Keeping Your Eye On The Doughnut, Not The Hole---Sweater Surgery Style

You too can be a Sweater Surgeon!

Now available is my beloved:

Sweater Surgery
How to Make New Things from Old Sweater

By Yours Truly,

Stefanie Girard

Contemporary crafters are thriving on personalizing, modifying, and altering fashion as not only hobbies but as a lifestyle.

Why repurpose your sweaters? Because you can't buy sweater fabric by the yard. Sweaters get damaged or go out of style but we still love the prints, colors, and textures. You don't have time to knit it from scratch. It's ecologically correct. And most of all--it's fun!

Sweater Surgery shows you how to upcycle all your slightly worn, slightly damaged, or plain old out-of-style sweaters into fabulous new items for your wardrobe and your home. Readers learn how to choose, cut, restitch, felt, and embellish old sweater fabric, transforming it into beautiful handbags, mittens, scarves, hats, hoodies, skirts, jewelry, soft toys, pillows, and more!

Complete instructions for 27 projects, plus a huge gallery of exciting ideas for further inspiration.

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And in honor of the big release I bring you-The Doughnut!

"Why a doughnut?", you ask-- scrunching up your nose and tilting your head to the side.

Well I recently read this amazing book:

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

by David Lynch

and among other mega-inspiring sayings and quotes was this one:

"Keep your eye on the doughnut, not the hole."

And being that the doughnut is just about my favorite food (my Dad's too) this quote really spoke to me.

When you set a goal for yourself (such as writing a book for instance) there can be ups and downs and it really helps to have a saying that keeps you going.

And when something speaks to me, what do I do? I have to make said item to help remind me of it.

So how did I make this yummy doughnut?

I simply went to my stash of felted wool sweaters and pulled out a neutral beige for the base and a fun pink frosting color.

I sewed a tube about 4 inches in diameter and about 14 inches long.

I turned it right side out and then did a running gather stitch along the seam to be able to pull the tube into a circle. Since I wasn't sure how much I would need, I had extra tube and simple trimmed off the excess. Then I stuffed it with a bit of polyfill and stitched the two ends together.

I then traced the doughnut onto a piece of paper and then made a squiggly edge around the inside and outside to simulate frosting. I then top-stitched the frosting on and added some colorful tube beads to be sprinkles!

So if you're snacking on this tasty treat, but want more you can click on Upcycling in the side column or pop over to my blog (what else) http://sweatersurgery.blogspot.com/ for even more of the cutting and making!

I would like to give a shout out to all my contributors-they rock! And to all the great people at Quarry for making it happen! And to Pluckyfluff, she not only spins amazing yarn and writes great books like Intertwined-she did the beautiful photography for Sweater Surgery. Pop over to her blog- she has some surgery going on over there of her own kind and don't forget to see her at CNCH this weekend, May 3!

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I hope you too will want to grab yourself a copy of Sweater Surgery and make something that makes you feel good and inspired!

 

Comments

[Jenni Pagano]

I can't WAIT to get my hands on my copy of Sweater Surgery! The cover is tantalizing, and I am sure the projects chosen will be very inspiring. My sweater felt is ready to go!

[Crafty Chica]

congrats!! love the doughnut project, calorie-free!!!