Category Archives: I Really Love Felt

All is Well

Somedays, you have to let yourself improv with your creativity. I found this yellow chevron-print fabric in the scrap section of the fabric store, and I decided it needed to be a background for something. Yellow is not my go-to color, but occasionally, I try to bring some bright colors into my life. To compliment it, I went to the default: felt.

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I knew I wanted to use the phrase, but the idea for the flowers just came to me. I played around with cutting out different sizes and using different colors, but I think I was smart to keep it simple and use two different flowers.

Once the felt was sewn on, I mounted the fabric to a flat canvas. Using clear packaging tape, I wrapped the fabric around the board and taped it down on the back.

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A Felt Christmas

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Merry Christmas Eve!! My parents gave me an old Christmas tree they had to use in my house in Birmingham, but when school let out, I brought it home to decorate my wing of the house (aka the basement).

So with a blank slate, I naturally pulled out some felt.

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I freehanded each piece. I wish I could give you a template, but the project began on a whim, thinking I could use them as gift tags. Quickly, one or two ordaments turned into twenty.

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To add additional decorations to the tree, I created a very simple paper garland to wrap the tree in. I purchased some Christmas scrapbooking paper and used a punch to make all of the circles.

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Using a sewing machine creates a very easy process. Simply slipping each circle under the sewing foot as the machine feeds it through. Once you get the rhythm, you’ll have 6-feet of garland before you know it.

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The final step (and the best step) is taking everything you have made and adding it to the tree.

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And there you have it. A tree so simple, you could create it the day before!

From my family to yours – I wish you a very crafty Christmas!!

The Colors of Fall (and Felt)

With Christmas only days away, I realize how late this post is. (But better late than never, I like to say) For Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to change up our family’s traditional table setting with a new table runner. And of course, the material of choice was felt.

I printed off different leaf templates and used them as stencils to cut the felt leaves. I stuck with five colors (brown, light green, dark green, yellow and dark red). I then cut a long rectangle out of white muslin – the base of the table runner. I used black embroidery thread to attach the leaves to the muslin by sewing the views of the leaves.

Once all the leaves were attached, I cut another rectangle of fabric and sewed the two pieces together (placing right sides together and sewing with a 1/2 inch allowance). The finished product is simply adorable, and it looked great on our Thanksgiving table.

Extra note: At each plate setting, I cut out more leaves on cardboard paper and wrote Bible verses on each. The napkins were tied together with the same ribbon I used in the table runner complimented by a nice sprig of rosemary.

Another school project

Junior year of college brought about another “creative” project. This time around it was for a grammar class. The basic idea was to pick a medium (book, song lyrics, magazine, etc) and find different types of sentences or sentence transformations in it. I picked my favorite book of the summer, Water for Elephants. And though the “creative” side of the project only counted 10 points towards the total, I couldn’t help but go all out.

I call it a banner. The main character in the book first realizes he has joined the circus when he sees a sign reading, “Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth.” I found a font at dafont.com and used it as a template to cut the letters out of felt.

  

The rest was made with scrap fabric. I hand stitched the felt letters to my main piece of white cotton. Then I used fabric to make little pockets. I somehow had to incorporate the different sentences into my creative project, so I made put each sentence on a card – the pockets hold the cards.

       

And since I love having details, each pocket contains cards with a certain theme. Like above, popcorn bag = snacks. (Others = animals, performers, freaks and trains)

   

The good news, I got all ten of those points. If only you could major in arts and crafts.

Urban Outfitters-Inspired Felt Wall Art

They say copying someone is the greatest form of flattery. In this case, it’s to show that an item can be wildly over priced. I found this wall art on urbanoutfitters.com. Their price was $59 – I was able to reproduce it for only $6.

All I needed was a 1/2 yard of fabric, 3 sheets of felt and some embroidery thread. First, I cut out the letters using paper to act as a template (so I don’t waste any fabric).

   

Next, I simply attached the felt letters to the back fabric using a blanket stitch.

I’m Seeing Green: Indie Ladies Step Sing

The longest running Samford tradition is in full swing, and it would be an understatement to say that Step Sing is sort-of taking over my life. I will admit the crafting has not been very active, but I’m hoping after today’s trip to Hobby Lobby, things will turn around. (Now I’ll just need to find some spare time.)

In the midst of the craziness, I have been doing projects here and there, but of course, they are all Step Sing related. And being in the Independent Ladies’ show, everything is looking green (aka our official color).

First project – I volunteered to decorate our show’s bucket we use to collect donations for the show’s charity. And of course, with limited time and a limited budget, I fell back on good ol’ felt.

I created stencils out of basic printing paper before cutting the felt. And then, to give the letters a little sparkle, I used glittery, green felt as the background. (Note – I usually despise glitter (it gets everywhere), but I really wanted the letters to pop! So I guess the sacrifice was worth it).

Once the letters were done, I glued them onto the bucket that was already adorned with camo felt. The one problem I did not anticipate was the size of the letters. If I could do this again, I would most definitely make the letters smaller so you could read the whole thing without having to spin the bucket, but oh well. It’s done and I think it turned out cute.

Project #2: Indie Ladies flag

I literally made this flag in 30 minutes, so I wasn’t surprised that after two waves, the white fabric began to fray. But the important thing is that it’s green and it boldly displays our letters. I bought an American flag at Walmart, and after gently removing the flag, I used the stick for my own.

And finally: Encouragement baskets for a few of the other shows.

And yes, I did make a special trip to Publix to purchase green bags. What can I say, I’ve been seeing green more and more everyday. If you are in the Birmingham area next weekend (Feb. 10-12), you should definitely try to catch a Samford Step Sing show. It’s going to be amazing!

For a cozier passport

You really can make anything out of felt. My sister-in-law’s birthday was this week, and my parents knew they wanted to give her money but they wanted to add little something to go with it. That’s when the idea for a felt passport holder popped in my head. Now, if I could make it again, I would make some changes, but for a project that took me a few hours to make, I was super happy with the results.

I took my passport and a leather passport holder that I already owned as a stencil. I used a disappearing ink pen for dark fabrics to make the outline.

Though I took this picture right before I sewed it all together, it shows the steps that led me up to this point. I cut out fabric for the left and right sleeves. Then I top stitched the edges. (Plus I added a little personalized touch with an embroidered name.)

I used felt to cut out the tree, and I simply hand sewed it down. For the flowers, I cut out a little felt circle then embroidered a dot at the center at each one.

After pinning everything in place, I sewed everything together. It didn’t turn out perfect, but I like that it looked obviously homemade.

A Wreath of Felt Flowers

Days like these (when you’re snowed in and have nothing to do) are excellent craft days. And even when the snow covers the ground, flowers can still bloom.

Felt flowers are super simple to make. To make enough to fit on this wreath, I simply bought a half a yard of white felt. Cut out the felt using a CD as a stencil, and then cut the circle into a spiral. To create the flower, simply roll up the spiral, starting from the outside. Once rolled up, use a dot of hot glue on the final flap to secure it in place.

Easy! For my wreath, I wanted different sized flowers so I cut a spiral in half to make two smaller flowers instead of just one. Once the flowers were made, I simply used a hot glue gun to glue the flowers onto the wreath.

I keep my [felt] hearts on a string

With my new sewing machine, I’ve been waiting for something to inspire me. Playing around, I sewed together a heart, and the idea hit me – hearts of a string.

With 2 squares of off-white felt, quilt backing, gold thread and grey yarn, I made this project in about an hour.

I liked this project because it doesn’t have to be perfect. My first heart was far from having an even seam, so I sewed another stitch and the imperfectness made it look really cute!

I’m thinking with some pink and red felt, this project will make the perfect Valentine’s Day decor!

(And shout out to the birthday girl and my friend who received these hearts – Carmen! It’s just a small token of how much your friendship means to me.)