...the rest of the shopping trip

Here are the other things I bought yesterday. The cotton tie up pants for bumming around home, the black and white lace to go under the crushed velvet vest and the merino sweater that I am not sure if it will be slippers or hats because it is quite thin.

more sweater slippers

My cousin Michelle requested a pair of sweater slippers; so here they are decorated with a purple rosette.

The turquoise ones are an experiment in using the bottom ribbing from the sweater to create the cuff. They turned out okay but I think the ribbing may have stretched a bit giving the slippers a wider opening than I like. I need to see how they wash up anyway so I am going to try on those ones first.

I have been wearing the first ones I made around the house. The floors in our house are always cool even in summer (could be a slight lack of insulation...) so having a light slipper is perfect. My next adventure is a pair for Roger, he isn't a slipper guy but maybe if they are light and easy to wash he will like them more.

sweaters and jeans

I decided to go shopping at Value Village today in hopes of finding those elusive wool sweaters I need for my new project of sweater slippers. The reason I haven't been to Value Village in recent years is because their prices have gone up and the are double or more what other thrift stores are. On the other hand it is a different thrift experience. Here in Courtenay our store looks more like a department store than a thrift store it is freshly built, open less than a year, the aisles are orderly with everything in its place. On the other hand they have a bigger selection than the others because they are a chain and instead of relying on donations they buy from organizations like the Canadian Diabetes Association.

My shopping adventure was successful as you might imagine from the photo posted above. The red and grey sweaters were already partially felted and the green one has a bunch of holes in it but once it is felted I just have to work around them.

I also found a couple pairs of jeans. The bright red ones are going to make a great bag but I am especially interested in the other pair because they have silver thread woven into the denim. They will make a particularly sparkly and pretty bag.

cashmere shrug

Several years ago I found this gorgeous dark pink cashmere V-neck sweater. Unfortunately it was way to big on me so I would wear it around the house on cool days but never wore it out anywhere.

Over the last few months I have been taking classes on a site named Craftsy. You learn at your own pace with video instruction. If you have questions you can email the instructor. The classes are very well done and you can learn at your own pace. I have made several things including a fully tailored suit, 2 blouses and I am half way through a couture made dress. Then I discovered Project Upcycle by Betz White! She Recycles or rather Upcycles clothes and one of her projects is turning a cashmere sweater into a shrug.

This is my result, I am very happy with it and can't wait to wear it to work this week!

upcycled shrug

Sweater Slippers

My latest adventure has been hunting down old wool sweaters and remaking them into new things. I like to think of it as saving the environment one ugly sweater at a time.

The process requires felting the wool (washing in hot water in the washer) so that it becomes a very dense material. I have to add that it usually isn't difficult to find wool sweaters, especially felted wool, in the thrift stores. What I wasn't expecting was how hard it would be to find sweaters of any kind let alone those with a mostly animal fibre content. I searched all my favourite stores and came up with 3 sweaters and a sweater vest.

The picture above features the second pair of slippers I made today of one of the sweaters and the burgundy sweater vest. They are really fun to make and the first pair are currently residing on my feet and I must say that felted wool is very cozy and toasty.

Not Quite My Style...

I bought a sweater a few days ago that is not quite my style. I generally don't wear animal prints. Since the sweater was only a few dollars and really quite pretty I decided to buy it anyway.

It isn't my usual style but it is really cute!

This is one of the aspects of thrift shopping that I love. I can try new things and go outside my comfort zone a little and if I really don't like it I didn't waste my hard earned cash on something I will not wear again.