What to do with Scraps of Felt, Part I: Make a Snazzy Brooch

I work with felt a lot, and being my mother's daughter, I save the scraps. Almost every scrap. Consequently, I have bags and bags of scraps that I've been trying to figure out how I might use creatively. One thing I came up with, quite by accident while sewing other things this past weekend, is to make brooches. I'm still experimenting a little with technique, so the following how-to will include a a couple of different ones, broadly identified as "glue" and "sew."

Materials

You will need:

• Scraps of felt
• Needle and thread (or embroidery floss---I've got lots of scraps of that, too)
• Scissors
• Fabric glue
• Pin-backs

Steps

Find a piece of felt big enough to cut into two equal pieces of the size brooch you want. These will serve as the front and back of your brooch. Lay the two pieces out with the "right" (fuzzier-softer) side facing up. Pick one to use as the front side of the brooch.

Decorate this base piece of felt with additional pieces of felt. Maybe throw on a few beads is you have them. Have fun! One of the fun things about using felt for this is the ability to layer it to dimensional effect. The more layers of felt (and whatever else you put on), the more dimension your brooch will have.

For these first few brooches I just used different sizes, shapes and colors of felt. In the first brooch (below), I glued the shapes on, and in the second one I sewed them.

If you're sewing your decorative bits, you might try using contrasting colors of thread or embroidery floss for additional pizzaz.

If you're gluing your decorative bits, be careful not to press them onto the base piece with too much pressure at first. Felt is porous so the wet glue will seep through and dampen the fuzzy-softness of the surface. As the glue dries you can give them another pat or two to ensure they stick well.

Now for the back side of the brooch. If you're sewing, position an open pin back in the center of the back piece of felt. Hold onto it tightly and sew. The kind of pin-back I used has holes on it like a button, and I sewed it like a button, pulling the thread in-between the holes down the length of the pin-back. I also sewed around each hole on either end of the pin-back. I've found that with this kind of pin-back, you can't sew it on too securely. If it's not firmly affixed to the felt, it's hard to open and close the pin. (If you're gluing, I suggest putting the pin-back on last, after the following step.)

Now, either sew or glue the front and back sides of the brooch together. If you're sewing, you might still want to squirt a bit of glue in-between the sides (first photo below), both to give the brooch some structure, and to keep it together in case your stitches come undone. It would stink to lose the front of your brooch and be left wearing just the back, especially after all that dimensional layering!

If you're using the "glue" method, now attach the pin-back. Squirt a line of glue onto the back of the brooch and set the pin-back in it.

Allow to dry, affix to a sweater, hat, bag, or what-have-you, and ta-da! A neat accessory---and a few pieces of scrap felt used up!

Until next time --

Linda

PurtyBird

TUTORIAL: Re-purposed recycled felt helping your garden grow: now that's what I call ECO!

It is pretty safe to say that the Alexandra Ferguson studio generates a LOT of felt scraps in the process of manufacturing her collection of applique pillows. So when a local Master Gardener told Charlotte Ferguson (Alexandra's mom, and the brand's Roving Ambassador) about a clever trick to keep her spring seedlings well watered while depleting Alexandra's ever growing stash of scraps....well, it was too good to keep to ourselves.

Follow these easy steps to create your own low-maintenance indoor greenhouse:

1. You will need a panel of felt about 24" x 16". We pieced two smaller panels together to get the right size. I thought it would be fun to use up all the tiny scraps in rainbow colors to create a patchwork, but Charlotte was in a hurry. One quick seam did the trick. You won't see the felt once all the plants are on top of it, so don't worry about making it look beautiful.
2. Using a medium sized waterproof container (we used clear storage bins), place the black trays your plants often come with upside down (shown on left side of photo). The idea is that you need to get about 3" height, so anything you have around the house that would serve that purpose would work as well. Place your felt panel on top of your riser, making sure that the edges of the felt go all the way to the bottom.
3. Pour water into your waterproof container. Soak the felt thoroughly, with about 2" height of water in your tub.
4. Place your trays of seedlings on top of the soaking felt, and you are done! The felt will draw water up from the bottom as the seeds drink, so your seeds will always be perfectly watered and you don't need to do a thing!
Your greenhouse should be placed in a sunny spot indoors. We added a grow light, easily found at Home Depot or your local gardening store for extra oomph.

Two weeks later

To celebrate spring, Alexandra is giving away one of her botanical-themed pillows. Don't have a garden with windows full of seedlings? The 16" "Tulip" pillow in cocoa that she is giving away should more than make up for it! The best part? This flower blooms all year long.


Check out the rest of the alexandra ferguson collection on her etsy site,
www.alexandraferguson.etsy.com including many other floral styles as well as her popular "Pillow Talk" line of sassy words and phrases. Alexandra works exclusively with recycled felt made from plastic water bottles. Every applique shape is meticulously cut by hand and stitched down in her studio based in Westchester County, NY. Just like everything in nature, no two are ever the same!

TO ENTER TO WIN:
You must be a FOLLOWER of this blog. Visit Alex's store HERE. Come back and leave a comment on this post and let us know what your favorite item in her shop was. One entry per person BUT if you twitter, blog, or facebook about this giveaway and leave a link it will give you extra entries.

This giveaway is the last on our series of March Madness giveaways-- It ends Tuesday, April 6th- winner announced on the April 6th blog post. Please scroll for two additional giveaways from the team that will also end April 6.

Bring the Fun of the Fall Cavalcade Home

It’s Sunday and you’ve enjoyed a beautiful day in Beacon, New York snatching up handmade wares from the {NewNew}. The feeling was so good, you want it to last forever. What to do? Make yourself some decorative {NewNew} Fall Handmade Cavalcade trees to enjoy all year long. These would make great wall decorations and can easily be hung anywhere. The steps in this project can also be applied to lots of other shapes - such as pumpkins for Halloween or turkeys for Thanksgiving. Maybe even tiny ones to hang on the Christmas tree?

For this project you need:
Card Stock
Newsprint paper or even an old copy of the NY Times Double-sided tape
Fabric Glue
Scissors/ Rotary blade
Cutting Mat
Colorful Quilting Fabric
Felt to compliment the fabric
Ribbon (we used 1/4" grosgrain)
Awl
Pins
Pencil
Ruler
Cookies and Milk (optional)

Create Your Pattern We made three sizes trees that were 28 inches, 22 inches and 16 inches tall. You can make whatever size suits your needs just keep in mind the final project will be hanging off a ribbon and will add a few inches in length. To make a pattern for the base tree start with the card stock. Take your ruler and measure out the length of your tree and mark the line with a pencil. This is the center axis of your tree. On either the left or right side of this line, draw a 1/2 tree. Cut this shape out. Now trace this shape on another piece of card stock. Flip the 1/2 tree pattern over, align the center axis with the shape you have traced, and trace the other half of the tree. This makes sure that your shape is symmetrical left and right. Once your symmetrical whole tree shape has been cut out, set it aside as this is the base.
Now roll out a section of newsprint paper. Trace your 1/2 tree shape onto the newsprint. Then inside that shape, draw a 1/2 arc that starts and ends along the center axis. It is helpful to do this within a tracing of your base tree so that you don't have to guess size and proportion. Now fold the newsprint along the center axis and cut out your center shape along the line you drew.
One pattern left, the felt trunk pattern. On newsprint again, take your 1/2 tree cardstock and trace just the bottom truck. Flip it over along the center axis to trace the other 1/2 of the trunk. Using a ruler, extend these lines up so that the length is about half of the total height of your tree. Extend branches from this trunk. Cut out your trunk shape and now all the patterns are complete! Take a moment for a pattern happy dance.
Fabric Time! Take the whole tree cardstock base that you cut out and apply double sided tape all along the edges. Stick this to the backside of one of your printed quilting fabrics. Using the edge of the cardstock as a guide, cut out the fabric so that it is the same size as your base.

Select a second printed quilting fabric, pin the paper pattern to it, and cut the shape out. Repeat this step to create your felty awesome tree trunk. Make sure your fabric is ironed and wrinkle free before you cut. Wrinkles ruin trees (or maybe you would call it character.) With your fabric glue (we prefer Beacon Magna-Tac 809 permanent adhesive), glue down the printed center of the tree to your printed base. Try to make sure you get the top points aligned and centered. Then glue your felt tree trunk on top.
Let it all dry for about 30 minutes while you admire your work and enjoy yummy cookies and milk. (Optional but recommended)

Alexandra and Virginia enjoy a not to vintage 2% and amazing chocolate chip cookie.
Finishing Touches Once your magical Fall Cavalcade tree is dry, carefully use your awl to poke a hole through and through about 3 inches from the top of your tree. From the good side of the tree, center your length ribbon on the whole and push it through. We used dull tweezers to push through as much as possible, and then pulled from the underside with a needle. You now have a loop coming out the back and two loose ends coming through the front. Tie these loose ends into a pretty bow.

Conceived by Jody and Alexandra Ferguson

With lots of help from Lauren, Virginia and Kelly

Reported by Kelly

Felted Memories

Every time we come home from the beach, we return with at least a handful of rocks scavenged from the sea. I recently saw some felted rocks at a museum store and decided to try this technique to decorate our rocks instead of painting them. My research led me to two blogs that discussed the manufacturing process in some detail:

Julie of Crafting A Green World explains her process, in which she felts a rock by hand. Margaret of resurrection fern had enough of handwashing and decided to use her washing machine to do the job. I tried both methods and these are my findings:

Materials

For this project you need

Rocks, mine were about 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter

Wool roving, you can find it on Etsy

Dish soap

Pantyhose, if you want to try the machine method

Take a bit of wool roving and wrap it around your rock. I didn't want to fully cover my rocks so my layer is somewhat thin.


Using the dish soap and hot water, soap up your rock. If you decide to follow Julie's hand felting method, continue to wash the rock, move it around, squeeze out a bit of soap, and continue to rub it until it is felted to your liking. If you are hand felting, squeeze out as much of the soap as you can making sure that the rock is covered with the felt and let it dry.


If you want to felt your rock in the machine, cut off a pantyhose leg, and begin to fill it with your soapy rocks tying off each rock separately so they don't felt against one another.

I live in an apartment building that just got new machines. Because I didn't want to incur my neighbors' wrath, I limited myself to two rocks, tied those into my pajama pants, and washed everything together with a heavy blanket on hot. Margaret is much more courageous. She made a string of 19-plus rocks. Whether you follow her example depends on your living situation.

So here is the outcome. This is the hand felted rock. Not as smooth and somewhat fuzzy.


These are the machine washed rocks. They are very smooth and quite perfect looking. All of them are beautiful, I think. It just depends what your personal preference is.

Just one thing, if your super gets upset when you felt your vacation souvenirs in the machine, don't refer him or her to this blog.

Thanks

Simone
groundsel.etsy.com