Felt keychain

First things first, note to self:  Never announce a giveaway unless you have already made the item and done the tutorial and have them ready to post!!!  Before life gets in the way...  Yeesh.

Here is a quickie post while I can squeeze in 5 mins between bathing kids.  This is a felt keychain I made my niece as part of a birthday present (even if I can't get the whole present made I usually like to add in something handmade).  I was inspired by these by Aisyah over at My Tinker Space (she has loads of great tutorials and crochet patterns and other stuff - go check her out!).  I have seen these around the traps quite a bit and used these cute ribbon offcuts to inspire my felt circle colours.  This was super easy and I love doing the handstitching around the circles.  So relaxing to me. I really like how this one turned out but am not 100% happy with the proportions so will try another one as well.

Ric rac dahlia hairclips

I saw these absolutely GORGEOUS ric rac dahlia's over at my blogosphere friend, LoLo's, blog awhile ago and have been dying to try it out.  Problem is, all I have is one teeny little bit of ric rac (less than 1m).  So, I decided to make life difficult for myself and make teeny little dahlia's for hairclips.  Honestly, they weren't too bad but I am sure bigger ones wouldn't be so fiddly.  Also, I am pretty sure my ric rac is poly cotton and not as nice and soft as 100% cotton so that made it a bit trickier too.  Anyway, despite that, I am really happy with how these turned out!  It was hard to get a staggered effect so I kind of lost the actual 'dahlia' effect a bit but all in all it still worked fine.  I love the effect of using a patterned ric rac too.  I will be making a large one for a brooch for myself as soon as I get access to some more.

Here is the back.  I added a felt circle that I cut slits into, put onto my hairclips and then glued and stitched onto the back of the ric rac dahlia.

Also, I just noticed that I have made my century in followers (cricketing reference for people who know anything about cricket) so, to celebrate and say thanks, I think I will hold a giveaway in the next couple of days.  Stay tuned!

Easiest cushion cover ever

I love this method of making cushion covers.  It is dead easy and so satisfying to whip them up in ten to twenty minutes.  No zippers or buttonholes either.  That is always a good thing!  Please excuse the bad lighting in these photos - it was just one of those days with weird patchy cloud cover and I didn't have time to wait for the exact right lighting for each shot.

Firstly, I just cut out a length of fabric a little bit wider than my cushion insert and long enough to wrap around with an overlap of about 10cm (4in).

Then I finished off the short ends with an ironed, folded and stitched hem.  Actually, one of my hems was a selvedge so I ended up only doing one.

Then I wrapped it around the cushion firmly with the right side facing in, pinned the overlap and slid the cushion insert out so I had the correct sizing.  I overlapped it so that my finished hem would be on the outside once it was turned inside out.  If you hem both ends this won't matter so much.

Then you just stitch the sides up.  I prefer to use an overlocker for this step but I don't have access to one where I am so I just stitched it normally.  Ha ha, look how wonky my fabric is.  I pre-washed this fabric and it went a bit twisty when it dried - not sure how that happened.  Anyway, once it is stretched over a cushion insert it doesn't matter.

Then you are done, just turn it inside out and put your insert inside.  This is how it looks from the front and back.

I cannot wait until we move to somewhere near some decent fabric shops so I can redo these in some funky fabric instead of brown!  Not that there is anything wrong with brown but it is just not me really.  I am a colour girl through and through...

Sharpie softies

Here is the Easter Sunday craft I did with Princess E, oops, I mean, 'Sport-E' (a change of name has been requested as she never did like princesses much....I think I will go with Sporty Girl instead).

We made Sharpie softies.  This idea has been around for ages I know but this is our first attempt at it.  I tried to interest Lord A in this activity but he wasn't feeling the vibe.  Maybe another day.

We just drew with coloured Sharpie's on white cotton, placed it face down on some backing fabric, stitched around the general image (remembering to leave a hole for the stuffing to go through), stuffed them and I stitched up the hole.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.  Sporty Girl has asked to do them again after school today so I am very happy to oblige.  She has been on a crafting hiatus which has been most distressing for me!  All attempts at forcing encouraging her to craft with me have fallen flat.  I was worried it had something to do with a few crafting sessions ending in being a less than bonding experience shall we say.....

Felt, bead and button hair clip

There is really no limit to what you can put on these hairclips is there?  Well, ok, for you clarifiers out there (you know who you are!), you couldn't put a horse on there..... (a little horsey button though.....)

This is a really simple little clip and I always love things that are simple in style and I love them even more when they are simple to do as well.  So, you will need, a couple of circles of felt, a fun beady thing (or just a larger button or another circle of felt) and a button.  Oh, and a needle and thread, a hair clip and some glue.

Stack everything up and stitch through the whole lot securing the button.

Stitch a running stitch around the smaller piece of felt to hold it together and to add a nice little detail.

When you are finished, glue them to your hairclips.  Too easy.

Then borrow someone's adorable curly haired daughter to model them on (when own daughter downright refuses - the cheek!)!

Sock owl no. 1

 

I saw this very cute tutorial over at Whimsy Loft (via Whip Up) and felt like some calming hand sewing so decided to do one straight away myself.  I didn't have a large sock to use so I have made a miniature version out of a toddler sock.  So easy and all the kids (we had a group at our house today) loved him.  I plan on making a bunch of them with any of my holey or lonely socks now (which is why this post is titled 'no.1') so I can give use them as gift/stocking fillers etc.  I need to go and raid Princess E's sock drawer for any old pink socks.  I am feeling the need for a pink one too.  I am such a girl.

Lined felt storage basket - quick and easy!

 

I got the idea for this from some little girls' handbags my sister made a number of years ago for a market stall we were running.  We have a few leftover that are still in storage at our Mum's house and, whilst I was visiting over Christmas, I was trying to think of a way to reinvent them.  So I thought of removing the handles and lining them to make little storage baskets.  I actually forgot to bring the little bags back with me so just used a sheet of craft felt I have here.  These take just one sheet of craft felt and the same amount of fabric.  Craft felt is all I have at the moment but I imagine a whole shelf lined up with ones made of wool felt would be so gorgeous too.  Here is how I made it:

1. Take your sheet of  craft felt and cut out your lining fabric to the same width and just a little longer in length (for the folded over stitched lining look).

2. Fold both in half (fabric right sides together) and stitch up both sides.

3. Open them both out, mark a stitch line to create your base (I measured it to be 4.5cm in from the point).  Stitch the bases on both the felt and the fabric.  You can make the base on your fabric slightly smaller if you like but it won't make that much difference to the 'fit'.  You can trim those triangles off as well after stitching but I left them on for added sturdiness.

4. Turn your felt inside out so the seams are on the inside.  Place the fabric inside to check the fit.  Fold the excess liner over twice towards the outside of the felt so it is sitting snugly around the top.

5. Take the lining out and iron this so it sits neatly while you are sewing it on.

6.  This is where I deviated from my original idea of just felt and lining and decided a cute little label holder would spruce it up nicely.  This needs to be stitched on before the liner.  I was winging this part so I just cut out a base of felt and a slightly larger piece of my lining fabric.

7.  I then butchered my fabric in the middle and folded it over the felt and stitched it down around the inset and then folded the outside around and stitched that down close to the outside edge.  If I hadn't been so impatient to see the end result I would have done this a lot neater!!  Just ignore that bit.....  As a side note, I used a felt core for this because the lining fabric is so lightweight but I like the end 'quilted' result anyway.

8. I then stitched this on around the sides and the bottom edge (leaving the top edge open to slot the label in).  Fit your lining back into the felt and stitch around the top edge securing the lining to the felt.  I cut out a rectangle from some clear plastic packaging and slotted that in to protect the label as well.

Then you can fill it with bits and bobs in your child's room and admire your handiwork.

(and make a mental note not to rush so much next time and get the seams straight!)

Six ways with felt flowers

I have been having a lot of fun making felt flowers recently and thought I would show you 6 different ways you can use them too. I have more ideas as well so may do another post in a little while with more suggestions.

1. Stick them to the end of a pencil for a cute little pencil cup garden.

2. Attach to a hairclip for a little (or not so little) girl.

3. Attach to an elastic band to put around a gift box like my previous post.

4. Glue to a gift tag.

5. Attach to a jumbo paper clip for keeping papers together or as a bookmark.

6. Glue to a paper covered clothespin (you could add a strong magnet to the back of the clothespin too).

Happy felt flower making!

Flower Gift Box Band Tutorial

This idea came from an elastic band that came around a pair of socks, believe it or not. I have the habit of keeping items with the thought that I will think of a use for them someday (instead of throwing it away). Anyway, I was mucking around with the elastic one day and trying to think of ideas when a little empty gift box just happened to be sitting there too so I was happy to find that it fit the box perfectly. Now I just wanted to cover up the printed details so I turned it inside out and attached a large felt flower to it. Best of all, this is a gift box with decoration that can be reused over and over (at least I hope the people who will potentially receive it will do just that).

I have created a tutorial for it so please click below for your copy:

Flower Gift Box Band

I have to also give credit to Martha for learning how to make these felt flowers. The original instructions were in the Kids magazine (Winter/Spring 2003) and were very clear. I have done my own instructions only because she doesn't have the same clear pictures on her website - just written ones. Anyway, thanks Martha, for the original tutorial! (I doubt very much Martha invented these flowers but that is where I learnt them from so just wanted to give due credit).

No-sew fringed cushion cover tutorial

This has to be the easiest cushion cover you will ever make. I remember seeing the instructions for this from a project sheet from my local Spotlight store in Brisbane (Australia) I think many years ago. Anyway, here is how you can do it! This is a great quick project for a teen or younger too. There are some great polar fleece prints out there. (forgive the less than stellar lighting for my photos - very rainy day here today)

All you need is your cushion insert, some polar fleece and a pair of scissors.

I just eyeballed my measurements but you need to lay out a double thickness of the polar fleece and cut out a generous band around your cushion. Of course, you could make yourself a pattern after measuring your cushion and working out what length you want for fringing but I went for quick and cheerful today (especially with a 3 yr old in tow) and just eyeballed it. The end result doesn't really need such careful measuring.

After you cut around your cushion, cut out each of the four corners (like so)....

and cut the remaining sides into strips.

Separate your two layers and put the cushion inside.

Match up your side lengths of fringe and tie each pair of them (twice) up close to the cushion. Just do this all the way around and then you have your fringed edge cushion with not a needle in sight! I quite like a long fringe but just experiment with the length you want. You can always trim them off after you have finished if they are a bit long for your liking.