Another Wool Cat

A cat with attitude, she's 22 inches tall, and made with the usual repurposed wool from thrift store clothing. Wool clothing doesn't sell well in thrift shops because it has to be dry cleaned, and people who shop at thrift stores don't want to buy garments that need this special treatment.

I have my own "special treatment" for these garments: first, I take them apart, and then I wash the pieces in the machine with hot water. The agitation makes most wool fabric felt a little; if I want it felted a lot, I wash it several times in hot water. I usually air dry it, although if you want it VERY fuzzy, you can try drying it in the dryer. Some of mine has gone this route, usually by accident when DH gets ahold of it. I don't mind, though. I don't decide what to use fabric for until it has been washed; then I let it inspire me and tell me what it wants to be.

Recycled Project

I am big on recycling, in case you haven't noticed. Anyway, our doll club in Pierce county is doing a project using a styrofoam wig head. One of our members saw one at the FiberFest that had felt adhered to it, and she wanted to do one, too.

I had planned to use felt on mine, also, but when I went to find it, I found a felted sweater first (I look for them at thrift stores), so I used that instead of felt. I worked on it all day Saturday, until I was almost sick of it. I had planned to give her jewelry on Sunday, but got sidetracked with other things, so will try to get started on that today. I like her and now I want more of those styro heads to do more.

I am suggesting to the co-op art gallery that we have a show next fall featuring art using repurposed material--we might draw a totally different audience for that kind of a show.