A Sewing Project for Teacher's Gift

This little project caught my eye some time ago, so I set up a swap to trade them.  Since my partner has already received this swap....I think I'm pretty safe to post the photo here now.  It was made using the pattern here, and was a pretty quick and, I think,....pretty cute project too.  If you pull the leaves at the top, the keys move up inside of the owl so you can hang them up without keys marking up your wall.  I think I may just make another for an end of year teacher's gift........What do you think??

Repurposed Sweater Project #2- Felted Kitty for Kitty

As eluded to on an earlier post......here is the second small project from my sad shrunken sweater. 

Our cat 'Ginger' has this cute, yet annoying habit of stealing pairs of socks from the laundry and from unguarded cupboards.  Often you could hear her muffled meows as she called for her kittens with one such 'sock kitten' already being carried in her mouth.   She would line them up in a row somewhere safe and get ready to feed them.  I thought maybe she would prefer her own dedicated kitten to some of my sock pairs.......we shall see......I suppose.

I find Ginger likes her soft toys a little squidgy so I don't stuff them very firmly at all.  You could easily increase the size of the pattern to make a nice pillow for yourself as well:)  Go here for the PDF pattern and make yourself a litter.

Repurposed Sweater Project #1- Felted Fish for Kitty

I have a little collection of wool sweaters which I gathered through thrift store shopping over the past year or so.  I've got a number of small projects in my head that will use up my sweater stash and this was my first easy and quick little project to get it started.  Since I had the sewing machine out to work on my fitted sheet for the 3/4 bed....I thought I'd better also tackle this small project as well.  It took only 20 minutes to complete.  I did not even take the time to make a pattern piece for this.....I just started cutting out the shape of a fish with a folded piece of sweater fabric.  The fold is at the tail end.  

Then I stitched around the shape, (wrong sides together) leaving a 1 1/2 inch opening to turn it.  I chose to make it wrong sides together so that the purl side of the knit would be on the outside when finished.  After turning the fishy purl side out........I filled a little scrap of fabric (from my sheet project) with cat nip and stuffed it inside the little fishy.  

I then made two french knots with 6 strands of embroidery thread for eyes and secured the thread inside onto the catnip bag.  I then closed the opening and secured the thread.  All ready for kitty....

A Little Bit of Swapping

I've been drowning lately with too much to do and weekends that seem to mysteriously evaporate into thin air.......so I have not been as active with craft swapping as I had in the past.  Although this past weekend went by with very little recall of what was accomplished, I have decided to try some quick and painless swaps to get back into it.  Last weeks swap was for a handmade needle book.  Hopefully my partner will like it!

With my last few pieces of thrifted red wool fabric I made this quick project.  It's small enough to be compact (4" X 2.5"), with four wool felt 'pages' for needles and a little pocket at the bottom to hold other necessities. It was a fun little project......I think I might need one now:)

A Felt Coffee Cozy for Valentines........or Whenever

Here is the Felt Coffee Cozy I made for my son's teacher for Valentine's Day. We paired it up with a Tim Horton's Coffee gift card and a nice little valentine from Ike......We hope she will like it. Again I used the little bird......can't get enough of that little bird! This time I've traced out the shape of a paper coffee cozy for you with a slight increase in height........since I like mine a little taller. One day I picked up about a 1/2 meter of Melton Cloth from a thrift shop and brought it home to felt it in the washer and dryer. Since the fabric is woven it has a bit more structure and less stretch in it than if I had used felted sweater scraps. However you can feel free to use felted sweater scraps it that's what you have available since the lining fabric will keep the cozy from stretching out of shape. You can even use craft felt to make this if you don't intend on washing it........but I cannot speak to the sturdiness of it or how long it might last.

If you use a sturdy enough felt......like the felted wool Melton Cloth that I have used (or a felted wool blanket would work very well as well) you really only need one layer. I have only added the lining layer in this case for a more finished look. If you use a fabric lining and you choose to close your shape with buttons.....you will need to use the button hole attachment on your sewing machine to finish the button holes........if you use a single layer of heavy felt......you will not need to finish the button holes. If you do use buttons, make sure to choose ones that are fairly flat so they don't make it uncomfortable to hold. When marking button holes...pin your shape closed, and place your button where you want them to be. Then mark on edge B of your felt, where the center of each button sits. Your button hole will be start at that very point and will move back towards edge C just until it is large enough to allow the button to pass through. Button hole length should equal button diameter. Also mark the center of each button on the underneath layer on edge C.....this is where you will sew your buttons.
And here is the pattern I used for making felt cozies, along with some decorative little birds if you'd like. The branches are embroidered with 3 strands of cotton floss in a split stitch while the outlining to attach the bird and wing pieces are done with a blanket stitch. There are many other embroidery stitches you might like to try other than the few I have used, on this project so have a look through and chose some others you like.
Hopefully the pattern below is clear...feel free to leave any questions here if it is not. This pattern should print to fill a letter sized (8 1/2 X 11) paper. The PDF version is here and it will allow you to print the pattern to its proper size. Hope your Valentine is a cozy one! Looking for another quick Valentine project......this is what we made last year for Ike's teacher.

Starbucks Felt Coffee Cozy

Here we go with another felt coffee cozy. This time, for another swap-bot coffee cozy swap. The swap provided a pattern to help us out if we didn't have a plan. I just used a cardboard coffee sleeve from Starbucks as a template........and it looks like that's just what this person whos pattern was referenced did too....so if you don't have a cardboard sleeve to trace......go here and use this printable one...it's pretty much exactly the same as the Starbucks sleeve in size and shape and the instructions are there to make one of all fabric prints rather than using felt as I have.
I used some blue felted Melton cloth for the outside cut out exactly the size of the template, (it requires no seam allowance as its cut edges will not unravel) and lined the inside with a cotton print fabric which I cut 1/4 inch larger than the cardboard (or printed) template.
I placed the template down on the wrong side of the cotton fabric and turned the 1/4 inch seam allowance over the template and steamed it in place, making it the exact shape as the template....clipping curves.
Then I removed the template and placed the two fabrics wrong sides together and top stitched them together near the outside edge. (They should be exactly the same size now) At this point I added on some rick rack....because I like rick rack:).
To join the two short ends together, I just overlapped and top stitched in place. I have in the past joined the two ends using buttons and button holes like with this cozy.....but this one I just sewed together. Before assembling, I used some fabric applique and embroidery to decorate the front.
Can't get enough of those little birds.....I know I should really come up with something new! Another quick and easy project and a good little gift for teacher or friend:)

A Felt Coffee Cozy for a Nice Friend:)

Sometimes friends surprise us in the nicest of ways:) And surprises are just the best....aren't they?? I do get packages in the mail fairly often from taking part in craft swaps. But I didn't expect to get a nice little package from a co-worker after I got let go from work. This lady knows that I collect teacups and saucers and was kind enough to package up one and send it to me. I've had her address under a magnet on my fridge for over a month now....wanting to send her a little thank you note and little something back.......and finally I figured out what I would make for her. I took some of my felted red Melton cloth and made a template from an old Starbucks disposable coffee cozy. I made my template a bit bigger (one inch taller and one inch longer) and went from there. Go to this post for a link to a printable template if you need one.

My first test used needle felting and embroidery to decorate the cozy and finished the top and bottom edge with double fold bias tape. Because I used felt, it was not actually necessary to finish the top and bottom edge, but I thought it added a little contrast. The seam at the back is covered in some embroidered ribbon before applying the bias tape. An even simpler approach would have been to trim all edges with pinking sheers....but that is for another time.

My second attempt was decorated with felt applique (always a favourite for me) and edged with a blanket stitch in a contrasting colour embroidery thread. Rather than sewing the back edge closed this time, I sewed on two buttons which also added some decorative appeal.

This of course started a button hunt to find two matching buttons that were appropriately sized and coloured for this particular cozy. Ike loves the button jar just about as much as I do and the final decision was his. We wanted the buttons to be rather flat so as not to be too obtrusive when holding the cup and when I could not decide between the blue or yellow....Ike decided that they were both good choices....so there you have it...all buttoned up and ready to go. Now I just need to write up a little thank you note and I'm done:)

Ho Ho Hectic Holidays

Wow, it's been very busy here as I'm sure it has been everywhere. Finally finished with all the Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, school parties, Christmas concerts, mailing parcels etc . Just a few odds and ends now to finish up. I just cannot seem to stop knitting these slipper socks....they're so quick, easy, (and forgiving due to the felting process). I had it on my list to make a yellow pair for a swap and had absolutely no luck in finding the right colour. So I ended up dying two balls of cream coloured Bernat merino into a mottled cream and yellow. I had always wanted to try koolaid dying, but at this time could not find any yellow coloured flavours........so the koolaid dyeing is still on my to do list...for someday! So....I bought a packet of yellow Rit dye and with some hints from a library book unrolled the ball and wound it into a skein. Once in a skein, I took plastic wrap cut about4-8 inches wide and wrapped them the yarn at random places. At either end of the plastic wrap covering the yarn, I tied the ends of the plastic wrap down with 6 inch lengths of acrylic yarn to hopefully stop the dye from transferring to the plastic covered areas. So it was kind of like tie dying. Then I dissolved the dye packet into hot simmering (not boiling) water and submerged the two skeins. I actually had to add more water to be able to submerge both skeins. After gently poking at the yarn to make sure it all submerged for 30 minutes, I removed them to the sink and rinsed them several times to remove excess dye. You needed to be careful not to agitate the yarn too much or it would start to felt. After squeezing the excess water out with an old towel, I let it set by the fire to dry until the next day.
Then I rolled it into a ball with a ball winder I just happened to have in the basement. I was very happy with the way the yarn patterned up with the cream and yellow, and even happier with the overall result after felting in the washing machine. I did have some concern that the yellow dye would get washed out in the hot water felting process in the washing machine.
There was a little loss of dye into the wash water, but no noticeable loss in the colour of the knitted item. Thank goodness. I had a spare packet of yellow dye just in case I needed to redye the slippers afterwards, but there was no need. They turned out a very happy yellow indeed. I also finished felting up the (purple/blue/turquoise)Lion Brand wool slippers I had shown here. And was much happier with the look of the colours after the felting was done.

Idea #3 Felt Covered Book

Back again with Handmade Holiday gift idea #3 for you. Here's one that's quick and easy and cute too....I think. I used to have tonnes of these free 4X6 picture albums. The kind the developing shops used to give away free with each roll of film developing. (Remember film developing???) They are usually quite junky looking so I didn't mind covering them up. What I found was that you can make a quick cover for one with felt quite easily. Felt is fun to work with because you can leave the edges unfinished as it will not fray and it is really very inexpensive. If you can find wool felt, that is even better. It will cost a little more, but your project will be more sturdy. You could also do this project with ultra suede if you are lucky enough to be able to get some and this would be the most sturdy option but also a little more expensive. I just happen to have a pile of acrylic felt that needs to be used up, so that's what I'm using today. I also happened to find a stash of these photo albums for 19 cent each at my local liquidation world, so I stocked up on them. Once you are finished with this project, you can use it as a photo album if you like, but I've found that I like to fill them with 4X6 recipe cards and give them away as little recipe books. It works out pretty well as each recipe is inside the little plastic sleeve and is protected from spills and splashes etc. You could also use them like a mini scrap album too.

So to start with...you'll need a cheapy little photo album like this one, two sheets of felt for the cover, some felt scraps, some embroidery floss for embellishment and a needle.......You could try your local dollar store, Walmart or Michaels for all of these supplies.

Then, open it up and take it's measurement. Mine measured 9 1/2 inches by 6 3/8 inches when open. The fabric needed to cover this book will have to be slightly larger to allow for seam allowances. So...... add 1 inch to the shorter side, and 1 1/4 inches to the longer side. I added a little extra ease (1/4 inch extra) to the longer side since this side will need to bend around the spine of the book and you don't want it to be tight. This means in my case I needed to cut my felt out to be 10 3/4 inches by 7 3/8 inches. You will also need to cut two pieces of matching felt for the inside flaps. Cut these to be the same width as your cover piece, and tall enough to cover a good way up the page. In my case this was 2 pieces cut out 3 1/2 inches by 7 3/8 inches. You can decorate the front of your book in any way you see fit. Keep in mind where the cover will be folded, and arrange your design accordingly. I have chosen to embellish the book front with blanket stitched shapes and some embroidery like this.......I did all my embroidery with 3 strands of embroidery floss.

Once you are satisfied with your cover design, then you can machine sew the inside flap pieces to the ends of your cover piece using a 3/8 inch seam allowance along the three outside edges of each flap, wrong sides together like this.......

To finish, if you'd like, clip along the edges with pinking shears and you are done! If you are opposed to machine sewing, you could sew the flaps on using a blanket stitch with a coordinating embroidery thread. This would have a more country look which is cute too, and would look very similar to the wool felt needle books I made here. Now you have a felt covered book ready to fill with photos, recipes or what ever you might like to gift. My project cost for materials was under $1 and it took a little bit of time depending on how much you wanted to embellish the cover. I spent about an hour watching TV and embellishing this cover. This makes a nice little gift filled will family recipes for those kids leaving the house or newlyweds starting out or anyone who just likes to cook. Of course you could use it as a photo album or fill it with craft pattern instructions written on 4X6 cards, or instead of starting with a photo album, you could start out with a blank journal.....you see.......lots of possibilities:)

More Bloggy Giveaway Carnival Goodness

This contest is now Closed. Congratulations to Michelle from North Carolina USA.

It's Bloggy Giveaways Carnival time again. Those of you who participated last time may remember my first giveaway was a vintage style apron and matching headband. It was a lot of fun, and I've been looking forward to again taking part in the carnival. Well here it is again........IT'S CARNIVAL TIME....small squeal......In keeping with the handmade theme, I am offering a chance to win this hand knit and felted wool purse. It is knit with brown Merino wool, felted, lined with cream coloured Shantung silk, and embellished with felt, embroidery and a vintage coat button. I've been liking this little bird theme in felt and have been putting it on everything it seems. In fact, I do like it enough....I think......to make another for me. Doesn't it just look like fall??? It is 5.5 inches tall (not including the strap), 8 inches wide, and 3.5 inches deep and is brand new...(just finished it yesterday)

The Rules, for those interested in entering are........

1. This contest is international and open to absolutely everyone.
2. Enter by leaving one comment at the bottom of this post before midnight on October 31. Make sure to leave an email address or link so I can contact you should your name be drawn.
3. A random number generator will be used and the winner will be contacted for their address and announced here on Saturday November 1, 2008.
4. The package will be posted to the winner within the week.
   
   

As always, when leaving an email address, I would recommend that you leave it in the format of jane(dot)doe(at)hotmail(dot)com . This should keep your spam down to a minimum. Please take the link to Bloggy Giveaways below to check out a tonne of other cool Giveaways! Have Fun:)

More giveaways at the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival!

Star Felt Ornament

Another felt ornament swap is in the mail. This one for a star shaped ornament is now on it's way to it's new home in the US. I wanted a rounded tip star shape and found a pattern for one here at Allsorts. I copied the image into Corel Draw and sized the image to the dimensions I was interested in. The dark blue felt is wool Melton cloth while the accents are acrylic because that's all I had on hand. Accent shapes are stitched on with a blanket stitch in 3 strands of embroidery floss. I thought the little bird was cute, but it also could be embellished with embroidery flowers, or needle felted like the red heart shaped ornament of last months swap.

Red Felt Ornament

Here's another felt ornament made for a swap-bot swap. This one was for a heart ornament and it was a good excuse to use up some of the large red piece of wool cloth I had hot washed and felted. I tossed up ideas on how I should go about decorating it and settled on a little bit of needle felting. I had some scraps of left over ecru wool yarn from knitting up a Sophie bag like this black one and this white one, and I laid the yarn down and started to poke it it with the felting needle a few millimeters at a time. It is very simple as all you need to do is poke straight down through the felt over and over until the yarn because felted into the red background. You could easily write letters to personalize an ornament in the very same way. All you need is some felted wool fabric, some wool yarn scraps, a felting needle, and a piece of high density foam to put underneath your project. You could trace a pattern in chalk or fabric marker to outline your pattern first, but I chose to just do it freehand since my design was quite simple. You can work the design in with lots of poking with the felting needle which will flatten out the overlaid yarn, or you can poke it just enough to secure it, leaving the yarn raised above the felt fabric. I like to work the yarn in with the felting needle in enough so that traces of the yarn being felted starts to show through on the back of the fabric. After felting the front piece, I cut a second piece for the back, sandwiched a loop of ribbon into the top and blanket stitched all around to close and piece and to fasted the ribbon loop. I chose to use 3 stands of red embroidery floss to use for blanket stitching, but an ecru colour might also have be nice. This is another quicky project which took me less than a half hour to complete, and that included coming up with a design.

Candy Cane Ornament

I just got word this swap has arrived, so I can now post this picture. I had forgotten all about this one actually. I've signed up for the monthly felt ornament swap at swap-bot and this months theme was candy. Since it's a Christmas ornament, I thought a candy cane would be appropriate. This is yet another project made from the red wool felt fabric scrap I picked up from the thrift store some time ago. I cut out two candy cane shapes in red, and top-stitched the white stripes onto one of them and then blanket stitched the two red canes together with a small piece of red ribbon sewed into the top. If you enlarge the picture I think you can see exactly what I did. Since I don't yet have any white wool felt, it is accented with acrylic felt and some small pink beads. It is now enjoying the weather in Portugal......at least it won't melt!

Bye-Bye Birdie & Felt Ornament Too!

Two more swap-bot swaps are in the mail and on their way to their new homes. One was for a blue Christmas ornament swap, and the other was for an amigurumi swap of summer animals. For the ami swap I chose this pattern at Bitter Sweet and sent one identical to the one pictured. It is a quick little project (so you know I liked it) and just perfect for the beginner.........also a good selling feature in my book.
The felt ornament is a pretty blatant copy of one I saw in a card store last year. To finish it off, I sewed in a very small loop of deep blue ribbon into the top, and sent it with a ornament hook for hanging. Of course the colour combination I chose for the ornament is different that the one I had seen, and I believe they used buttons instead of the glass beads that I used to act as berries on the ornament. I was really happy with the way they turned out, and just as happy to have them out of my house........I have too much clutter already. I used felted wool fabric to make the body of the ornament, and acrylic felt, embroidery floss, and glass beads to embellish it. There are unlimited options for how you might choose to embellish it. It also was a fun, quick project just perfect for a little Christmas gift. When I straighten out my Corel Draw Issues, I'll add a pattern for this although it is dead simple.

Little Red Craftyness and Story Time

I found myself on a road trip with a lot of free time to work on small projects while listening to audio books of Lemony Snicket. Kids audio books, by the way, are an awesome way to kill many hours of a long and otherwise boring car ride. Not that the scenery isn't spectacular, because it is without a doubt some of the finest out there..........but after driving that stretch of highway over 100 times, you do need to shake it up just a bit.

So......Lemony Snicket audio books were just the ticket. Each book clocks in at about 3-4 hours each, so it also saves my voice too. There are 13 books, so you've got a lot of hours covered. We listened to books 9 and 10 on the trip so we are getting near the end. Two thumbs up for the Snicket books from me. We have them on the ipod so they are very transportable and listen to them on the car radio. We have also listened to The Davinci Code this way as well. I discovered accidentally, that you can check out audio books online through BC Libraries, and can download the files straight to your computer if you have a valid BC library card. I'm sure this feature is available in other centers as well. Here's one from New York's Public Library System for example.
While listening, I managed to produce a few felt needle books for an upcoming swap, only to later notice that my swap partner really dislikes red. Oops, so I had to do it all over again in blue. It's done now, so you can have a look at what I came up with.........but for now, this is my sad little red needle book item with no place to go:(

Another Teachers Gift....

End of the school year today! Wow that went fast. It seems that the end of the year always seems to just creep up on me, even when I think I'm so prepared. As is usual for me, everything got done just in time. This year, my sons grade one teacher is retiring and today was her very last day of work. She is getting set to move away, so we needed to think of something small and hopefully useful for her to take on her move. Since my favourite craft at the moment is covering those little tape measures, I went on and made one for her.......until 1:00am last night! I think she does like to be crafty now and again, and she will hopefully have the time for it now. I hope she likes it! Also in the package, from my son, I included a packet of Forget Me Not flowers. Although, for better or worse, I really don't think that is going to be a problem. I threw in an Ann Taintor luggage tag (she had not yet decided whether to use her powers for good or evil) and a little chocolate and some coloured tissue and we were done like dinner.

Felting is so Popular Now

Another felt covered tape measure finished and on it's way to it's new home. This is my new favourite fabric craft (I think). It's fairly quick, darned cute and very functional....at least I think so. Felt work is quite popular now, or so it seems to me, and there are many cute projects ideas out there. It's an ideal fabric to hand sew with, since it will not fray. This also makes it suitable for seaming with blanket stitch. Felt is easily available in acrylic, wool and wool blends. The wool and wool blends are more difficult to find but much nicer to work with and will wear better over time; while the acrylics are super easy to find, inexpensive and available in a wide variety of colours. There is also the option for you hard core crafters to make your own wool felt from wool roving.

You can also make your own felt material by washing 100% wool knits or wovens in hot soapy water. Once it has been washed and 'shrunk' enough it will be a felt fabric. For example there are many projects made by recycling old wool sweaters into felt fabric and them cutting the felt to make new projects. There is a free pattern available online for the teacup version of the Betz White cupcake pincushion which is adorable, and if you can follow the pattern, it is easily translatable into the super cute cupcake pattern or you can purchase the book mentioned on the Betz White site. There are numerous uber cute project ideas if you are looking for felted sweater project ideas on the Betz White Blog, that are well worth your time to check out. I highly recommend it! The few things I have made out of red felt such as the little duck, little red monster, red felt brooch and the red felt pincushion have been made out of a felted red wool blanket. Because it originated as a woven item, the felt produced is stiffer than if it had been made from a knitted wool sweater.

Another felt crafting option is knitting items with wool yarn and then felting them in the wash until the felt fabric is formed and the item is the appropriate size. You must keep in mind that when something is knit and felted that the item will become quite a bit smaller and thicker as a result of the felting process. There are many good books with great patterns on this subject. And many free patterns available online as well. Also of course the same kind of results can be had with crocheting with wool as well.

More Felt Fun

I really do enjoy the quick nature of these little felted projects. They are very satisfying, and I managed to finish up working on this one during my weekend trip to Calgary. I have patterns from a Japanese crafting book to make these little covers for small round measuring tapes, but had seen some done on another Blog (Moonstitches) and liked that they were done in felt. No need for sewing, just a lot of blanket stitching. This little measuring tape is now making it's way down south for a birthday swap through swapbot. The measuring tape itself is just from the dollar store and is the kind that you squeeze in the centre to retract the tape. I've made only two of these so far, but have liked the way they turned out. The rest of the gift is pictured below. I hope she likes it:) If any one is interested, I can add the instructions for the tape measure covers . Just leave a comment if you are. It's a beautiful day in my neighbourhood today......I hope it's the same in yours!

Little Felt Birds

Here is another felt project which is fairly quick and cute. The project is made for another swapbot swap. The instructions for the swap were to create a felt Christmas ornament, and this months theme was birds. I had already made a cardinal pattern which I'd found on the internet (see previous post) but as my partners favourite colour list did not include red, I wanted to try something else and this is the result. I've got a few more on the go now and will likely finish them slightly different as I go along. The pink one in the photo is the one being sent to my partner. Below is the pattern sheet just in case you'd like to give it a try. Just click on it to enlarge and print your own copy.

Three Down and Three to GO

That's three knit felted purses completed! I think I've liked this one the best so far. This one is black and is lined with a purple oriental design satin. I pondered this one a lot before I actually sat down to finish this one off. For me, the finishing, particularly the decoration of the front of the bag, is always a challenge. Maybe more so in this case as I wanted to keep to just black and not introduce any other colour. Also it seemed to the perfect fit for this Vintage coat button that's been wasting away in my button jar. I'm happy to have found a project to use it on.....Really like that button. Boy, I should really get out more...... I ended up trying to mirror the theme of the inside fabric....branches with blossoms, on the outside of the bag. My initial plan was to do the embroidery work in black floss but that did not work out for me as the black bins were picked clean at the opening of the new Michael's store here. It turned out to be a happy misfortune as the closest colour I could find was a dark charcoal, and...I think.....it turned out better than black. Had I more creative embroidery abilities, I would have tried for more of a cherry blossom, but lazy daisies will have to do for now. All in all, a very satisfying knit and felt project. Today it is in the mail on it's way to Paris to a new home. Now, only three more bags sit waiting for completion....one dark brown, one ecru, and one??? If you'd like to make one of these bags see previous post for the link to MagKnits.