Never enough felt...

I admittedly already own a lot of felt. Something about seeing "4 for $1" makes me grab various felts at a manic speed. I must have every color! I must have 4 of every color!! When a multiple of something only costs $1 you undoubtedly end up with a lot of it. (Ahem, I have about 50 matchbooks from the dollar store, what a steal!) I'm sure there's some underlying issue with me being felt and $1 bargain obsessed, but that's for another discussion.

My only real complaint about these cheap felts is the color selection. If it's not neon, it's dull. There are not many uses for hot pink felt, not in my world at least. So when I decided to make those felt "bows" that Anthropologie was using I was already trying to figure out how I could possibly make them look good with the color selection I already own. Answer: I couldn't.

I've been eyeing some fabrics and felts over at Heather Bailey's online fabric store and finally broke down and bought some sheets of felt. These are the colors I decided to purchase: Pistachio, Vanilla, and Cherry Pie.

(Images from Heather Bailey's Online Shop)

I just received them in the mail today and the colors are perfect. The colors that you see online and pretty much the colors that you will get. The only downside is that it costs $2.25 for a 9"x12" sheet. That makes my heart hurt a little bit. She's offering felt bundles now, but they cost $10.50 for 5 sheets...that's only a 75 cent savings. I like her bundles with the exception of the green bundle that has 4 awesome colors (Pea Soup, Evergreen, Fairy Pool, and Pistachio) and one color that I would rather do without (Ginger Root). Still...75 cents? That's the best savings you can give me? At least make it 5 for $10 and save me $1.25. The odds of me wanting all the colors in a bundle are slim, so I might as well cough up the extra 75 cents and get exactly the colors that I want.

Oh well. At least for now I'm thrilled with the colors that I bought and I'm happy with the quality of the felt. I would definitely buy from Heather Bailey again...but be aware that it's going to cost you. Here's hoping for some holiday coupons.

-Meg

Finally!

It's been a long time coming, but I finally finished the elephant square pillow/plush that I was working on. Behold!

This little guy (8"x8"x8") took me longer than I thought it would, but I also wasn't constantly working on it. In fact, there were many moments when I could have been working on it, but didn't. Then with the whole ear debacle, the project just kept dragging on and on.

So on a very laid back Saturday night I began the finishing stitches - I added the eyes and closed up the face. I like when the animals don't have mouths and as you can see this little guy doesn't have one.

Of course, none of my projects ever turn out 100% perfect, but I think these imperfections give the pieces some character. Notice the wobbly side of his face and if you saw a straight on shot of him you would notice that his ears are not quite even.

That's not too terrible, right?

 

What a little darling!

Also, I suppose I could have made his trunk a little larger. Oh well! Am I the only one who has project mishaps?

Longer than I thought...

This elephant plush/pillow is taking forever! I've got the square sewed together and the nose on, but when I went to put the ears on I realized that I had made them too small. So, I have to redo them. Almost done though, so close!

Here's something pretty to look at while you wait:

This is a table that my very good friend and roommate, Joey Henrichs, made. The top is made from old barn siding that's been stained dark and the legs are old barn remnants that have been planed down, painted white, and distressed. He is an amazing furniture maker. Love love love.

Also, a friend got a gift from Anthropologie yesterday and look at the lovely bow the store put on the box for her:

This looks fairly easy to duplicate. Those are about  1 1/2" felt circles with two small cuts in the center with the ribbon threaded through. I love cute packaging. I think I'll be using this for my Christmas gifts this year.

-Meg

just for fun....

Browsing the usual sites today I came across these free downloads. Although they are simple silhouettes, I already started to ponder what I could do with them. I would love to put a bold red frame around the image of the girl on a bike. The whimsical rabbit would make a wonderful card or wall decal on a child’s bedroom wall. And with the holidays coming around the deer in a winter setting would make a great card or wrapping paper decoupage.  Enjoy!  -Julie

P.S. Please share any of your thoughts or ideas on what to do with the free downloads....

Something I've been working on...

It's not quite finished, but it's been so long since we've posted anything that I figured I'd give you an update. Over at How About Orange last week, Jess posted about some tutorials for small, soft, and cute things and I was instantly enamored with the felt rabbit keychain. Obviously, I couldn't resist because it was handsewn and felt - 2 of my favorite things.

I didn't want to make a rabbit though, and I especially didn't want to make a keychain because I certainly don't need any more things to carry around. So I was thinking about what I could do and how I could warp the idea into something that I really wanted. Easily enough I decided that I wanted to make an elephant pillow/stuffed animal in the style of that felt rabbit.

First I traced a square outline on some gray felt to give me 6 squares (5 darker gray and 1 lighter gray for the stomach).

Then I cut out two small strips of dark gray felt and sewed them together, stuffed a little bit of filling inside, clip the ends to fray it, and sewed it onto the felt square that would make up the rear of the elephant.

Now I'm sewing all my squares together, but I still have to make the face, ears, and trunk.

Here's my progress thus far:

I'm hoping to finish this soon, within the next day or two, so I'll let you know how it goes. - Meg