WIP Wednesday: A Sweater Hat and an Upcoming Project

So on Wednesdays I will endeavor to keep you up to date on anything I am working on during the week. Part of this is to keep me accountable; I have a tendency to abandon projects that I can't finish in a day. The other part is because I know how much all of you care about my ongoing handmade hell-ness! Right?

...

*crickets*

Right. :D

Soooo, here is my WIP update for this week. 

I recently discovered sweater hats. Basically you cut a hat shape out of a sweater, sew it in the appropriate places, and whammo, a hat!

I had this sweater, which was a gift from a coworker years ago. Now, let me just say that I love teal. It's one of my favorite colors ever. And yet...this was just SO MUCH of it. It was so loud. And the acrylic material trapped heat like a son of a bitch. Which for some particularly wintry winters is appropriate, but for South Texas? I could basically only wear this sweater comfortably a few days a year, and even then if I entered a heated building it was a matter of minutes before I would break out in an uncomfortable and embarrassing sweat. TMI?!?!

So here's the sweater (I had already cut the hat before I thought to take a before pic):

Pretty cute right? I was disappointed it didn't work out between me and the sweater in the end. 

So I cut the hat piece out. Then I removed the sleeves:

I also removed the cute matching buttons that existed for absolutely no reason on each shoulder:

The sleeves pretty immediately got turned into little fingerless wristlets:

And I added some cute elastic trim I had for interest:

And here was my almost-finished product!

I was happier than I was when the blue stuff was still a sweater, but it still wasn't singing to me. That is, until my daughter got a look at them. 

She immediately requested a set for herself. It struck me: I was never making a hat and gloves for myself...I was making them for her all along! This is her favorite shade of her favorite color, and she is a summer (while I'm decidedly a fall). So I've decided to rework them, resize them, and re-embellish them for my 10-year-old. Yay!

I think I'll be incorporating this fabulous vintage fabric into my final design:

Is that crazy? That could be crazy. I won't know until I see it. 

Also, be on the lookout for a future handmade item crafted from this...uh, thing:

First of all, I want to assure you that I was not on drugs when I bought this for a mere $4.50 at my local Goodwill a few months ago. I wasn't drunk or sleepwalking either. I just thought the colors were pretty. And they are! And if I were, you know...older...and a church-goer...this would be a great find as-is!

But for my purposes, it's not quite right. At all. Luckily I have some ideas, and at least one of them involves losing the Easter green lining:

I plan to work on it this weekend and have something to show you by Monday. 

Happy hump day everybody! Hope your week is going splendidly!