More felted flowers

Of course I didn't make just one flower! Here are some more pins.

 Note that I placed buttons in the center of these--and they ain't your run-of-the-mill buttons, neither. All of these buttons have been covered in vintage fabric from my extensive and exhaustive stash of fabric.




An icy cool pink and blue colorway...

And two in a flamin' hot explosion!





















Tomorrow...hair thing-a-ma-bobs for young and old. Can ya hardly wait??

Felted sweater flowers

So.... what did I make with that glorious felted sweater flower bit stash that I created??

Well you might ask, my friends! I made a bunch of flowers, of course. And then made them into various items. Here's the low down on one of these babies!

 Here's a finished flower using the Kool-Aid dyed petals (the very bottom whorl), the natural shade of heathered blue of the sweater (next whorl up) and then 2 whorls of yellow and then gold for the sexual parts (the stamens and the carpels). [OK, now you're saying: huh? and I have to admit that my grown-up job is teaching biology and botany at the university level. So the terminology just happens. Sorry. Can't help it]

Here's the flower from the back. You can see that I have sewn a pin on the back. Thus, this flower is a pin/broach. A big, exuberant flower pin.

 And a little bit of a close up so you can see the details. While it isn't 100% botanically accurate, I think it still has the flavor of a real flower center.













I have this ongoing goal of stepping up and developing my brand. That includes developing my logo, which you saw a few posts ago. Currently, I'm integrating that logo into business cards, invoices and product packaging in an effort to really look professional and add perceived value to my items.

So here you see the card stock mount that the pin is mounted on.

I'm really pleased with how it looks. And when you see a whole group of these together, it really looks great.

I made some other stuff, too! More flower items as well as some related items using different materials. So stay tuned!

I

Odds and ends in red red red

 Not too much creating going on in the last week but here's a sweet picture of my beautiful daughter wearing her felt flower that I made a couple of weeks ago and posted about.

She wore it in to school and even wore it to her volleyball game that evening.

While I didn't create any major art this week, I did help Fiona with a big school book project today. She has to give a powerpoint presentation, wear a costume, provide a snack, handouts and a quiz based on her book. So I helped with the costume of course. After a little embellishing of a spare white T-shirt and some scrounging in my closet we came up with a pretty decent assembly of clothes. Here's my sewing contribution--you get one guess as to the name of her book. :)

I stabilized the rose print cotton fabric with Shir-Tailor fusible interfacing Pellon Shir-Tailor Fusible Interfacing- 20 Inch W x 25yds, cut out the A and then stitched it down using a decorative diamond stitch. On the inside of the shirt I placed some Tearaway embroidery stabilizer Regular Tearaway 8x8 200 Precut Sheets for Embroidery Machines. That way the cotton fabric doesn't shift or fray and the stretchy T-shirt knit doesn't give and stretch too much while I'm sewing. For a quickie project--turned out pretty good!



       

Universe Box

Did I tell you I love felt? Well, I do. So here's some more felt fun (although it may not look it at first glance.) A while back I made this cute little fabric (and felt!) covered box. I stiffened it with a wonderful product called Timtex  Timtex Interfacing Craft Pack. Its a very stiff synthetic interfacing that can still be sewn and ironed. Think of it as a sewable cardboard, if you will. I keep it on hand for any quilting projects that need a stiffer batting (points that stand out etc.)

I made this box with a removable lid and sewed a celestial fabric cover for it. I wanted a little surprise on the inside so I lined it with bright yellow felt (ah...there's the felt connection!). I call it my "Universe Box".

When all of the parts were assembled, I blanket stitched it all together with a gold lurex thread. There are metallic gold highlights in the fabric so I thought that tied it all together.

On a related note, I went to my local book store yesterday and guess what cried out to me from the shelf? You guessed it-- a felt project book. Ooooo, I'm so excited to try out one of the projects. Its called Big Little Felt Universe: Sew It, Stuff It, Squeeze It, Fun! by Jeanette Lim. Just check out the apple on the cover! So cool. Can't wait to try something out! This lady is a true felt artist--check out her etsy shop that features her incredible creations (and patterns) at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/umecrafts.

I'm only sorry I have to go to work today. :(

Feltastic

I think felt is a drastically underused textile--I've used it in the past and really enjoyed its qualities. A couple of days ago I came across a great project on another blog: not martha http://www.notmartha.org/. OMG! A beautiful felt flower pin--right up my alley. I'm not going to post a tutorial since Megan already did an excellent job of that; do be sure to visit her blog and check it out. Here are the lovely results...

I made two of these pretty felt flower pins so far and have another under construction. Each petal is made individually and is sewn down to a felt covered base of cardboard.

I think they look a little sun-like, don't you?

Fiona, my daughter, came home from a party and fell in love with the red one so I gave it to her. She plans on wearing it to school tomorrow.

Now I'm thinking about how to make other flowers besides dahlias.  Or maybe some embellishment. Or different sizes? With a leaf or two?  Hmmmmm--the possibilities are endless!