The Big Bow Accessory Holder: Bunny Love

As promised, I've added another hair accessory holder to my etsy shop.

The Big Bow Hair Accessory Holder

Vera's hair accessories have a new home...

I wanted something that could hold her hair clips as well as head wraps, so I added a loop with a velcro closure at the bottom. It can easily hold a dozen or more clips as well as several head bands or head wraps.

Want one? Lucky you! The Big Bow Accessory Holder is now available in my etsy shop. I am slowly but surely adding different designs and colors so check back soon for more options.

Wool dryer ball tutorial

Materials:

Wool roving

Panty hose

Instructions:

Begin by tying a knot in a strip of wool roving. This will form the center of your wool ball. Wrap the roving around the knot and continue wrapping until a large ball is formed. Make the ball a little larger then the desired finished size because it will shrink when you felt it.

Put the wool ball in the end of a panty hose leg and tie it off with a knot. You can put more than one ball in the panty hose, just make sure to tie a knot between each ball.

Put the panty hose containing the wool balls into the washing machine and wash for 2 cycles in hot water, no detergent. Dry in dryer on high heat until dry. This will felt the wool and make the balls firm.

Wool dryer balls are a good substitute for fabric softener and also help cut down on drying time. They work great for cloth diapers too.

Googily

I had someone contact me about making a Googily doll, from the book Jumpy Jack and Googily, by Meg Rosoff. It's her grandson's favorite book and she wanted to give him a Googily doll for Christmas.

I made him out of wool felt, like my other monster softies, but chose to make him a rag doll, with floppy arms and legs.

Felt Corsage Tutorial

Supplies and Materials

Cut the following pieces out of your main felt color:

Corsage ruffle- One 3" x 9" strip
Ribbons- Two 1 1/2" x 6" strips
Corsage backing- One 3" diameter circle

Cut the following pieces out of your accent felt:

Ribbon accents: Two 1" x 6" strips
Corsage face: One 2 3/4" diameter circle

You will also need:

6 1/2" piece of pom pom trim
1 medium sized safety pin
Coordinating thread
Scissors/rotary cutter
Chalk or marking pen
Ruler
Embroidery needle and floss/sewing machine with embroidery function

Directions

1. Embroider the message of your choice onto your corsage face, either by hand or using your sewing machine.

2. Pin the pom pom trim onto the wrong side of the face, near the edge.

3. Temporarily sew in place with a basting stitch. Remove the pins and set aside.
4. Fold the corsage ruffle in half, lengthwise. If necessary, pin to hold in place. Mark off 1" increments at the top of the folded edge. Using scissors, cut 1" notches at each 1" mark.

5. Pin the ribbon accent to the ribbons, lining them up down the middle. fold in half lengthwise and make a mark 1/2" up the folded edge. Cut a v-shaped notch in the bottom, up to the 1/2" mark, through both the accent and main ribbon.

6. Topstitch the ribbon accent onto the ribbon. Match your bobbin thread to your main felt color.
7. Pin the ruffle to the outside edge of the corsage backing. Line it up so the bottom of the ruffle
notches are just inside the edge of the backing. Sandwich the ribbons in between the backing and  the ruffle, overlapping the tops of the ribbons slightly (you may need to remove a few pins, but I found it easier to pin the ruffle first, then add the ribbons).

8. Next, sew a safety pin to the back of the corsage. I placed a small piece of felt on the inside for reinforcement. You can do this by hand or with your sewing machine. I used my machine and sewed one stitch forward one stitch backward, multiple times, at three different spots along the safety pin.

9. Sew along the edge of the backing circle.
10. Pin the face to the front of the corsage, centering it within the ruffle. Stitch around the edge with a zig-zag stitch. Match your bobbin thread to your main felt color. (You could also use a straight stitch but I wanted to make sure I caught the pom pom trim in my stitch.)

11. Remove the basting stitches from the face.

I made two of these for the grandmas to be at my baby shower, but they would also be great as name tags at a party or for birthdays or bachelorette parties.

You can purchase your own custom corsage in my etsy shop!

Forest Friends Mobile

I recently made a baby mobile for a friend, to go with her woodland themed nursery.

Source

The animals are made mostly of wool-blend felt, with a few hand embroidered details.

I also made a second owl, to hang from the car seat.

A healthy baby gift

I found a cute bicycle print flannel at my local fabric store and bought a couple yards with baby gifts in mind. It's a fun print and could work for a boy or girl. Part of it got made into a baby blanket, gifted along with a plush granola bar.

Heart Throb

I just added this quirky little Valentine to my Etsy shop.

Go Fish

This year for Christmas I made my nieces a fishing game. I got the idea, as well as the patterns for the fish and worms, here.

I started with a large piece of green felt for the base, then cut out a pond from blue felt and sewed it onto the green felt. I then sewed three concentric shapes on the inside, following the shape of the pond, and added a lily pad. The brown tackle box in the corner holds the fish when not in use and is held shut by velcro.

To make each fish, I doubled a piece of felt, traced my fish pattern onto it, then sewed along the outline. I filled the middle of each fish with polyester stuffing to give it some volume, and used the alphabet setting on my sewing machine to embroider a letter "O" for the eyes. There are magnets in the head of each fish so that the fish can be "caught".
Keep in mind when sewing you fish that you will need to leave openings to insert the magnet and stuffing. Here's the method that worked best for me:

(Note: These pictures were taken after cutting out the fish; however I did all the sewing first, as shown here)



Start at the top of the tail fin and curve back around, leaving a small opening

Insert the magnet into the head



Sew the head closed and continue around the bottom fin



Add stuffing

Sew around the top and tail fins, closing the body of the fish

Add eye, mouth, and details to tail fin

The last step is to cut around the outline of the fish, removing the excess felt. You can follow similar steps to make the worms. I also added eyelets to the end of each worm using my crop-a-dile and attached string using small lanyard hooks.

I used dowel rods for the fishing poles and painted them to coordinate with the colors of the fish (purple, magenta, and goldenrod). Instead of using screw eyes, I just drilled holes through the dowel rods and tied the string through the hole.

Go fish!