Yes more felt. I can’t help it.
These are easy peasy green felt triangles with small amount of brown felt for the base and different coloured scraps stitched on for decorations. Just whip stitch all the way round putting some ribbon in the top for hanging and stuff with toy filler.
The book shelf in my lounge is currently buckling under the weight of my growing collection of craft and cookery books. It drives my husband round the bend. My solution would be to have a nice ‘craft’ room of my own that I could hibernate in, surrounding myself with fabric and wall to wall books for every type of craft. A girl can dream.
In the mean time, I can just about squeeze a couple more in and ‘Big Little Felt Universe’ by Jeanette Lim is my new muse. I have recently been looking for some felt food patterns online when I stumbled upon Jeanette’s etsy shop which is packed with fabulous looking patterns for all sorts of felt food and toys. Struggling to decide which one to buy, imagine my excitement when I realised she had also published this book with Lark Crafts.
And what a craft book it is. There is not one pattern in the collection that I do not want to make. Each project is beautifully photographed with clear instructions, although some projects are trickier than others so maybe not all will be suitable for beginners. Most of the patterns are full size and even the few that aren’t can be enlarged or even measured out yourself as all the measurements are given.
I started with the felt veg and the results are really pleasing. The patterns are sized really well and everything fits together perfectly. This really is a fun and exciting book of the felt food projects that you will really want – fruit, veg, cakes, tools, burgers and hotdogs and loads more. Great to start off in the wonderful world of felt food and then progress into Jeanette’s other etsy patterns. All will produce amazing toys that children will adore compared with the sad mass produced plastic offerings of most stores.
A must buy for any lover of felt.
Next project for me is this super cute gingerbread house for the holiday season!
Will the iPod touch get scratched on it’s first outing on Christmas morning? Knowing my kiddies the answer is yes. But in an attempt to keep them safe as they get knocked around in pockets and bags I have made them these cute felt bear pouches. Not sure how long they’ll last…….
Yep the felt came out again the other day for some cute little hanging bird decorations. These work especially hard as they can multi task as Christmas decorations for your tree, add a touch of dried lavender and hang on your clothes hangers for a fresh wardrobe or even use for a baby’s mobile.
You will need:
1 sheet of beige felt
scraps of material
scraps of ribbon
buttons
embroidery thread
Soft toy filler
Draw your bird shape on a piece of paper and cut out for your template. You will be able to get 3 birds out of a standard 9″ x 12′ sheet of felt if you size it well. Draw round you template 3 times then flip the paper over and draw round another 3 times. This will give you a front and back piece for each of the 3 birds and enable you to hide any pencil or pen marks inside. Cut out your birds. Now cut three chest peices out of your material scraps. I used this red floral print to give a christmassy robin feel but you can use whatever materials you have to hand. Pin the chest onto the front bird piece and stitch it on just around the top edge as pictured below. Sew on a cute button for his eye. Now take a 20 cm piece of ribbon, fold it over and tuck it between the front and back bird pieces. Pin together. Blanket stitch round the bird in a contrasting colour, leaving a 4cm gap to fill him. Add some stuffing and carry on the the blanket stitch until he if fully sealed. To finish off take your needle back into the bird and out again at the back of the body. Pull tight then snip the thread and your end will disappear inside your bird so you have no visible knots.
Repeat until you have made up all three and hang with pride! If you like these – also check my felt Christmas Robins which are made from all felt and have cute little wings.
I wanted to make a simple cute pin cushion to go with my Christmas Needle felt case. It had to be christmassy (naturally), so check out this Christmas tree pin cushion. Only a few bits of felt and some stuffing needed for this simple project as the pearl headed pins are themselves the decorations on the tree! I just added a bit of ribbon on the top for a final touch.
To make this cut out a circle for the base and a larger semi circle to make a cone. Stitch the two ends of the cone together and attach the circle to the bottom of cone, leaving about a 3cm opening. Turn your cone right side out, stuff with soft toy filling and over stitch the opening. Add pins and any other decoration you like!
My Children break up on 16th December for the Christmas break (doesn’t that get earlier every year????) so I have a whole week to fill with Christmas related cheap fun activities or things to keep them out of trouble. We will be making these as gifts for their friends and stocking fillers for other kids in the family.
These are so simple even my 6 year old boy can do them.
You will need:
Scraps of felt
buttons
embroidery thread
pencils
cut out a 2 x triangles of felt for the christmas tree or 2 x felt hearts for the heart topper. Stitch a button onto one of pieces. Pin the front and back together and using embroidery thread running stitch round the edge approx 3mm from the edge and leaving a gap at the bottom just big enough for the pencil to fit snuggly inside.
More felt Christmas fun! I needed something to refresh my Christmas decorations this year but had no budget to buy any. Out comes the felt again! I got so addicted to making these I did a loads to put on my Christmas Fayre stalls.
I don’t have an patterns I’m afraid as I used a cookie cutter for the gingerbread man, draw round a mug for the christmas pudding and used the bird pattern from my Cath Kidston Sew! Book. Hope they inspire you to give them a go yourself though – It’s a great way to experiment with new stitches. Try incorporating blanket stitch, running stitch, french knots, cross stitch and get out your bag of material scraps & buttons to add interest like the gingerbread man’s bow tie and the button for the robins eye.
This is a super quick gift you can give a fellow crafter for Christmas or just make one for yourself! This can be easily made in less than an hour and is something you will use forever. My daughter loved helping me make these too so a perfect beginner project for your little girl.
2 sheets of felt in contrasting colours
buttons and/or ribbon to decorate
embroidery thread
sewing machine
Pinking Shears
Cut out a 12cm x 19cm rectangle from one of your felt sheets – this will be the main part of your felt book. In the contrasting colour, cut our a piece 8cm x 10cm and a piece 10cm x 16cm – these will be your front cover and inner pages.
On the 8 x 10cm cover, stitch in your ribbon and button embellishments and trim with pinking shears. To make up the book, place the larger rectangle with the smaller rectangle on top and fold in half. Machine stitch down the left hand side approx 0.5cm from the edge. Trim the edges and inner pages with pinking shears. Now stitch on your cover using running stitch.
Any craft involving felt is brilliant in my opinion. It come in a rainbow of gorgeous bright colours, easy to work with, dramatically versitile and super cheap. This was one of the first project I decided to do when planning my stall for the Christmas Fayre’s I was attending this year. I wanted to make something charming and beautiful to hang on the christmas tree and found myself with an abundance of red felt sitting in my craft box.
My inspiration for these came when I was excitedly thumbing through my new Kirstie Allsopp book a couple of months ago. There they were these cute red felt hearts for hanging. So here are my version. I used gingham 5mm ribbon, super cute tiny wooden star buttons I picked up at a craft fair and white embroidery thread to blanket stitch round the edge. Each heart has a little soft toy stuffing inside to pad them out a little. You could also add a little lavender and give them as a gift this Christmas. That’s savvy crafting!
If you want to check out Kirstie’s Felt Hearts just click here
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