July Challenge Day #23

I needed a new key fob; the one I've been using for over a year was looking very sad and bedraggled.

This is simply layers of wool felt sewn together with embroidery floss; it's the same on both sides. I used a fabric loop to attach the fob to the key ring because I think it will wear better than felt. To give it some stiffness, there are two layers of sew-in interfacing inside.

July Challenge Day #8

I love sewing by hand! I made this little leaf from wool felt and embroidery floss; it is about 2" long. It will either go into my felt badge collection or become a patch on something.

Winter Trees

With Christmas less than six weeks away, my thoughts have turned to holiday crafting...and I've gotten a head start by participating in the "Ho Ho Ho" craft swap on Craftster.  For this swap we were to make one large item and two smalls, based one one of our partner's three themes.  I chose to go with alwaysinmyroom's theme of "trees" (her other themes were "birds"--which was tempting--and "elves", which wasn't speaking to me...)

She said that one thing she would really like is some sort of centerpiece for her table, with room in the middle for a candle.  Here's what I came up with:

It took a lot of thinking to figure out how I was going to make this!  I finally realized the best base would be a 10" wooden embroidery hoop (just the inner piece), with wooden spools glued to it, and dowels for the tree trunks. (I sharpened each dowel in the pencil sharpener to get them to fit into the spools!)

I have a LOT of wool felt, so I was able to use a nice variety of greens for the trees. I drew four different tree shapes, and simply cut out the paper drawings to use as my templates.

I sewed beads or buttons onto both pieces of each tree, then hand-stitched them together, leaving an opening at the bottom for stuffing.

After painting the hoop and spools white, I glued them together, and glued the dowels in place. When everything was dry, I slipped a tree onto each dowel and secured them with glue too.

Don't you think these trees, individually, would make great Christmas ornaments?  If you used red or white felt, they would really pop against the green of a Christmas tree!

I love this winter wonderland!  I hope my partner does too (she should be receiving it today!!)

Farm Critters

The package I put together for my partner in the Invite Your Partner swap on Craftster was so large, I've blogged about it four times already!  Today is the fifth, and final, installment.

My partner, miknessevie, lives on a farm and they have lots of animals, so there were a lot of farm-animal-themed things on her Wist.  I made these two felt badges for her based on things I saw there.

This little lamb appears in stuffed-animal form on her Wist, but it occurred to me that I could feature just the face and make it into a 3" badge.  The ears crack me up!

I myself am a chicken lover, so when I saw a chicken badge on her Wist, I had to make it! This is based on one that includes a lot of zipper teeth (you can see it HERE ), but I simplified it to suit my own style of working with wool felt.

I THINK that's the last of the felt badges for a while!  (But come to think of it, I have received some wonderful badges in swaps, and I haven't mounted them all yet...when I do, I think I will have to do another post to show you the new display!)

A Whole Bunch of Scissors Fobs

Since January I have been diligently working on a challenge proposed by my friend Susan to sew a heart every day for a year.  I am happy to say that I am currently 10 ahead in my heart count, yippee!  For the past 34 days I have been making heart-shaped wool-felt scissors fobs for this challenge.  You can see them individually on my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts, but this is the only place you will see them all together in a single photo!

The fobs are all made of wool felt, embroidery floss, sewing thread, baker's twine, and polyfill.  They are all sewn entirely by hand.

Here they are in the pint-size canning jar I challenged myself to fill with fobs.  It took 34 of these little hearts to fill this jar:

And here they are, all laid out :

The bright flower fob, below, is my favorite.  Which one is yours?  If you leave a comment and mention which ones you like best, you might just win one of them!  On July 11th I will randomly choose three lucky winners to receive one fob each.  Please be sure I have a way to contact you if you win.

Two More Felt Badges

I really love working with wool felt!

I am currently in the second round of the Felt Badge Swap on Craftster.  This time we are making and sending two felt badges to our partner.  These are the badges I sent to farmerswife in England.

First, a hen, because she really IS a farmer's wife, and she is lucky enough to have chickens!  (I am so jealous of her!  It's a running joke here at my house that I wish I could have chickens...I just think they are super cute.)

 I made a paper template for the shape of the hen, then I cut all the smaller pieces of felt free-hand. I love the folk-art feel of this hen; I might have to make another one like it for myself!

Second, a "lurking" owl (that's what he's been called in the swap gallery--and I guess I can see why!)  Farmerswife has a few owl-themed things in her Pinterest, so when I saw a card with this design I knew it would be great as a felt badge.

This one was a fun challenge, with the "wood" overylay.  As with the hen, I started with a paper template for the opening in the tree and the owl, then cut the smaller pieces free-hand.

Each of these felt badges is approximately 2" x 3".  Farmerswife has received them and she loves them.  I can't wait to get mine from her!

Felt Fishes and a Heart

I have enjoyed making and swapping felt badges on Craftster, so I was thrilled when Sophie of Threadhead agreed to a personal swap with me.  She is such an amazing stitcher!  We each made two felt badges, based on the other person's Pinterest. 

Sophie has a lot of things on her Pinterest, so it was hard to choose just two themes for her badges, but I finally decided to go with interests that we have in common.  She has a category just for fish, so I made this one first:

I cut the fish from felt free-hand; then I used a chain stitch to embroider them.  I thought it would look like scales, and it does!  Three shades of embroidery floss give the fish gradations of color.

For the second badge, I found a heart on Sophie's Pinterest, and I made almost an exact copy of it.  I made a template to cut the heart shape, then cut the leaves and circles free-hand.

Both badges are made of wool felt and embroidery floss, and are just under 3" at their widest points.  The heart has glass beads accents.

I love hearts and I think this one is gorgeous, but it is the fish badge that got all the comments when I posted pictures on Craftster!

I mailed these (from the U.S.) to Sophie in England on Friday and she received them on Wednesday--that's fast!  I hope hers come to me just as quickly.  I think I'll go check the mailbox right now!

Master Craftster Badge

I really love working with wool felt and embroidery floss to create tiny treasures like the badges I've been swapping on Craftster.  I will have to wait until next week to show you the four I've made recently (two for an organized swap and two for a personal swap--they haven't reached my partners in England yet), but today I can show you one I made for myself.

I made this to look similar to a scouting merit badge, although it is bigger--about 1 3/4" in diameter.  This is to commemorate my participation in the Bernina Master Craftsters campaign that was revealed on Craftster last month.  That project was a lot of fun, but also a ton of work, with no remuneration other than the "glory" of basking in the Master Craftster spotlight for a while.  Because I am proud of my involvement with it,  I am using the Master Craftster logo as my avatar on Craftster now, and I made this badge to add to my collection.

The sewing machine was much easier to create than I expected it to be:  I just drew a quick sketch on paper, then held the paper against the light-blue felt and cut along the outline.  The details are bits of felt sewn on with embroidery floss. 

The words were the hard part...I decided to do block letters and started sewing without any kind of a guide.  I wish they were a little better.  I will keep my eyes and ears open to find good methods for transfering lettering to felt.  If you happen to know of one, please tell me!

Scissors Fobs and Blanket Stitch

On my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts, I am currently in the middle of a challenge to sew one heart every day for a year.  I've been scouring the internet and wracking my brain to come up with new hearts, and last week I had an idea:  scissors fobs.  They're small and cute and useful and relatively quick to make; but the best part is that they can be decorated a million different ways (and I only need about 200 more!).  They are made of wool felt, embroidery floss, baker's twine, and polyester stuffing, and they are finished with a blanket stitch around the edges.

Here are the 8 fobs I've made so far:

The lovely Lime Riot, who is an amazing crafter and embroidered, actually asked ME if I have any tips about the tricky part of the blanket stitch edging:  finishing the last stitch.  Since I do have a standard method that I always follow, I am happy to share it with her, and you.

This is the fob I am using for this demonstration:

Oh, I should mention...I am left-handed.  So if anything looks backwards or upside down to you, that's probably why.

Okay.  I always start sewing the back to the front in the same spot:  midway on the right-hand side, and I work counter-clockwise around the heart.  In the picture below, you can see that I have started the first stitch by putting the needle into the inside of the back piece, and pulling the thread through.

Next, I insert the needle in the outside of the front of the heart, and push the point right into the first hole you made when setting the knot (above).

That's your first stitch.  For this stitch only, I run the thread under the stitch, and pull it out on the right-hand side.

Now I continue sewing the blanket stitch in the regular way all around the heart.  (I just noticed that there's a long, stray filament of the stuffing material right in the middle of the picture!  Please try to ignore that!)

When there's only about an inch left to sew, I stuff the heart, then continue sewing.

When I have sewn the last stitch, I pull the thread through the first stitch I sewed, and tie a small knot there.

Then I tie another knot about 1/4" from the last stitch and pull that inside the stuffed heart to anchor the thread.  Pull the needle up anywhere on the back and trim the end of the thread flush with the felt.

All done!  (I can't believe that stray filament is still there.)

I don't know if I shared any new information, but I know it can be helpful to see how someone else does things...there may be some small detail here that is new to you--and possibly eye-opening.  I hope so!

Felt Heart Keychain Tutorial

On my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts, I recently posted some of these heart keychains that I made.  One of my readers, Kay, was interested in them because they are all hand-sewing, so I thought I would show her, and you, exactly how to make them.

You will need:
--cotton fabric with a small print (choose this carefully as it will be the center of attention!)
--wool felt
--embroidery thread
--Heat n Bond Lite, or other two-sided, fusible interfacing that you can sew through
--heavy sew-in interfacing
--key ring
--sewing thread and needle
--heart templates (at the end of this post)--they work best if you trace them onto plastic and cut them out.  You may need to/want to resize the templates when you print them out.  The large one is 2 5/8" wide and 2 3/4" tall.  The smaller one is 2 1/2" wide and 2 3/8" tall.

Start by tracing the smaller heart onto the smooth side of the Heat n Bond. Cut it out, just outside the line, and iron it onto the cotton fabric.  When it is cool, cut out the heart on the drawn line (this cut doesn't have to look perfect because the edge will be hidden under the felt). 
Still using the small template, trace and cut out 2 hearts from the heavy interfacing.  (I used two interfacing hearts for added firmness in my finished keychain.)

Next, cut a strip of your cotton fabric  2" x 3 1/2" for the key fob.

Iron the strip in half lengthwise, then fold each side in to the center crease, and press.

Sew the open side shut.  Don't bother to sew the ends, because they will be covered.

Slip the keyring onto the fabric and fold the strip in half.  Baste the ends together.  Set aside.

Next, using the larger heart template, trace three hearts onto the felt.  A ballpoint pen works great for this.  Only one of the hearts needs to have the center heart drawn onto it.

Cut out the three felt hearts.  Now all your pieces are ready to assemble into a beautiful keychain!

Remove the paper from the back of the fabric heart, and iron it onto one of the solid wool hearts.  Then position the keyring fob behind this heart, leaving about 1/2"-3/4" of the fob exposed, and sew firmly into place.  Remember to only sew in the area that will be covered by the heart with the "window" cut out of it.

Here's the back.  You can trim the cotton fabric to within 1/4" of where you sewed it to the felt heart, if you wish.

Next, layer the two interfacing hearts under the wool heart, and lay the cut-out wool heart over the fabric heart.

Baste the layers together.  The red basting stitches will be removed, so they can be big and sloppy!

This is what the back looks like.  (The heart on the left is the piece that will cover the interfacing after a few more steps.)

Using a blanket stitch, sew around the inner heart with the embroidery thread.

This is what the back looks like.  Now, remove these basting stitches.

Here's the last step:  with the third felt heart layered onto the back, baste all the layers together, then embroider around the outside edge with a blanket stitch.  (There are lots of places online that explain the blanket stitch, like this one at Stitch School.)

Remove the basting stitches, and you are done.  Looks great!!

The back looks great too!