I know its a day late, so I hope everyone had a good Valentines Day with their loved ones.
I decided this year to make my granddaughter, Lisa, a little heart purse. She likes to put things in containers and take them out.
I used a heart shaped resist and two layers on each side. I know it’s not a perfect heart shape. Its hard to get sharp corners.
When it was dry, I used some white bamboo yarn and couched her name on the purse.
I added a ribbon for a handle with a bow at the top. Inside I sewed the ribbon down the sides to give it a little strength.
Then finally I put in a little box of chocolates with a Beagle on it. While she probably won’t be able to eat the chocolate, she’ll get a kick out of the dog which looks like her doggie sister Koyuki. Sorry about the dark picture it looked much lighter on my camera screen.
I’m working on my challenge piece which is taking longer than expected so I needed something short and sweet for today. 😉
Did you do something felt related for Valentine’s Day?
Like everyone else I have a ton of scraps, threads, cut offs, etc. I finally got around to organizing them somewhat into like piles. As you see I had a lot to choose form. The first pic is a tub full of scraps etc.
I pulled out some and put them on the table to pick from.
I decided I needed a store coupon case to keep in my purse. I recently got a new purse and none of the pockets were sized large enough to hold some of these coupons. I have a separate coupon holder for groceries that I only use when I grocery shop. But I never know when I might pass by a department, fabric or specialty store that calls me in to shop.
I wanted it thin so I only used prefelt on both sides of the resist. With back problems, I don’t carry a big purse and try to keep it as light as possible.
I picked through the scraps and threw a little of this and that until I was satisfied with the look. Then I topped off each side with some wisps of merino to help keep those rayon and cotton threads and silk bits to felt in adding merino over the sides to fold over. The yellow is silk selvedge.
I spent a lot of time rubbing so as to not disturb the little bits and thread.
While still wet:
The purple fringe got a little wadded up in the felting process and the edges of the flap and sides of the holder needed to be straightened a bit.
After drying I still had some wild threads so I needle felted some down and cut others. I also straightened the fringe and needled it down. I think for my use it will be fine. Here is the finished front:
Back closed:
Now I’m ready to shop.
Here’s another piece I started as an experiment. I don’t care for dots or the colors of this scarf, so I decided to cut off a piece and see how it felts because I have two more scarves I do like and didn’t want to experiment with them. I used some silk scraps and angelina on one side and the scarf on the other.
I liked the dot side after felting. It doesn’t look so dotty, but more textured. I may do some stitching on it. The silk side I got carried away with the angelina and don’t care for that. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it it’s fairly small.
It was fun experimenting with the scraps. I’ll probably do more. Have you started your 4th Quarter Challenge?
While I was getting organized for our trip to Europe, I realized I could use something to keep my jewelry in other than little plastic bags like I have done previously for travel.
I devised a jewelry roll with netting inside to hang my earrings. But my first attempt didn’t go well. Even though I knew in my mind netting wouldn’t shrink, I proceeded anyway.
I used two layers of purple prefelt with a small pocket at the bottom. I’m not sure what I was thinking then either. On the front side I used a strip of from a silky scarf down the middle then hand dyed cheesecloth on both sides for decoration.
On the inside I put the netting in and two panels of the scarf with a thin layer of plastic wrap so the panels wouldn’t felt to the inside. I thought perhaps I could control the shrinkage so the netting would work, but I also wanted that texture the scarf and cheesecloth would provide. Hah!
I got my texture, but the netting just puffed out. I cut it out, but wasn’t happy with the way I could fix it.
So, on to the second try. Same layout only without the netting and the small pocket at the bottom. I put an extra narrow piece of felt along the edges of the panels to help them felt in straight and give it some extra strength.
After I got the ruching I wanted and the felt was dry, I hand sewed the netting around the edges and a line through the middle to keep it from stretching out. The panels were a little puffy, but their job was to hold in the earrings after being rolled so they wouldn’t fall out the sides.
I hung the earrings from the netting.
Success! I sewed on a matching ribbon to tie the roll and I was done!
Now I have to figure out what to do with the first piece of felt. Any suggestions?
