammy's shortbread cookies, Dreamer's mice and Dad's chalkboards!







What a day! We met a lot of really nice folks and had a lot of interest in our felted purses. Mrs. M stuck by my side the whole day, but only one of her beautiful bags sold! She sold 4 this week at work and has orders for 2 more, so she is in good shape, but it was a bit disappointing. We had fun together and she got some knitting done in between customers. She was a huge help and I was so glad to have her there all day!

Mrs. M made our booth look so pretty - she took what I had and staged it all so nicely! She made it look so nice that a few folks asked if we had a retail store! I think we were a bit out of the price range for this particular show, but all in all I am pleased with the results. It was a 'church bazaar' rather then a 'craft fair'. I sure learned the difference! Many were there looking for inexpensive little craft items for stocking stuffers and holiday decorations - and there were plenty there!

Some of the items that other crafter's featured were so very cheap - I have no idea how they could make any money on the items they sold. That made our fairly priced items appear overpriced, but most people were very complimentary and seemed to appreciate the materials and effort involved. It was an enjoyable day over all and I am glad for the experience!

So, the 'really big show' is over .... and it's time to soak my feet and head for bed!