Tutorial ~ Leafy Felt Pillow

Hi everyone! Amber of the amazing blog, Crazy Little Projects, is doing a fun sewing challenge every month. This month's theme is "Gift items". I was so excited to be asked to be a part of it and to share my project today!

Halloween is behind us and Thanksgiving is approaching. Is your home all decorated for fall? I love decorating my house with some things appropriate to the season. I thought it would be fun to make a decorative pillow with a bunch of leaves with a little splash of jewel color.

That. is. not. all. I created this pillow on a small budget. You might want to make several to give out to your family, friends, Thanksgiving dinner host, and even to yourself. Isn't it one of our dramas as a sewer/crafter that the cost of materials add up! If you were looking for something nice to make on a tight budget, this might be what you are looking for. :)

{You will need}--- and some tips, please read before you head out to shop

Felt --- They were having 4 for $1 sale when I bought them. I needed 10 felts (4 silver gray and one of each colors) which was only $2.50! They usually cost a little more. Since you only need about half the felt for each color for the leaves, if you decide to make two pillows, you can make each one for slightly less. You will need the colors below.

Gold, Golden rod, orange, coral red, olive, aqua, Silver Gray

The color of the thread you want to use --- I used dull orange colored thread from start to finish. If you don't want the color to pop against the gray felt, it is totally fine to use a different color.

1 3/4 yards of Pom-pom --- this can make the cost go up, but Jo-Ann Fabric always has coupons. Look for a 40% or 50% off coupon!

Fiber fill

{How to}

1. Cut 2 pieces of silver gray felt the long way. Now you have 4 pieces of 4 1/2" x 12" pieces.

2. Sew them on to the sides of the whole felt. Over wrap 1/4" on the seam and sew with zig-zag stitch. Do the same with the other pieces. Now you have 2 pieces of 12" x 17 1/2" silver gray felt.

3.Print out the PDF pattern for the leaves I created. Cut them out.

4. Trace them onto the felt. You need 22 leaves total. You can mix and match however you want.

5 Draw a nice wavy line. This will be a guide line for the placement for the leaves.

6. Pin the first leaf and sew then move on to the second leaf. Repeat the process until the leaves reach to near the end of the line.

7. Lay the back and the top felt together. Starting at the middle of the bottom, pin the pom-pom trim all around the pillow.

8. Switch the presser foot to Zipper foot on your machine. leaving 4" to 5" opening in the bottom, sew all around the pillow.

9. Stuff the pillow with fiber fill. Pin the rest of the pom-poms, front and back felt together. Sew the opening shut with your preferred method.

Now, you have a leafy felt pillow to give or to cozy up part of your house.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. :)

Happy fall!

Tutorial ~ No Sew Felt Pot Sticker ~

Some of you who have been reading my blog might be thinking "Is she a little bit obsessed with Pot stickers lately?" Well, I might be.

I made a bunch of post stickers the other day for dinner and froze some. While I was wrapping pot stickers over and over and over again, this idea came to me.

"Why not felt pot stickers?!" :) I was over joyed with this new idea. I had to quickly start making them. I have a group of friends who I go out with for dinner once a month, and for the month of December, we had a gift exchange planned. The limit was $10. I love gift giving and thinking about what to give and making it unique is so much fun. When I was little, I dreamed of owning a gift shop, so I could wrap the presents for the customers. (Really, that was one of my dream jobs...)

I already had a few things that I got for a really good price, but I still had some room to spend to reach $10, and then, another idea came to me. (Oh my gosh! Two ideas in a row? I was on fire that day!) I decided to wrap one of the felt pot stickers and add it to the gift bag...

When one of my friends opened the gift and saw the felt pot sticker she asked, "What is this?" Then I told her that that is a token for Sachiko's homemade frozen pot stickers. The fact that she loved the gift made me very happy!

I will give you quick tutorial of how I made them. It was a very easy and quick project, to make 7 pot stickers start to finish took me less than 30 minutes.

{You will need}

Ivory color felt (you can cut 6 circles from one felt)
Fabric glue
Rice

{How to}

1. I used one of my ribbon spools as a temple, it is 4"diameter. Trace, and cut the circles out of felt.


2. Put fabric glue slightly from the edge and about an inch shy of halfway around the circle.


3. Fold the circle in half, and start making pleats just like wrapping real pot stickers. Leave about 1" opening for stuffing. Press each pleat well to make sure they stay. Put a little bit of glue on the each pleats to glue them down to the pot sticker.


4. I stuffed them with rice to give them a more realistic weight. Although, you will be surprised to find out how little you need to stuff one pot sticker.

5. Put some glue in the opening, make one last pleat and glue it shut.


That's it! I lined them up on the plate, and I was pretty happy with the results. When the kids came home from school, I asked my oldest (he LOVES pot stickers) if he wanted pot stickers for a snack and showed him the plate. He got so excited and came running towards me and then realized that they are not real and said "Hey!” hehehe...I think this is one of the fun parts of being a mom. I get to tease my kids.
Don't worry; he got to eat real pot stickers for dinner. :)

Sweater Felt Project

I been wanting to try this project, it was in a Country Living magazine a few months ago. I'm sorry I don't have a link to it, but I will tell you what I have done.

I went to a thrift store and found this old sweater. I personally don't care to wear this particular sweater but I like the patch-work look.


First get a wool sweater and wash it hot water with detergent in the washing machine on a normal cycle. Then dry it in the dryer. That's it. Depending on the sweater you might have to rewash it several times. This will transform the wool into felt.

In the magazine they had instructions for a different style of bag. I did not care for that one so I did my own thing.


After the sweater became felt, the whole process of making this bag was fun! When I made the first cut with my scissors, it did not flay. I succeeded in making felt! I had no plan on how to make this, I just kind of went with the flow. I would love to make more wool felt but it was hard to find 100% wool sweater at the local thrift stores. I have to say, my curiosity was satisfied.