@YoBob Great question. I too have knitted a hat and scare for myself. I would love to have spun the yarn. I have done it when I was younger but no longer have the means close at hand. When I raised rabbits for food I took their pelts and make a coat of many colors. It was really warm. I also used to dabble in the leather and made several wallets.

In the summer I wear a lot of light-weight cotton pants that I make myself. I’m a bit hard to fit, and I love finding really funkily patterned fabrics that I can make into pants. I’ve also made a blouse and some skirts. I am, by no means, an accomplished seamstress, but there are so many easy patterns out there.

<<Slowly raises hand>>
I made a fitted black wood jersey chemise with a portrait neckline. I wore it out one night and my friend asked if I sewed it with a hot needle!! LMAO
Wot a bzatch ;)

I’ve made my own buckskin shirt, moccasins and leggings.

I fashioned a pair of rather fetching slippers, made from two barely living rats. I’m wearing them right now as a matter of fact, I squeak when I walk. Call me Dr. Dolittle if you like XD Actually, no I don’t wear anything i’ve made. Please be so kind as to disregard my post & put it down as mild hysteria on my part. Many thanks :¬)

@ucme LOLOLOLOLOL!

@WestRiverrat

That remainded me of a joke. Where do you find your Buccaneers? Under your Bucking Hat.

I knit hats and scarfs for my siblings and me, they love em.
I’ve also made a corset out of a pair of old “Gothic” pants… :)
I also plan on making another corset out of old cheetah blankets.
I love recycling.

I basically made all of my clothes from the eighth grade until I was 26. When I got pregnant at 26 I somehow didn’t want to sew anymore. I never picked it back up except for things like curtains.

@lucillelucillelucille For gods sake don’t encourage me XD

I have knitted for donkey’s ear and make scores of sweaters for me and the rest of the family. Also many caps, scarves, mittens, socks and nose warmers. (Never tried to make a Wee Willie Warmer however; it does look simple to knit.)

For years I sewed simple garments for my daughter and me. Recently I have made some memory quilts from pieces of the fabrics.

@gailcalled : Teach me, Master!

@gailcalled ROFL

My grand mother knitted a thing for my father and this is what it said.

As the days are getting colder
and you are getting older
I could think of nothing neater
Than this little peter heater.

It has a cap on top. ROFL

@Summum LOL!!!

I’m with @JilltheTooth, I’d love to learn to sew from somebody like @gailcalled.

I used to make clothes for my daughter when she was younger, and skirts for myself. Loved sewing, but having made anything for quite a while.
I love to crochet – making a bolero at the moment.
I can’t knit though – think it is something to do with me being lefthanded – at least that’s my excuse

@partyparty I too have trouble knitting for real. For me it has something to do with hand tension. I just can’t seem to get the yarn to slip through my fingers right so my stitches get tighter and tighter.

The cap and scarf I made were done on a knitting loom, which made it very quick and easy.

@partyparty

Actually I don’t knit either I just called it that but when you said crochet that is what I do. Knitting is too fine for my fingers. Big hands and feet. :)

@YoBob @Summum I once attempted to knit a jumper for my SO. I knitted night after night, month after month, and eventually ran out of wool. I went back to the store for one more ball of wool, only to be told that the company stopped manufacturing this wool TWELVE months previously.
That gives you an idea just how long it had taken me to knit the jumper LOLL

@partyparty

I totally understand. LOL

Only hats and scarves. But I want to learn to make clothing!

When I was little, I pretty much only wore stuff my mom made me, and it was all ssssssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooo awesome. She’s amazing.

I made my own maternity clothes. When I was sewing, though, I was making clothes for my oldest son who was/is so skinny that regular pants pooled around his ankles.

I used to sew for the whole family, sewed my DIL’s wedding dress- fortunately simple. I do a lot of remodeling because I’m short. I’ve sewed dresses this past year for my daughter. It really is not hard if you follow the pattern.

I’ve knit plenty of scarves and such, but my proudest creation are two pairs of duct tape shoes that I insisted on wearing everywhere (read: Yes, I did fenagle my parents into letting me wear a pair to a wedding).

Aside from that, my grandmother used to make all my clothes when I was little because I was quite the picky kid.

I’ve knit some hats and scarves. More often I modify existing clothing.

YoBob That is so cool that you spun the yarn. I am totally impressed! How did you sew the leather items, by hand or by machine? Do you know how to do leather tooling? What kind of boots are they?
Apparently there are a lot more knitters than sewers here, or maybe that’s just who has answered thus far.
gailcalled I never heard of a nose warmer. What the ^^%*$ is it?
I’m sure I could google it, but I’d rather hear your answer.
I am a designer and I always feel like I should sew for myself more than I do. But I make things at work everyday. I don’t sew them myself, someone sews them for me but I have to design them, make the pattern, cut it out, and tell them how to sew it. I love my work! But I get lazy about making things for myself. I have to be inspired to do it. My favorite items to sew myself are baptismal dresses. I just love all the tucking, and lace trim and victorian looking details. I have made 2 very elaborate ones with french lace. I also like to make flower girl dresses. I’ve done a few of those, mostly for family members.
I make curtains and cushions for my house too. Save a lot of money and I get exactly what I want.
And every Halloween I am called to make things for my family. One time I did a hand painted Riddler (from Batman) costume for my nephew. It came out so good they thought it was store bought and wouldn’t give him the prize! I was like, Damn! I handpainted every one of those &^&***%%$ question marks and this is what I get!

@Earthgirl: Any little knitted thing with two strings attached, similar to a surgical mask but smaller, uglier and less useful.

I used to make most of my own clothes, but I’ve pretty much stopped doing that.

@omfgTALIjustIMDu Wow, I’d love to see, or know how to make, duct tape shoes.

@Earthgirl My boots were totally hand stitched with an awl. They are traditional cowboy boots, and since they were my first pair I didn’t want to use fancy leather so they were done mostly with scrap from previous projects. They turned out even better than I’d hoped. They are kind of thing that when I tell somebody I made them they are more likely to reply with “no way!” rather than “yep, it looks like it…”.

Yes, I also tool leather. I’ve been dabbling in leather work since I was a teenager, which is a whole lot longer than I care to admit to. I’ve made moccasins, jackets, pants and bunches of bags/containers of various sorts.

As far as the yarn goes, it was spun from the undercoat of my golden retriever / shepherd mix. It’s very soft, quite warm, and looks nice. (and for you scoffers out there, consider this. My dog is cleaner than most peoples kids whereas most people will pay big bucks to wear hats and scarves made from the hair of a creature that spends most of it’s life waling around with its own poop stuck to its butt.)

Ok, I did an image search for “duct tape shoes” and found a whole page devoted to duct tape fashion accessories.

Here is an image to an interesting pair of duct tape boots

Of course. I prefer my had made goods to look as good or better than those you would find in a store. However, being a redneck I find the whole duct tape concept intriguing, and you’ve got to admit those boots have a certain allure.

@YoBob: How does one take them off?

@gailcalled Well, I don’t really know. But I’ll bet it would be fun trying to figure it out! ;)

@YoBob: And so romantic; rip, ouch, burn salve

ROFL!

When duct tape is made into fabric, generally more tape is applied to the other side to keep it from being sticky, or actual fabric is (which would definitely be more comfortable).

YoBob Hell, what can“t you make with duct tape??
I’m so impressed with your boots story and your yarn spinning I hardly know where to start. Do you have any recommendations for websites or books that teach leather tooling? I know about Tandy and that’s about all. I want to start on a small project for a friend that involves tooling leather. I saw some masks recently out of molded leather that were amazing. The link to the website is http://www.artsmyths.com/http___www.artsmyths.com/Artsmyths.html
Renaissance redneck, eh? I think I like it.

@Earthgirl Wow, nice masks!

As for tooling, Tandy is a good place to start. The Al Stohlman books are a great way to learn basic technique. The Tandy Leather in Austin does a carving class every Saturday morning. Of course, the Stohlman patterns are all pretty much florals with a western flair. However, once you learn the basics you can carve/tool pretty much anything you want.

As for molding, Leather is a pretty forgiving material. Drop your leather into a tub of water for a couple of hours and it becomes really easy to mold into pretty much any shape you want and it hardens up nicely when it dries. Some people suggest soaking it for an hour or so then wrapping it in a plastic bag overnight. Personally, I think that just soaking it for awhile is sufficient. I would suggest using a plaster cast or a manikin head as a base to make sure it will be wearable when dry if you are molding a mask. Once dry it is hard to tweak individual spots on a molded leather piece, you pretty much have to re-soak the whole thing.

Good Luck! Let us know how your mask/tooling project turns out!

I’m wearing one now. I spun the wool and knit the sweater myself.

@laurth WAY COOL!