How To: Felt PIn Wheel Wreath

Wow, that is some seriously dreary weather lately isn't it? Makes you wish spring would disappear and summer would get here doesn't it? Well, to help pull me out of the grey weather funk I made the cheeriest wreath this morning!

Pretty as a picture isn't it? And it came together so fast I just had to share the how to! It mostly consists of a pinwheel primer (in case you have never made a single one in grade school. Seriously though, how did you let that happen?)

Get together your supplies which consist of:
1 wreath form
6 squares of felt (4)4" squares and (2)5.5" squares
3 Buttons
Enough lace and/or ribbon to wrap around the wreath
Rotary knife or scissors
Glue gun & sticks (But a needle and thread can be used in its stead)

Here are the super simple steps!

1. Lay out your squares of felt and layer them two to a pile. (I love the contrasting colours of each wheel.)

2. Find the centre and using a rotary knife or scissors, cut to almost the center.

3. Add glue to the centre and fold over one piece and affix. Your back layer might reach the centre but probably won't. I folded both pieces at the same time but had to add a bit of glue to the bottom layer and the point sat just outside the centre. (Don't worry though, the button will cover it.)

4. Continue with all four corners until your pinwheel looks like this.

5. Glue button to centre.

6. Rinse and repeat for the next two pinwheels. Aren't they just adorable?!

7. Pull out your wreath for and do a lace/ribbon mock up. I scavenged some lace from my jars for this. I actually used four different pieces so I wanted to make sure they would all fit.

8. Glue ends (if you have multiple pieces)and wrap evenly.

 9. Glue your pinwheels on and you are done! Now hang that baby and brighten your mood!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Happy crafting!

How To: Felt Ghost Bunting

When I first started this blog, my intention was only share tidbits of my family life, with a side of eco-conciousness. Soon the sewing bug bit me and I was sharing what I created and then not long after that I was creating my own tutorials. Not many at first but then Valentine's Day came along and I was so inspired that I went a little mad with the tutorials. Well, that same spirit has inspired me two years later for Halloween and again I cannot wait to share with you what I have created/am creating.

I absolutely adore this felt ghost bunting. It came together in just a couple hours. Cutting out the ghosts took the longest. I hung it up to see if it worked for me and it looked so good I left it up waiting for Halloween. 

Materials

White felt (Enough for nine ghosts)

Stuffing

9 eyeets (I used back and metal finish)

Sharpie marker (Black)

Jute twine

Orange ribbon
Embroidery thread

Modus Operandi

Step 1: Cut pieces. I traced a Wilton cookie cutter as a pattern.

Step 2: Set eyelet in front piece of felt.

Step 3: Sew around perimeter of ghost, leave opening for stuffing. Stuff and sew closed.

Step 4: Add eyes with Sharpie marker.

Step 5: Braid three pieces of twine either with the orange ribbon, or wrap ribbon around the braided twine like I did.

Step 6: Use coordinating embroidery thread to attach ghosts to twine at fairly equal intervals. Make sure to thread through just the back piece of ghost.

And voila! You have the most adorable bunting with just a side of spooky!

I hope you enjoyed this little mini-tutorial. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and I promise to answer as soon as possible! I have plenty more Halloween projects, but the weather has turned wet and dreary these past couple days, so photos are on hold.  But, until then you can always check out my Halloween tag for past posts about Wednesday's costumes and delicious baking. And here is a vinatge-esque Halloween garland with printable sheets to keep your hands busy.

How To : Felt Flowered Papier Mache Easter Basket

Good morning! The sun is shining here today and it is slowly warming up. After I post this I am getting pretty and Wednesday and I are going out to play! But, before that I have a photo tutorial to share with you. I had it in my mind to make Wednesday's Easter basket this year, to go along with the eggs I made her and the soon-to-be-felt-food I am making her. I had a few issues though. It needed to be big enough to hold two dozen soft eggs, it needed to be light enough for her to carry and comfortable enough for her to want to carry it. I kept going back to papier mache for simplicity. I re-examined the mailbox I made her and found it to be light enough so, I went with it. The next snag was how to cover it. My head was not in the place to make a slip cover for it like the mailbox but I knew I wanted a nice soft look. Enter this tutorial from Love 2 Create. It was inspiring in both its simplicity and prettiness. Over the course of the weekend I think I made about 160 felt rosettes.

How To - Felt Sugar Cookies

Measure and cut your fabric. I used a cookie cutter for a template.












Sew ric rack to felt hearts in one long strip.












Snip every second felt heart. Fold over and with wrong sides together sew.












Stuff. I found tweezers helpful here.











Trim with pinking shears if you have them and voila, you're done!









You simply must have cookies if you are going to have a Valentine's Tea Party!

Reversible-Adjustable Felt Crown Tutorial

This idea rolled around in my head for about a day. I designed and redesigned it a few times and it still didn't turn out anything like the one in my head. But, I love it! I love it so much I am sharing it with you. The tutorial is pretty straightforward but I am including the crown and diamond pattern pieces. I also have a felt tiara in the works but it is an overcast day and getting the final product pictures on the crown were tricky enough. But, the crown looks great and so I have both a tute for you and some great pictures, complete with *gasp* toddler model!

The supplies you need really vary on how you want to embellish your crown. This was a total stashbuster project for me since I actually had everything on hand. Free is my favourite price. Also, even when I paid for the felt it was near free as it was all thrifted pieces. The only thing I used that was not felt was some vintage trim I bought in a lot off of EBay. I had thought about making the diamonds argyle with embroidery thread (that was my initial idea but it looked so good just the way it was) I had thought about using buttons and rhinestones but really, I thought less is more. So, with that ebing said here is the list of materials I used:

Felt (whatever you have on hand, wool or ecospun or even tightly felted sweaters would work I think:
2 pieces 15" in width, 4.5" in height
10 pieces 2.5"x3.5"

Trim:
2 15" pieces (I used some vintage bought on Ebay)
2 12" pieces of ribbon (I used grosgrain leftover from a Christmas gift I received but any ribbon that holds a tied bow would do.)

Pattern to be found here. Which took me ages to size properly. If you have a fool proof plan for making patterns in Photoshop in a printable size feel free to let me know it!

And now on to the Construction Instructions;


Print pattern and cut out felt crown pieces.


When cutting diamonds, I found it quickest to trace them individually on one crown and then use that crown as a stencil on the second piece of felt. You could use an Xacto knife on a cutting mat but I just used some super sharp snips. Then cut out the rectangles to go behind the cut out diamonds.


You may find that folding the crown up as you go along prevents it from getting caught on the machine.


Stitch the felt pieces to the back side of the felt crown one at a time. When you are done,trim as close to the stitching as you can. From the back they should look like this. *Note* If you like the look, you could always keep going like that and have an appliqued look instead of reverse applique. I thought about it, but again was seduced by the reverse applique look.


After you have sewn the pieces to the back of the crowns and trimmed away the excess, the front should look like this.


Once all your pieces are trimmed you can add the trim. This was super easy because it had a pattern I could line up with the foot on my machine.


Isn't the vintage trim just adorable?!


Insert your ribbon between the two layers of felt and sew.


Sew the two felt crowns together, wrong sides facing eachother. Keep stitches as close the the edge as you can get. I did it in a zig zag stitch but I think a running stitch would have been just as nice. Also, I didn't use a contrasting thread but you could.

Finally, have your two and a half year old model your after much begging, and promise of her becoming a queen!~

This would have taken me just a couple of hours but I spent some time developing another pattern (a tiara)and then because I was impatient and I didn't double check my tension I had to rip out half a crowns worth of triple stitches. All in all it would have taken a morning had a I had the pattern already and not have to rip out stitches.

The tiara one will be coming soon, I am just waiting for better light. Happy Crafting folks!~

I am linking to a couple of link events. One is @ Skip to My Lou


The other is @ Twice Remembered Make Your Monday.

I Just Couldn't leave it alone!

The pattern I recently won at Today's Creative Blog by Skip To My Lou. It sat idle for less than twenty four hours! It took a couple days to do because I had to wait until Wednesday was sleeping and she recently fell ill with a cough but I finished it! And here is the finished product!



I actually had all the colours of felt to make this little project. (Having all the materials is so rare for me!) Between the thrifted felt remnants, Eco Spun store bought felt and the wool felt remnant oh and the corn batting this was a very eco friendly project. I could say it was a use what you got type project too. But in all honesty I am most happy about having a present made for Wednesday. It seems I keep adding to my list of homemade gifts for her and this was the first one I could check off. Just the sort of motivation I need to get me further in gear. Truth be told I am scared to look up how many weeks are left before C-Day! But like the Little Engine that Could, so can I!

I am also officially addicted to making felt food. It was so easy, so cute and thanks to my super duper sewing machine I don't have to do a lot by hand, which is nice because my hand stitching skills leave a lot to be desired. But I am okay with that. To help me on my way I have been googling free felt food patterns and have come across some most ingenious and absolutely adorable blog posts. Here is a sample of my favourites:

One Inch World has a few great tutes, I particularly love the lollipops and bow tie pasta, both for their sheer cuteness and crazy simplicity! This is also a wonderfully child friendly crafty blog you should spend some time surfing!

Here is the pattern for a super simple peelable banana from Deviant Art user starxxlight who also has the most adorable marshmallow plushie on her homepage.

This is a tutorial for felt corn stalks that I can't wait to make the cobs from by Cupkateer.

I found this soft serve waffle cone and it instantly made me hungry by Flickr user Hannah Hoosier.

And last but not least (and definitely not the last of links I have bookmarked) here is a quick tute for some felt sushi by http://hoogliart.wordpress.com/.

The list just keeps going but these were some of my favourites and 'fer sure gonna do's' and I thought I would share. There are so many more inspiration sites to choose from on Flickr and Etsy. And really, a peek in your own fridge and pantry just might be the inspiration you need!

Happy crafting!~

So glad to see these finished!

What do you get when you add 240 buttons, 20 pieces of felt and a billion stitches? You get dominoes!



These took me what seemed like forever! In truth I worked on sewing the buttons on and off for a month and spent two hours sewing, stuffing and trimming today. The buttons took me so long because my neck would be sore after just a couple of dominoes so I tried to keep them to a couple times a week. It was great work for keeping my hands busy whilst watching television though. But I don't think I will ever do these again, nor would I think of doing them for selling because of the sheer length of time it takes to sew 240 buttons.

An online friend of mine sent me the felt for the cost of shipping. This plus yards of other stuff I can't wait to do more things with it! The idea came because Wednesday is starting to actually count things, not just recite her numbers. She also loves buttons (she has her own bucket of buttons for sorting and counting etc.). I thought thsi was the perfect way to combine all those things.

Each button is sewed and sewed and sewed again so that none come in mouths or hands. Each domino is stuffed with a batting made from corn and each stitch is triple stitched for both looks and function.

Love these so much. I can't wait to play them with Wednesday.

Here Fishy Fishy....

Wow, what a day so far! So busy! But last night I finished my latest crafty obsession and today I can finally share pictures of it with you! Okay, drum roll please!



It is a little fishing game I crafted out of mostly felt, some steel washers, bamboo and crazy magnets. Because I only get nap times and bed times to do the bulk of my crafting (Wednesday is so curious I cannot get anything done) this took me the better part of the week to finish but I did it. With a bunch of ways to improve it so that I am not AS happy with this as I should be. But, I am really really happy with how it turned out. Especially considering my skill level and artistic talent (or lack thereof).

I have to note that the original idea is NOT mine. I found a picture of a similar item in this photostream at Flickr. I cannot link to the original photo or set because of the author's settings but you should check out her photostream, she has both great taste and great talent for making childrens toys.

It was essentially a practical lesson in machine embroidery because all of the stitching was done on a machine with various zig zag and straight stitches. I learned as I went and I learned quite a bit. I can't wait to tackle another project that requires some sort of machine embroidery.



Clockwise from top left:
White salmon, yellow tuna, red tuna, blue whale, hermit crab, octopus, sea turtle, two jellyfish, starfish, two sea weeds and a great white shark.

The first three fish look kind of funny because they were my first and I did a combination of straight and zig zag stitches. By the time I reached the octopus (which was my last) I was a pro at the whole 'machine embroidery thing'. And when I was sewing the washers on I realized I could have put the washer inside since the magnets were so awesome. Another thing to try next time. The batting is an eco friendly poly made from corn! (Which I thrifted for a buck at a local charity shop.) The felt is eco-spun made from recycled plastic bottles.



The fishing poles are bamboo garden stakes sawed in half with a hand saw and a shiny red string tied to one end (to be glued soon as tying was a bad idea) and then I wrapped some cloth around the magnet and tied the string around that. In theory it was a good idea but the fabric I used to wrap the magnet was way to flimsy. After just a few minutes of play the corners of the magnet were wearing through the cloth. I will sew up some felt packaging this weekend. It will also dull the power of the magnets.
The bag is a simple sewn drawstring bag all straight stitched but I do double hem the seams because I really don't like fraying edges. The lettering and fishing pole were my very first attempt at such a thing and although I was smart enough to back it with something, felt was the wrong thing. It catches on the tracks just a bit too much, next time I will invest in some interfacing.
The blue sea is some sheer yardage I bought at Value Village just the other day for I think a couple bucks.



Some action shots from this morning. I babysat my cousin's son again and this was a big hit with both children. They played it for probably a good solid half hour. Not bad for a two and four year old. It was worth all of the late nights and neck cramps. I can't wait to do it again, maybe he'll get one for Christmas.

I really had so much fun making this. All the felt, fabric and notions I had on hand but I did have to go out for the washers, bamboo and magnets. All in all the whole 'game' cost me about fifteen dollars not including felt. Totally awesome.

I think that is all I can say about that for now. Good night folks!

Bean Bag Fun

This is Wednesday loving her bean bags. She said "I love them." And so I asked her to show me so I could take a picture.

Months and months ago I came across this tutorial @ Whimsy Love through my Craftzine RSS feed @ Livejournal for bean bags. Wednesday was a wee babe but I thought they were super cute and super easy and so I bookmarked them for later making.

Recently I rediscovered Whimsy's blog and stumbled upon the tutorial again. I thought, what a great way to teach Wednesday something! At first I was going to make letter cut outs for the alphabet but that was a little bit overzealous even for me. So I thought, "Hey! Why not use the bean bags to teach Wednesday her colours and shapes?!" And an idea was born. (An idea that is working I might add. Mind you, Wednesday already knows her shapes really well.)

Being the always-wanting-what-I-do-not-have kind of gal, the project that started out with on-hand supplies quickly turned into a thirty dollar gig thanks to the needs for some really pretty fat quarters (for the cut outs) and purple fleece (I couldn't find purple felt at the store I was at.)but, it was worth it because they turned out sew pretty! And using popping corn was really quite brilliant. Super eco friendly, and I think it gives the perfect texture, sound and weight that makes bean bags super fun for little ones.

EDIT: The thing is, I have been sewing on some level since I was but a child (I think I learned how to sew by hand age six or seven.) but I haven' really done much of anything save a random project now and again in almost ten years. So, recently the few projects I have attempted have been going very well. I think I might be a better seamstress now than I was then. Due mostly to patience (more now) than before. This project was perfect for practice and confidence.

I had initially thought I was giving a set to an undecided toddler (a cousin, Sidney etc.) but they turned out so vibrant and so pretty that I don't want to share any more. Shucks.