These little bunnies are easy and addictive to make–plus so cute! I had some left over wool felt from a tree skirt I made last year and wool stuffing that I bought ages ago and have used countless times. (I love when a seemingly extravagant purchase turns out to be perfectly practical.) I made a cardstock template and cut out two felt bunnies for each ornament. I added the embroidered details and then blanket stitched the two sides together leaving a gap for stuffing. I learned after a few bunnies that more stuffing is better and it’s important to fill all the spaces. Then I just closed the gap and left a loop of thread for hanging. Simple!
Tag Archives: Felt
Tree topper
Until last year, we always traveled to Florida on Christmas Eve. Although we liked to fancy it festive to get up at the crack of dawn to zoom to JFK, jostle with fellow travelers laden with presents, and so on, it is infinitely better to spend Christmas in our own home. We can finally have a non-token Christmas tree–not only are we here to enjoy it but we can actually have a tree taller than a toddler. Resulting in a sudden need for ornaments. I’ve made some over the years and we bought some more, but we needed a tree topper extraordinaire. I made this star out of felt. I improvised the embroidery based on designs in the book Scandinavian Needlecraft. First I cut out two stars, embroidered the design on one side, then blanket stitched the two stars together. I left the side of one point open and used a chopstick to push stuffing into the points. Then I stitched a loop of ribbon into the open space before blanket stitching the star closed. Here it is atop our tall tree!
Super easy felt slippers
My daughter and I made these slippers in one (chilly) morning. They were so simple and fun to make. I’ve attached instructions here, but the process was really simple. We created a pattern by tracing her feet, then cut the felt with an extra half inch around for the seam. The soles are two pieces of wool felt with a double layer of batting for warmth and comfort, and the upper is a double layer of felt. The hearts were my daughter’s embellishment–I like how she put them off to the side.
To make these you will need: approximately a quarter yard of wool felt for the soles, and another quarter for the uppers, some batting, and thread. It is important to use good quality wool felt, such as Wollfilz (available from Purl Soho in an array of gorgeous colors).
Felt tree skirt
It’s a rare occurance when I am able to dream something up and then make it just as I imagined. This tree skirt was one of those lucky projects. I used Wollfilz felt by the yard from purl soho in red and ecru. This felt is so lovely and forgiving to work with. My first circle was a little ovoid, but it was easy to trim the felt into a nice round shape. For the design, I wanted something playful but not too cutesy, and I think the limited palette helps. I drew the animals on cardstock to make a template and then traced three of each animal directly on the ecru felt. Then I cut out the animals and sewed them onto the red background using a simple running stitch. I added some minimal embriodered details to give each animal a little personality. My greatest accomplishment? Dusting off my geometry skills to figure out the measurements for the circle and the petal border.
The little houses are my next project. I am going to paint them this week, so will post the finished product soon! If anyone would like pattern details for the tree skirt, let me know and I would be happy to share.
Little purse
Last year, I went on a business trip for two weeks–to Los Angeles, in February. I have to confess it was pretty fantastic, but I missed Valentine’s Day, my wedding anniversary, and two major snowstorms. I left this little purse and some felt barrettes behind as a present to make up for missing Valentine’s Day (to one of my loved ones, at least). There wasn’t much I could do about the snowstorms, except not gloat about the sunshine.
The idea for the purse came from a linen basket in the wonderfully cute book Zakka Sewing. I changed the square shape to the old-lady-purse shape, but the pattern was very helpful in figuring out how to attach the straps neatly.
The felt barrettes were adapted from the purl bee pattern for rose barrettes.
You might want to try making one of these projects for your own sweetheart!
homemadecity.com 