Wednesday 12 June 2013

Totally Useful!


I've been collecting short ends for a while, and am not alone - 
last year Linda introduced us to the TUSAL jar!


This particular jar contains the shortest of short ends, the longer ones were sorted into a bag to be used in scrumbling and other projects..
Whilst browsing fellow stash busting blogs I came across these fabulous ideas from Stephanie of Handwerkjuffie (Needlework missy) on how to use those tiny scraps.

So totally useless scraps became a very useful colour injection!


One layer of  natural shetland, a sprinkling of random bright off cuts -


two more thin shetland layers and a top splatful of  colourful randomness
followed by a very thin topping of shetland to trap all the fibres.


Whilst rinsing the piece of wet felt the combination of the two coloured layers was really obvious..


The wrung out wet felt was drenched in water again for a sunny photo shoot to optimise the colours




each scrap is a reminder of  past projects and fun creations


there are some sparkly bits of thread too camera shy to show up here!



The next photo is the sopping wet back view...



Held up to the light more colourful squiggles can be seen...
From the next few pictures you can see how different the felt looks when dried as the trapping layer of shetland fibres subdues or masks the colours.




Back view:


So now I have to work out what to do with this piece..I really felt liberated
 being free to fling fistfuls of fabulous fibre at random and
I would have been really pleased with the final dry result had I not known its fully soaked gloriously colourful secret! 
Only you and I know that though!

Any ideas very welcome...Mr RW has made a suggestion which I might investigate.
Until then I'll leave you with a sunny front face of friendly fibre filled felt and the fact that the jar is still full of colourful threads!


10 comments:

Una said...

Great article and photos. In the past I have added small amounts of these short threads when stuffing soft toys. I love to see things being useful.

linda said...

Brilliant use of scraps there Ali, I have a full jar too will show you what I will be doing with it soon. :)

Ana BC said...

Great idea for the scraps :-) I also collect them, and have used them as fillers for pincushions

Hilde said...

What a brilliant idea on how to spend all those small ends!! I really enjoyed the photo story of your felt :) Very inspiring, and now I too will start saving those small leftover bits of yarn.

Can't wait to hear what you will be doing with your felted piece.

crazydazy said...

love the squiggles on this piece of felt...its true you should never throw anything away....im going to start collecting my ends as well after seeing this post, ali

Creative Chaos Art said...

It's great to hear how other people use their scraps! I have a jar of wooly ones from crochet projects, and a jar of cottons from sewing projects. They're great for grabbing a bit for a quick oddment of sewing, and I know they can be left outside for birds to use in nests, but beyond that I've been a bit stumped! Love the colourfulness :)
Helen x

Anonymous said...

That looks great! :)
I'm glad it's not just me who saves scrap threads, I have so many tubs and jars for sewing threads, embroidery threads, silk threads, organza, etc etc :)

September Violets said...

Well I guess putting the felt piece into a jar is out of the question? I'm not a felt crafter, so I'm not sure what you could do with it. I would love to just hang it up to the light to admire the pretty colours :) Wendy

Angela said...

Try it without the top trapping layer of fibre next time. Unless it's exceptionally short e.g. 1cm I've always found that the wool will grab and hold them on provided they're placed on whilst the wool is still dry. Then you'd get to see all the fab colours
p.s. that goes for acrylics not just wool yarn but metallics need a few fibres over.

Jessie's Needle said...

I too have a large jar of short wool scraps. Was wondering what to do with them. Never felted before but feel compelled to give it a go.
S xx