The Painted Rose Sweater

This is my Anthropologie inspired knock off, an upcycle project for sure. The original sweater was plain off white knit with a simple small collar. It was given to me by an elderly friend. The first thing I did was cut off the collar and make a new one from some felted wool.

The original sweater was fuzzier and longer and the collar style would not have worked as well for me as this one.

 The flowers just hatched from my imagination. Other than a bold simple outline I drew and placed under the knit, they are painted free hand onto the sweater. I used acrylics and treated them so this would all be washable. I did not use any sort of extender or medium. This was a process I have used successfully many times so why bother?

 The collar came from Simp 3562, a Threads coat pattern. It's neckline fit the sweater perfectly. I stitched the felted wool with a cross hatching of white wool thread. Then I did some free form applique on the collar with hand dyed wools and variegated hand dyed flosses, blanket stitching the edges. I felt I needed a bit less negative space so did the flower outlines in more white thread.

The flowers all had big honkin' french knots in their centers and areas of wool thread embroidered accents, all very "free".

You can see on the bottom edge in the rear where I have put my signature, MP for Mary Pepin, my "real" name that very few people ever use.

I like my stylized flowers. Can't say that I have ever seen a blue poinsettia with pea size pollen! But that's what makes it all fun.

Most of the painting was done using layers of very watered down acrylic paint. The leaves and accents were dry brushed in . When all painting was done I stenciled in some more leaves in the negative space very softly to look like a background shadow. Over all I am pretty pleased with this and can't wait to wear it. Last night went to  33.9 below zero and this is sort of a jacket type sweater. It would be too heavy for most situations inside but not heavy enough for wearing alone out in the current weather. It's  time will come. I think it will look nice with my new gray pants. More on those real soon. I will do a rundown of the various alterations I did, why and how.......Bunny