A now for something new...

I am a copycat. Truthfully. Very few of the things I do are actually my own idea. When I do come up with something I feel like it's a small miracle. So as I'm perusing the blogosphere and seeing all theses amazing crafts/projects/recipes/ideas something hit me. Let's do what I do best... and copy them! So, I've made a cute little button so that if "I Copy You" you can grab it and link from your project to my copy.

I'm pretty proud of my button. I've just started using my design software (thank you paint.net for the freebie). After finally figuring it all out I think I've got the basics. I might tweak it or change it up but for now it's not too shabby!

Now, I've been planning this for awhile but the whole month of February was one craziness after the other. And March is shaping up to be equally as nuts but you know, I really want to do this so I refuse to put it off any longer.

We were at my parents house at Christmas and my sister handed me her cashmere sweater and asked me if I could fix it.  As you can see there were these in a few places on the sweater. Bummer! And totally not fixable. So I asked if I could cut it up and make it into other stuff. Good thing I asked. But she was nice and said yes. Squee!

So the sweater landed in my project pile. And by chance a week or so later I came across Melissa Esplin's totally cute blog (which by the way when I get pregnant again I'm going to copy every single maternity outfit she wore) and her Cashmere Mitten Pattern for Grown Ups.

Melissa Esplin... come on down because I Copied You!!!

They are just a tad different. I was sleep deprived when I made them and cut them too short. On her blog you can see that she cut them nice and long and wore them scrunchy. And it's an Old Navy sweater and I'm pretty sure they did some sort of chemical treatment on it because no matter how hard I tried that thing would not felt. So these are unfelted. But still totally cute and warm.

 Here are some pics of the process...

I cut them out of the sleeves. I plan on using the main body for a cowl and ear warmers. Projects forthcoming. Promise.

See the problem? By the time I hem them they would have been WAY too short.

So I cut some more of the sleeve to make a ruffle band.

Folded it in half and pinned it right sides together and put some pleats in there.

I sewed it there and called it good. I used some scraps and made rolled flowers and glued them on. Yes, hot glue baby. That's the way I roll.

So totally cute. They look amazing on. I'm so bummed to part with them but maybe now I'll have to hit up the thrift stores for an old cashmere sweater for myself.


Also a huge shout out thank you to Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife for her amazing tutorials on how to make a blog button and how to make codes. And her blog rocks as well.