Next up we have Rachael's felt roll challenge entry!
I was very happy to
receive the “Jungle” felt roll in the felt roll challenge. I love this felt
roll as it’s such a brilliant mixture of colours – you can go crazy with the
truly bright blue and green shades or you can stick to the more natural greens
and navy to create projects with a more muted calm and natural feel. For the challenge I wanted to create a
variety of makes using different techniques and different combinations of the
jungle felt colours. My aim was to use the felt in combination with other
materials so that I could create three dimensional forms that might not be
normally possible with the felt alone.
In the end I ended up creating a tablemat, a butterfly
brooch/fascinator and a non-traditional Christmas bauble.
A favourite make of mine was the tablemat, this used fabric
covered boning (the type normally used in corset making), some double sided
tape, strong fabric glue (we used our old faithful Gutermann HT2) and a needle
and thread.
To start making the table mat, you first need to cut strips
of the boning up. You need to cut five 15cm strips and five 25cm strips.
Then stick double sided tape on both sides on all your
pieces of the boning.
Cut five 15cmx3cm and
five 25cmx3cm strips of your felt to match your strips of boning - cutting along
the length of your felt roll to give you long strips(I used “peasoup” and “deep
sea blue” coloured felt from the roll and covered the longer boning strips in
green and the shorter ones in the blue shade). Cover your boning strips with the
felt strips by peeling away the double sided tape backing and pressing the felt
strip around the boning.
Now you need to glue your strips into tear drop shapes – pop
a bob of fabric glue on both ends of the felt covered strip, bring the ends
together , and then secure with a clothes peg to allow the glue to dry.
Repeat this process – transforming each strip of boning and
felt into a teardrop shape and allow to dry.
When the teardrop shapes are secure you can start the final
construction of your table mat. Put all the points of the teardrops together at
the centre of your tablemat, alternating colours as you go. You will end up
with a design almost like a snowflake or loopy star. Now using a needle and
thread neatly stitch each loop to the loops next door to it (ladder stitch
seemed to be best stitch to do this as it meant most of the stitching could be
hidden in the layers of the felt). Then just carry on stitching like this until
you have completed your tablemat – perfect!
The second project I wanted to share with you all is the
Christmas bauble – it is just so easy that it’s the perfect make for supervised
children – with a professional finish from very little expertise!
It’s so simple and all you’ll need a polystyrene ball, some
pins, some buttons sequins or crystals, some fabric glue and a small piece of
ribbon or trim for hanging.
Firstly cut lots of similar small shapes from the felt –
(you could use any die cutting system suitable for felt or just old fashioned
scissors are just as good) I cut all my flowers using a “Cuttlebug”, but freehand flower, leaf, or individual petals shapes would work
just as well.
One you have all the shapes cut use the pins to attach them
to the polystyrene ball – covering the whole surface. Use fabric glue (again I
used Gutermann HT2) to glue on the crystals to the centre of the flowers and
then finally pin on a loop of ribbon for hanging your bauble – see I told you
it was simple!
(P.S. If you don’t want to use buttons or crystals a cheaper
option is to use pins with a coloured plastic or glass head to give interest to
the centre of your flowers at the same time as actually pinning your felt
flowers to the polystyrene ball)
Have fun!
