The Three Little Bears

These little cuties have arrived at their new home so it is safe to blog about them.  This is a website special order and the customer stated what colours to use and I added the flower details and some eye lashes to make two of the bears look more girlie.
This time I decided to add one of my labels to each bear.

I tried to match the pockets and the flower together.  i just love the red spotty buttons.

This bear was lucky enough to get flower shaped buttons!

I shall be adding these examples to my website to show other colour and design combinations.  There is also a pinafore design but it is the dungarees that are the most popular.
Happy Christmas Guy's and enjoy your new home.
xx

Felt Teddy bears - work in progress

I mentioned last month how traffic and orders on my website has increased a little recently and I thought I would feature some of my latest work in progress.  They are not a surprise for anyone who visits this blog so I am not ruining anything.

Ready to be stitched and stuffed.  Love the faces.

A wardrobe in the the making.

Lots of felty fun, love making felt softies!

Take care all

xx

Web Shop Update

I have just added to following to my website.

 Beaded Keyring - £3.00

 Felt and brad Keyring - £3.00

Custom Made mini ipad dust cover - £10.00

Further details can be found HERE.

Back later with Sketchbook Sunday.

xx

Felt Keyrings go to a new home!

 To continue my website interest I sent these colourful key rings off to a new owner at the weekend.

They will have a specific job to do which will be to look after two sets of keys for two holiday cottages so that the sets can to told apart from each other.

I made the green one to order as I had in fact sold the original just before the website order and due to its new job I made the keyring a little larger at the same time.

I have put aside two more that I have made  and will list these this week but I can make these to order very easily.   You could even email a design and I will do my bet to copy it for you. I also have three bags, two of which are what I call "sample bags" which are to test out an idea or pattern so they will be sold at a lowwer rate to reflect that.  They are one-offs and nothing wrong with them, however, they may not have stiffening or lots of think interfacing so that are more of a soft bag but ideal for travelling and they iron easily if yo want to.

I have nearly finished a Christmas swap, just trying to get some fur!  Then I have another commission request to follow up.

I love this, making items for others to enjoy.  I have even managed to make to Christmas presents this year already.  I said that I as hoping to find some work-life balance this academic year and I think I ma gradually getting there.

It is not affecting my job as I have have just flown through my performance management review as well!

Have a good week.

xx

Pocket Lockets - Opam

I have used the book above a lot over the past few years with my Textiles Club.  I have chosen projects out of and so have the students. The project shown here is my latest from this book and we made them a couple of years ago so I have I decided that it was time for another go.

So whilst waiting for my commission to go ahead I made the above and it is called a Pocket Locket using felt and ribbon.

The instructions are really clear and there are quite a few examples to get the ideas flowing.

There are templates at the back of the book and it does not take up very much felt at all.  The colour combinations are endless and the odd unwanted button could also be added to include another skill.

So this is my example to show my group and I intend on the students making a couple of these, one for their locker key and one as a present.

There are so many ideas in this book.  This is where the idea for Hoot and Toot came from.  It is available on Amazon and well worth a look if you have a young crafter in your house.

Take care

xx

Felt Notebook - Commission- Opam August

Whilst visiting my sister in law I received an order via my website. Part of that order was a applique felt notebook with the initial "S" on it.  Every made to order item is slightly different as that is the intention and when a customer says these are the colours, but I shall leave the rest to you it is even better.  I would not send off anything that I would not want to receive myself.

I had all of the materials I needed and really enjoyed making this and did not get up again until it was done!

I enjoyed the hand embroidery and took ages selecting the button colour combination.  Once done I was really pleased with it.

It has now been sent off along with this......

This was already in stock but sadly I no longer have any more of this fabric, so I will need to make up some new ones with different fabric.  They are spacious with a mother of pearl button and ribbon loop.

The rest of the order includes more made to order items which need further quotes as they are not featured on the website and are needed for December ( trying to avoid using a certain word, it is after all still August!)  I shall post about these once they are done , need to get my hand working first.

Any of the above can be ordered, the books are easy, just tell me what colours and the initial, can have more than one letter if needed.  We all agree before anything is started, just email, but not until September as it is likely to take 2-3 weeks before I can sew neat enough for a customer!

I have needed a sleep is afternoon, those painkillers knock you sideways a bit but I managed to help Hubby with the weekly shop as I wanted some fresh air.  He is away for a couple of days, so easy meals for one hand and the assistance of an 11 year old needed. 

She did a really good job with my sling today.

Have a great evening and thank you all so much for your kind comments left here and your personal emails sent. They do lift the spirits especially after a bad night.

Take care.

XX

Le Challenge -June -SMALL

I originally knitted a little mouse for this challenge before I went away to Spain.  Got back at the weekend and do you think that I can find it?   NO!

So I have made another little felt cat.  I made one of these a couple of years ago to go on a card commission for a friend.

This pound coin shows roughly the size of the little cat.  The knitted mouse would have been even smaller but that might be part of the reason why I can not find it.

Ages ago I bought this book about making characters out of felt and I intend to have a go at several projects over the summer and have them as badges to put on cards which do not need to be sent.

There are templates and the characters to choose from are really cute.

Off to add this to the Le Challenge website.

Take care all.

xx

PS

My tutor group won the end of term award for earning the most merits.  It is the first time since they joined two years ago that we have won and they really did not think that they would be any higher than 5th.  The looks on theirs faces was a picture, so we are off to the cinema on Friday morning as a reward.

xx
PPSS.  Can not upload to Le Challenge webaite to I will have to retake the pictures and try again tomorrow if you are wondering why you can not see it there.

Mollie Makes - Felty Fortune - OPAM August

I have been asked by a lot of students to go back to a weekly Textiles Club after school.  Last year I tried just having workshops that students could sign up to, these were popular but the desire to have something more became apparent.  So I have been spending time finding a range of little projects for them.

I looked through all of my Mollie Makes and found a cute little project, it is in issue 22.

Felt fortune cookies.

Sophie caught sight of what I was up to so we both sat down and set to work.

Very little felt is needed and the templates can be found on the Mollie Makes website.  They suggested that you use fabric to write your fortune cookie message.  I found that actually using paper might be easier for the students to write on and you can still stitch through it.

The hardest bit proved to be the stage when you shape it into a cookie and stitch to keep it in place.  Managed it in the end and with a bit of manipulation of the stuffing you do get what you want.  We used a range of ribbon, I used some that came with an earlier issue of Mollie Makes, but got it upside down, Doh!  So I shall use plain or pattern ribbon with the students.  I also tried one with an Indigo Blue label as well.

I am going to keep this idea and use it when it is the Chinese New Year and look up which animal the students are for the year they were born and other facts.  We did have fun making these, they do not take long and do not use much in the way of materials.

I have a few more projects lined up so I may add a new page at the top of this blog and post some pictures of any of the students work there as well.

Have fun and take care all.

xx

Finally Finished! - OPAM June

You may remember last week that I had started this little kit to only find that some important bits were missing.  Well now we are home and after several loads of washing and sorting out holiday bags I managed to replace the missing components...................

Some buttons from my collection and a scrap of orange felt saw this little fellow finally finished. I was not really sure about putting the hanging loop of ribbon on.  He looked at home in this small tree in my garden.

Hi little tail could now be fully attached as well.

His little bow tie just under his chin (if he had one) completes the stylish look of my new little owl softie.  My first OPAM finish for June.
He is now sitting on my white dresser looking very much at home.

We have had a lovely day.  The sky has been a bright blue, sun all day and warm to boot.  I had some work to do and completed it outside on the decking with a cup of tea!
Have a good week everyone.
xx

Felt Owl Kit - OPAM May 2013

I bought this kit last week along with another so that Sophie and I had something to make whilst on holiday.  Especially on any rainy days.

So yesterday I started said kit and followed to step by step instructions......then I found out that I had both buttons missing as well as the beak!  So the Owl will have to wait until iget home before I can finish him.  Hopefully Sophie will have better luck.  You would not find yourself in that situation with anything that I sell and I have had kits in my Etsy shop in the past.

Ohhh the disappointment!

xx

Cute Felt Kitty - OPAM May 2013

Gosh, I am on a roll this month!!

Another quick OPAM make with felt, which is one of my favourite fabrics to work in.  I have made one of these before ages and ages ago.

This little kitty is just the right size for a brooch or may be a keyring.

Cute kitty is too padded to put on the front of a card.  I am too old to make Cute Kitty into a hair slide (young at heart of course).

So, any ideas as to how I could develop Cute kitty here?

Fun to make and I was really pleased with the expression I managed to achieve with the hand stitching.

Take care all

xx

Chubby Bird Softies - OPAM March

At Christmas, (Oh it seems like an age ago) I took part in the Chooky Blue Christmas swap and I was lucky enough to receive a great parcel from Jan at Little Red Hen.

Inside the parcel were many gorgeous hand made loveliness including a pattern craft card to make the little fella below...........

 Meet..........Chubby Bird.  Made out of light blue and white felt.  He is a lovely full round shape, a bit like a tennis ball!  I will confess to deciding to enlarge the templates as they looked a bit too small........however, I may have enlarged them a bit too much as he really is quite big.

French knot eyes and detailing on his chubby tummy and a fun beak pointing skyward.

See what I mean about being rather round!  He is great though and Sophie soon spotted him sitting on the windowsill in the living room.

I think that he will be a regular around the house and may find himself in a certain little girls bedroom, but for now he will be spending Easter with us.

It has been a glorious day here in Cornwall and we even managed a few hours out in the garden today.

Have a great weekend.

xx

A lovely Thank You!

This term we have had two lovely trainee's working with us and on Friday it was their last day and now they move on to their second placement.  School terms are always very long, busy and exhausting for all concerned and this term has been no different.
Trainee 1 is a Textiles specialist with Product Design as a second area.  Trainee 2 is the opposite way round.
Trainee two has some how found the time to make a gift for those of us that she worked with as a Thank You............

There is a lovely heart shaped bead with tiny little flowers on it and a few other beads scattered just below.

Hand made felt purple felt with machining in the centre.

On the back is a tiny brooch clip and it goes well with sooooo many tops that I have.  In fact I am wearing it right this minute with a lilac jumper.
Trainee 1 must have spent ages hand cutting a lovely card which I have hung up on my classroom which says Thank You with a contrast colour behind it.  Very cleverly done.
I wish both of our lovely trainee's all the best for their next placement.  I am very sorry to see them go, it has been a lot of fun working together.
Trainee 1 has made a giant start on the school production costumes and when the show starts we want to both go and see our efforts on stage.  I now need to finish off the rest of the costume needs.
I am the only Textiles teacher and it can get a bit lonely working on your own for much of the day  so it has been a breath of fresh air to have another keen and like-minded enthusiast to work along side!
Take care
xx

Woven Felt Heart Tutorial

A little tutorial for a simple woven felt heart in time for Valentines Day.  I have seen these around blogland so I cannot claim to have come up with this idea.  This is just my take on it.

I have not yet got the template sorted out but I will, however, I thought you might like to see the instructions.

Using the above shape cut 2 out in red felt.  Making sure that the slits are the same length.

 They should look like this.

You then need to interlock the two shapes together by weaving the sections under and over each other.  A few pins here and there might help to keep it all in place and not slipping around.

You now need to stitch the weaving together  to give it strength and stop it from coming apart.  At this stage you can start to decorate you heart as much as you like.  I used white embroidery thread and running stitch through the layers.

I then added some pink heart buttons, but you could use any buttons that you like or perhaps beads or sequins.

In-between the button squares I added some double white cross stitch embroidery, again in white thread.

I laid the finished heart onto some spotty felt fabric and cut out the back of the heart and pinned them together.  This time I decided to use matching red thread to go around the outside.  

At the top I added a loop of red and white spotty ribbon and stitched this in as I went around the heart shape.  I left a small gap and added stuffing to the heart until it was quite firm and had a good shape.

This is the spotty back.

Hung up on my kitchen which is also red and white.

A little make for Valentine's Day which is ideal for creating in the evenings.

Took about 1.5 hours to make.

Hope you enjoy making this and let me know in the comments if a template would be useful or not and I shall add it to this post.

xx