Janome felting machine . . .

Some time ago, I came across the ReVamp contest hosted by Janome. The idea was to submit pictures of something you turned from unuseable to useable. Since I already had the pictures on my computer, I uploaded before and after pictures of a ladies blouse that I turned into a baby doll top. I had made this some time ago and Alyssa's worn it many times.

So I had forgotten about this contest up until a month ago, when I was contacted by Janome to let me know that I'd won a judges choice award! And last week a beautiful new Janome felting machine was delivered to my door!

I've played with this machine a little bit and the idea is that it meshes fabrics or fibers together. I experimented on a pair of jeans (that Elayna refused to wear) by putting ribbon above the hem and punching it from the top side. Then I cut some different shapes of fabric and punched them through from the wrong side. It's definitely a fun machine to work with and so easy to use because there's no thread, bobbin, or even tension, just needles punching anywhere you choose. I hope to get better at this and use it more often for embellishing. I think it would also work great for patching up holes in the knees of kids jeans, but in a fun way. And even though I need a lot more improving in this skill, Elayna loves the jeans now. :)