More Yoolies

Y'all, I'm not even trying to keep track of them any more, I'm sorry. I was giving them numbers and stuff, but I lost track in there somewhere, and there's no going back. Alas. And alack. And whatever: because of course it doesn't matter. So here you go--first we've got the one that I showed you here. it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

The yoolie is made from an ankle-length LL Bean dress. Or maybe Land's End. I think the former--I cut the tag out when I did the stitching. Anyway, I wore it and loved the long side tails, but I didn't love the length (I wish now I'd made it shorter, since I'll wear it over something) or the lack of pockets (what were they thinking?) or the way-too-much-blackness of it.

I took photos for you, and when I looked at them on this 27" screen, I went, "Omigod. Where did *that* come from?" Because in real life? I didn't even see the cat fur. On the screen it was like the dress had been attacked by skinny worms--just long Clarice furs EVERYWHERE.

Just one more reason I don't wear much black.

Anyway--the circles and the pockets are made from t-shirts I dyed when I made this Alabama Chanin (I even used her pattern. Sort of.) skirt:

I over-dyed a bunch of thrifted t-shirts and have tons of scraps left over.

So here are the two other yoolies I did recently. I don't know--I don't celebrate Christmas, and I always feel kind of icky wearing red-and-green because, you know, I know other non-Christmas-celebrating people must get tired of being beaten about the head with all the All Christmas All the Time!! from September to January. But nevertheless, I am my mother's child, and every year I end up making some red-and-green item of apparel. I'm my own version of the old lady in the tacky holiday sweater, is what I am. But--in my own defense!--I had this red henlely, and I don't much wear red. And I had this fabulous (((vintage))) red-and-green button--I have a set of them, but the others are on a pale green sweater I thrifted years ago. Anyway. No more excuses; here it is:

Frankly, it makes me feel quite festive, in a totally retro way. I think I'll add bells to the tails.

Don't whimper, please. It's so unbecoming.

Then this morning I finished this one. It was a men's sweater, 70% silk and 30% cotton, and if I hadn't known that, I would have sworn it was polyester. So it was sort of a challenge--it's thin, and the drape is a little iffy. But it dyed up so nicely I couldn't abandon it, and I got inspired by Christmas (more with the Christmas~~aieeeeeeee!) decorations in the GiGi's Cupcake store--big green-and-pink wreaths and decorations. So I did this. And, in the process, realized I'm running out of colored felt. Years ago I fulled a lot of thrifted wool jackets and skirts, and while I was cutting them down, it seemed as if I'd have enough felt to last me the rest of my life. That is not the case. I'm totally out of fuchsia, and I'm running out of hot pink. It's time to go look for cheap wool jackets again. Fortunately, nobody else much  wants them, so I don't feel guilty for taking Warm Winter Wear. Unfortunately, nobody else much wants these, so they're not easy to find. Not a lot of Wool Wearers in Midland, Texas. Nope. The ladies here go for fur when they want to be warm. BJs has a bunch of fabulous fur coats she's selling for people. I pet them and feel sad, thinking how much more fun it would be to have met the fur when it was still living on its owner. We have foxes living in our neighborhood--we see them every once in a while running across the street, and there was that one I told you about that sat on a brick wall and looked at me for long moments when I tried to send it a message about where to find food and water.

Anyway. Now I'm bumming myself out. The idea that someone would want to wear one of those guys rather than get to know them just makes me want to go lie down.

When I cut out the X's, I save the squares--I love this. They look good together, and it keeps me from wasting felt that I had to make myself. (If you've never done this, it's a very smelly process:  washing wool in hot water on a long, heavy-duty cycle (for the agitation) and then drying it in a hot dryer forEVER. Pee-yooooooo. Wet dog deluxe.)

OK. I'm off to work some more in this office. I've got a couple projects going on--not sewing ones, but Life Ones--reorganizational ones. Big messy finding-where-to-put-stuff ones. There's a long-ish story, so I'll have to come back later~~