Mushroom Collection

Look at all the mushrooms I’ve acquired. Quite a little stash. They’re taking a bit of time because I’m not mass-producing them. I’m making them individually so they all look different. The blue and brown ones are made from felted lambswool and cashmere sweaters that I got from Goodwill. So soft!

The blue one with the ruffles looks like a fancy hat.

 

My Mushrooms!

So I started working on my mushroom garden yesterday after being inspired by the mushroom and moss covered chair I saw. I went to Goodwill and bought a bunch of sweaters that I cut apart. They didn’t have any cashmere sweaters but I found some man-made materials that were quite soft. I think the green one is viscose and the white one is acrylic. I ended up stuffing them with poly fill because that’s all I had and I just stuffed it loosely so they still soft. I used embroidery floss to hand sew them together because of the loose weave of the material. I was going to machine sew them and flip them but the material didn’t pull very well through my machine and then my needle broke and hit me the face. So I figured it was easier just to hand sew them. Plus I could do it while I was watching TV.

I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do with them now but I want to make more. My boyfriend begged me not to sew them to the couch so I guess that’s not going to happen. =)

They’re all different sizes and shapes. The purple one has a really bulbous stem.

 

Ooohh mushrooms AND moss!

I have this fascination, maybe even an obsession with moss. I just find it soooo lovely. It’s like a carpet of soft grass, which I’ve always loved. Whenever I come across a really nice lawn, I can’t help but take my shoes off so I can feel the grass under my feet. I used to think that made me a little weird but then I found this and realized I can’t be crazy if they have a whole industry targeted at people just like me.

So when I discovered moss, I found it to be even better than grass. It’s so nice and soft and never needs to be mowed. Just so it’s clear, moss is NOT mold. A lot of people are disgusted when I tell them about my fascination with moss because they think it’s mold, which it is not. Once I have a house with a garden, I’d love to grow my own moss garden.

I also really love mushrooms. I don’t know why, I just always have. I love how they just pop up. There was a mushroom that just popped up overnight in my garden a few months ago and just as soon as it popped up, it went away. It was gone within a day. I remember when I was in grade school, I was playing during recess and I found all these wild mushrooms so I picked them up to show my teacher. She yelled at me and said, “We do not pick up random mushrooms! Put them back and wash your hands”. I didn’t really understand at the time but looking back I guess I can see why she was panicked.

Anyway, you can imagine my delight when I saw this chair in a Toronto store.

Here is a close up of the mushrooms. Aren’t they fabulous?

I’m not sure whether they were selling the chair. There wasn’t a price tag on it and I didn’t ask but can you believe they were selling these mushrooms in a cup for $100!! Crazy!

Now I’m on a mission to make my own mushrooms. I actually think it would be really cute to put them all over my couch but I don’t think my boyfriend would be too thrilled if I sewed mushrooms and moss all over our couch. I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to go about it yet. I think I’m going to hit a Goodwill or Salvation Army to find some old sweaters to take apart. The mushrooms were REALLY soft. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find some nice cashmere or merino sweaters…. ooohhh cashmere mushrooms. So nice! I also have to see what my choices are of filling too because I’m pretty sure it wasn’t polyfill.

Here’s a close up of the moss. It’s a bunch of yarn pom poms that are sewn together. It would be cute to make like a pom pom blanket.