Hand made felt tea bags

For Molly's birthday I made her some felt iced gems after seeing the pattern and instructions in Mollie Makes Magazine. I loved how cute they were and they looked adorable on her mini tea set. But something was missing... tea bags of course! What Brit eats biscuits without a cup of tea! So, I came up with my own pattern for mini felt tea bags. I have made some more to hide in my handmade Christmas crackers and advent house for Molly this Christmas.

Hand made felt tea bags
What you will need:

• White felt
• Brown felt
• White embroidery thread
• Pink spot ribbon
• Double sided fabric tape
• Pattern printed off on paper

Equipment

• Scissors
• Pinking shears
• Water soluble marking pen

Instructions
Start by printing out patterns and cutting them out. Then pin two pieces of white felt together and place bag pattern on top, and carefully draw around outside edge of pattern using a water soluble pen. Using pinking shears, cut around outside edge of rectangle. Then lightly dampen the pen marks on the felt with water so ink disappears and leave to one side. Place tea pattern on brown felt and draw around outside edge of pattern using a water soluble pen. With a sharp pair of scissors, cut out tea piece from brown felt.

Unpin white felt bags and place brown tea felt piece in between the two pieces of white felt, pinning to secure. Using a needle threaded with white embroidery thread, hand stitch a rectangle around outside edge of teabag, starting at the centre of the short side. Finish by back stitching a couple of times at the end and then cut thread leaving a 7cm long tail.

Next, cut a piece of ribbon 2cm long and back half of it with a strip of iron-on double sided tape. Peel off backing tape from ribbon and place end of embroidery thread tail over backing strip. Fold ribbon in half and lightly iron to seal together.





Have a sweet day!

Hand made felt birds for Christmas

I want to hang pretty glittered birds on my Christmas tree this year to fit in with my Winter Wonderland theme. So, I designed a glittery winged felt bird to match my other Christmas birds. I have now made sixteen of them in white with pink glitter, antique pink, pale aqua and teal. Now I can't wait to hang them on my tree later next month!

Felt Bird
Tools and Materials

• Printed out bird pattern
• White felt
• White embroidery thread
• Supersoft toy filling
• Jump rings
• 12cm long, 3mm double faced satin ribbon
• Gold seed beads
• Stone coloured sewing thread
• PVA glue
• Pink glitter
• Scissors
• Paint brush
• Embroidery needle
• sewing needle

Felt birds, How-to step by step

Start by printing off the bird pattern at 100% and cut out the pattern pieces. Place pattern pieces on felt and, using your water soluble pen, trace around outside edges so you have one body piece and two wings. Using a sharp pair of scissors, cut out felt pieces. Then pin cut out felt pieces to another piece of felt.



Carefully cut around felt birds. You will now have two bird body pieces and two sets of wings. Now, with a damp cloth, blot pen lines until they disappear. With your bird pattern pieces still pinned together, join them together by whip stitching around outside edges with embroidery thread, leaving a gap of about 15mm unstitched so you can stuff the birds.



Begin to stuff the birds by gradually pushing small bits of stuffing through the unstitched hole using a small stick. Make sure to push stuffing into the tip of the tail and beak. Continue adding stuffing to the bird so that the bird feels firm to the grasp and holds its shape well, then whip stitch the hole close. Now with a needle threaded with white embroidery thread stitch a jump ring to the top of the bird along the seam.



With your wing felt pieces still pinned together, join the pieces together by whip stitching around outside edges with embroidery thread leaving a gap of about 15mm unstitched so you can stuff the wings as you did the bird's body. Again whip stitch the hole closed and repeat with other set of wing pieces.

Now position your wings on the body and pin in place to secure while you stitch the underside of the wings to the bird body. Then thread your ribbon through the jump ring that is attached to your bird and knot the ends together. Doing this at this stage allows you to hang your bird for the next step of PVA gluing your birds.



Using a small paint brush, apply a coat of PVA glue to the areas on the bird you wish to glitter in pink. Then immediately sprinkle with glitter, lightly tap the bird to remove excess glitter and hang up to dry. Once the glue holding the pink glitter is dry apply a small coating of PVA glue to the beak and sprinkle with gold glitter, tap to remove excess glitter, and leave to dry. Sew gold beads to face of bird using a beading needle threaded with sewing thread, so you have an 'eye' both sides.





Have a sweet day!

Winter Wonderland felt ideas

Continuing my Winter Wonderland Christmas theme, today I am sharing with you the gorgeous Christmas felt ideas I have found that would look great in my Wonderland! I have already downloaded the pattern for the pine cones from Family Circle and have started making some pretty pink and aqua pine cones to decorate with. My snowflake felt place mats have been revamped this year with some pretty embroidery in pink and aqua and I have started making some felt birds for my tree, coming soon.....

• Wooden deer decoration by Torie Jayne
• Soft hearts - felt mounted deer head by Planet Fur
• Felt birds from A little gift giving
• Pine Art via Twig and Whistle
• Snowflake felt table mats by Torie Jayne
• Forest woodland trees stocking by Rik Rak
• Woodland stuffings by Ginger Melon

Have a sweet day!

Julyhobby

This week on "Wonderful World of Etsy" I bring you the cute felt food and toy patterns from Etsy Store, Julyhobby. I had so much fun making Molly her felt food kit that I have started making more from patterns and making my own up. I am in love with the chicken from Julyhobby and think it would look super cute in Molly's oven!

• Lovely Japanese Sushi Set Pattern PDF
• Felt Cakes and Tarts Pattern PDF
• Chicken and Salad Party 3 PDF Felt Pattern
• Sweet Chocolate Gift Set PDF Felt Pattern

Have a sweet day!

Felt Food Kit

Whilst I was shopping in Islington last week I came across the Felt Picnic set in a sale at the art store, Cass Art. I thought it would be great to make for Molly's play kitchen and give them to her for her birthday. I love how they turned out and made a few tweaks from the original kit by buying some red and yellow embroidery thread to match the felt, as the kit only provided brown and purple. I also put velcro on the bun and bread slices so she could make sandwiches and burgers rather than stitching the bread to the sandwich filling as per the instructions. I had so much fun making them that I went on to make felt iced gems and tea bags.



Have a sweet day!

British Cream Tea

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you the delightful work of Ouissi who owns the Etsy shop British Cream Tea and currently features in Mollie Makes craft magazine. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The pretty Polka Dot Butterfly Cake
  
• The sweet party rings set
• The ever so cute Iced Gems
• The adorable Jammie Dodger

Have a sweet day!

Needle felted eggs

A few weeks ago I chose a selection of gorgeous needle felted pics for my Flickr faves Sunday post, Felted Cute. I was so impressed I decided to give it a go! I picked up some polystyrene eggs, some roving in pink, cream and lilac, and a needle felting tool at a local craft store.

I love the results and want to do some more so I've ordered some more polystyrene eggs and roving, in aqua and pale green, to match my Easter palette.

Have a sweet day!

Felted cute

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some needle felted treasures with these gorgeous pics. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The sweet mouse in needlefelted Lucy by Ola Smith
  
• The adorable acorns in IMG_31235 by truluxe_truluxe
  
• The cute look in Are you my mommy? by Kit Lane
  
• The pretty Natural white felted flower brooch by Jane Bo
  

Have a great day!

Easter tree

I finished making fifteen of the Easter felt birds today. Having already gathered twigs in a nearby wood, I arranged them into a cluster and then wrapped silver wire around them to hold them together. To hide the wire, I covered it with a pretty striped ribbon. The 'tree' sits in a white enamel bucket, filled with pebbles to counterbalance the top-heavy tree. Green straw and chocolate foil-covered eggs hide the pebbles to complete the look!

Easter birds

After making the mushroom houses I had loads of felt left. So, having made Tilda birds at Christmas and liking the results, I decided to make some Easter versions. I plan to hang them from twigs as a table centerpiece for Easter lunch.

The birds were made using a pattern from Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle by Tone Finnanger (Author).


The components for the Easter birds. The sewing thread needles came in this cute pebble from John James. The ribbons and flowers are from VV Rouleaux (find similar ribbons at this gorgeous Etsy Shop). See below for details of the other components.


The body colour is V68, Lilac Rose, hand stitched using Coats duets polyester thread colour no.1542. The ribbon, from VV Rouleaux, is attached using a small silver jump ring.


The body colour is P33, Baby Love, hand stitched using Coats duets polyester thread colour no.3572. The two flowers at the neck of the bird are also from VV Rouleaux.


The body is colour G49, Just Grace, hand stitched using Coats duets polyester thread colour no.3060.


The body colour is a plain white felt that I already had.


The body colour is G50, Hush Green, hand stitched using Coats duets polyester thread colour no.3200.

Easter mushrooms

Having ordered the felt for Easter, I thought about what I could make. I'd been given a fantastic mushroom pin cushion made out of felt for Christmas and it inspired me to make my own version, in a more woodland/Easter bunny theme, to sit on the table at Easter.

The Easter mushrooms below were fabricated using an adapted version of a great pattern from thelittlehousebythesea.


The variously sized felt spots are glued on.


The individual components for the Easter mushrooms are shown above. The embroidery thread needles came in this cute pebble design from John James. See below for details of the other components.


The roof is colour G49, Just Grace, hand stitched using Coats duets polyester thread colour no.3060. The door is colour V68, Lilac Rose, attached using Anchor embroidery thread colour pale lilac no.108. The stalks of the flowers were embroidered using mint colour no.158.


The roof is colour P33, Baby Love, hand stitched using Coats duets polyester thread colour no.3572. The door is pale mint colour G49, Just Grace, attached using Anchor embroidery thread colour pale mint no.158. The stalks of the flowers were embroidered using pale lime green no.259.


The roof is colour V68, Lilac Rose, hand stitched using Coats duets polyester thread colour no.1542. The door is colour G50, Hush Green, attached using Anchor embroidery thread colour pale lime green no.259. The stalks of the flowers were embroidered using mint colour no.158.


The roof is colour G50, Hush Green, hand stitched using Coats duets polyester thread colour no.3200. The door is colour P33, Baby Love, attached using Anchor embroidery thread colour pale dusky pink no.36. The stalks of the flowers were embroidered using pale lime green no.259.

Easter sketch book colours

I decided to decorate the house with Easter decorations this year. I started by ordering seven samples of felt from Anglo recycling. I just loved the colours when they arrived, and so I set about putting together a colour palette. Clockwise from top left (codes and names in brackets correspond to product id's from Anglo recycling):

Pale mint colour (G49, Just Grace)
Pale dusky pink (P33, Baby Love)
Pale lilac (V68, Lilac Rose)
Pale lime green (G50, Hush Green)

The sequins and beads, in matching colours, I already had from a previous trip to Hong Kong.


The final felt bundles in my chosen colours!