Soft triangle baskets- sewing project

This is going to be a tutorial with a LOT of photos for a very simple project because the start of learning how to do this is learning how to fold and cut an equilateral triangle for a pattern out of any size rectangle of paper. In the near future there should also be a video made by my daughter.

The angles of any triangle add up to 180°. For an equilateral triangle, that means each angle is 60°. Folding 90 and 45 degree angles is easy, here you will learn how to fold a 60 degree angle. 

The table I'm working on is a small poly table that was originally bought as a side table for sitting outside to put my iced coffee on. It became the surface my daughter used to spray paint all sorts of things for her costumes and projects.

The sheet of paper is a piece of junk mail from an insurance agent. We get so many of them that they get used for shopping lists, paper patterns and all sorts of other scratch paper purposes. Reduce, reuse, recycle!!

This project can be done with felted sweaters, craft felt, even fun foam. Anything that won't ravel and has a bit of body. It makes a fantastic sewing project for kids.

You will need:

• paper
• scissors
• pen
• felt
• straight pins
• size 20 tapestry needles
• embroidery floss 

To make the pattern:

Start by folding your sheet of paper in half lengthwise- or like a hot dog if you learned it that way! And unfold. 

Now you're going to take one corner, and fold it into the center, the top edge of the paper from the corner you're folding should be a line down to the other corner. 

Now fold the other side over the open edge of the angle you just folded. 

When you unfold it, you'll have two lines to cut to make the triangle. 

I used this 60° angle to show the angle you got with your folds. 

Now trace your shape on your fabric, and cut it out. 

Now it gets really easy. You're going to cut into the corners bisecting them to make the sides. 

To figure out the depth of your finished box, you'll measure from the center to the edge perpendicular to the center line.

Measure in from each corner and mark them all the same length. 

Cut a straight line down each one. 

Now you'll pin each corner, make sure the outside flaps are all facing in the same direction, and pin the cut edges so they match up with the top of the basket on the facing edge. 

Now you can choose how you'll stitch it. For the gray basket, I only stitched the top edge. 6 strands of embroidery floss will fit in a size 20 tapestry needle. 

Blanket stitch or whip stitching work for the edge. 

Here's the finished gray basket. 

For the cream basket, I stitched the outer corners on the side that showed on the outside, then stitched the top. 

Book Review- Cuter Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo

I'm wild for Aranzi Aronzo's books- especially the craft books. I love Japanese felt mascots and crafts and they are always well done.

Vertical Inc. publishes English translations of Japanese books and they are well translated so they make sense. Their cookbooks and craft books are among my favorites for that reason. This book is a translation of Feruto No Komono.

When you open the book, you'll find pages of instructions. Sweetly illustrated, it explains the supplies you'll need,  stitch techniques and abbreviations, tips for keeping things in place while you're working and how to trace or copy the patterns. The instructions are clear enough that a complete novice at hand sewing can follow them.

The projects are great. My favorite thing about felt sewing is that it's a great way to learn basic hand sewing skills very inexpensively and making some great things. For people who are more experienced, it's instant gratification. These trendy, cute projects are something that nearly anyone would enjoy making.

Projects include pencil cases, pen covers, key cases, jar or can covers, little soft trays with appliques, magnets, coasters, flowers,coin cases and card cases. All made with totally cute characters, and easily personalized. They show how easy it is to change an expression by how you make the mouth and how you can use simple shapes to personalize everything.

My own felt crafting tip- use sharp sharp scissors. I have a pair set aside specifically for felt. You could make a felt mascot to mark the handles of your felt scissors!

Stitches used are running stitch, straight stitches, whip stitch (which they call overlock), French knots, back stitch, Supplies are inexpensive. You can use eco-craft felt, or if you want to splurge, use wool felt.

It's hard picking a favorite project out of the book, but if I have to- it's the face magnets. It's a very simple project that makes a great gift.

There are also tips for using the patterns and techniques in different projects- like doing an applique on a shirt or using two coasters sewn and stuffed for an ornament.

Fun book, and one I happily recommend for anyone 9 years old and up.

This book will be released on November 24, 2015 and it's available for pre-order on Amazon now.

Facebook links-
Vertical Inc.
Aranzi Aronzo Official (in Japanese)
Don't Eat the Paste


I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Book Review- More Felt Friends from Japan

Congratulations to Susan, the winner of the Origami Flowers giveaway. I hope you're enjoying the book!

Kodansha is a Japanese publisher with a US division for great translations and I'll get back to this review in a second, I'm kind of lost in their website.... Oh, I need The Decorative Art of Japanese Food Carving, and my husband might like one of the sword books, and my kids love manga.. oh SHINY! Clothes, embroidery and textile.. need to get back to the review... 

Ok, I'm back now, it's just awfully distracting. How long did it take you to stop browsing the link and come back to read the review?

Felt mascots, toys appliques and accessories, all of them super cute. The projects are wonderfully photographed. Like a lot of Japanese craft books, the first part of the book is photos of items, with the instructions in the back of the book. Page numbers are given on the photos to find the instructions.

The photos are adorable. They are captioned and done on good backgrounds to show them at their best. It takes minimal supplies to make them. Craft felt for beginning sewers is an economical choice, then switching to wool felt for a higher quality finished item when you're comfortable with the hand stitching.

So with this book, before you start a project, read the tips at the END of the book. They will show

• how to do the stitches including the embroidery accents
• tell you what kind of supplies to use
• how to use a wire armature, 
• how to use the patterns
• how to stuff the toys

The projects are good for a wide range of skills. There are some very easy applique projects, coasters and pouches which are perfect for beginners. They are whimsical and sweet. The Happy Coasters include a fish, a frog face and a chick, with easy embroidered accents. You might like to make the pouches and eyeglass cases as gifts.

A little more complicated are the lightly stuffed but still mostly flat Face Brooches, which are a bunch of cute animals and can be made with small scraps, the finger puppets and the charms which are strung with beads into darling hanging curtains.  My favorite of those types of projects is the Little Forest Birds charms because it reminds me of the felt ornaments my Great-Aunt Elizabeth made. 

The most complicated are the fully dimensional stuffed toys. These are more of a challenge because it's a small scale, but they are made using the same basic stitches, just more parts to create things like a giraffe, elephant or posable retro dolls that look like they came right off the set of an old stop motion movie. There are also dolls like Miss Kitty from the cover that have a full wardrobe you can sew for them. 

Some of the patterns you'll copy out of the book, the more involved patterns are printed on the inside of the dust jacket. 

The diagrams in the instructions are clear and show how to put the items together. 

This is a lovely book, and a must for anyone who really enjoys Japanese crafts.

Kodansha USA gave me an extra copy to give to one of my readers! Giveaway is open to people in the USA only because of shipping costs.
  a Rafflecopter giveaway
I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Book Review: Craft-A-Day by Sarah Goldschadt

Quick note from me: I post my reviews from this site and the bead site to Amazon, as well as reviewing a lot of other things there. The last week I've been at 898 reviews, then today reviewed a set knitting needles to bring it up to 899 so this could be my 900th review. Simply because for that personal milestone, I wanted to review something truly special. This was it.

Craft-A-Day: 365 Simple Handmade Projects by Sarah Goldschadt lives up to it's title. The projects are simple. They don't take a big investment in time or materials. They fit into busy lives well, and are ideal for craft parties or crafting with young people.

It's a lovely book, the projects are very well photographed, not crammed all together on the pages, at 426 full color pages, each project gets it's own page with well written instructions. They are charming and put me in mind of zakka type crafts from Japan, which makes sense. A lot of the zakka craft movement is inspired by Scandinavian crafts and the author of this volume draws a lot of her inspiration from the same background. Simple shapes, bright folk colors and easy techniques done well make simple projects. The style is a clean, bright appealing look. Or if I can stop being a grown up for a minute-It's so cute! I lovelovelovelove the projects in this book.

She breaks down the year into weeks, and each week has a theme. Some of the themes are shapes, and she does clever things with just circles or squares. But a lot more of them are things. Animals, flowers, rainbows, mustaches, ghosts and trees for example. 52 weeks to the year, so 52 different themes. The projects come with complete instructions and templates you can trace or copy for patterns. For the sake of simplicity, the projects use similar construction methods which make it easy, you could work through this whole book in an hour or less a day every day for a year.

The projects are very simple, and great for all level of crafters. Like I said above, it would be a great book to pick a project for a craft themed party with friends, or an evening with a young person. It's also got great quick projects that make fast gifts. Hand stitched felt stuffies, lots of cupcake toppers, card making projects, wall decor projects and jewelry projects. I didn't see a single project in the book that would cost more than 5 dollars to make, and since most of the projects use small amounts of materials, that 5 dollars would cover making a few of each. The projects are really cute, handmade looking, and charming. It's very current and DIY trendy.

I have a friend who was telling me recently that she can't craft. I'm personally going to recommend this book to her. I'm also recommending this to a friend with a crafty daughter, I think they would enjoy this a lot together.

Published by Quirk Books.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Rain Cloud Felt Pin

This isn't a step by step how to, more an overview.

I made this pin last night. The bead/pendant hanging from the bottom is from Cousin Corporations Jewelry Basics Acrylic series. It's a bit over an inch long.

You will need:

• White craft felt
• Embroidery floss
• colored sequins 
• 2 small seed beads for the center of the eyes
• tear drop shaped bead or pendant
• large seed beads- those are from an E bead mix
• a scrap of plastic (milk jugs are great for that!)
• pin back
• small amount of stuffing
• scissors
• thread

Take a piece of white craft felt about 6x2 inches, fold it in half so the 2 inch sides meet and cut out a rain cloud shape. I just freehanded a rounded shape. 

I'm not a fan of big bulky knots for small projects like this to keep the thread from pulling through the felt, so what I do is tie the end of my thread in a knot big enough to keep it from pulling through a light colored sequn, and use light sequins on the back where the knots will be. 

Embroider the face and finish off the embroidery with another sequin on the back. I also used two blue sequins that matched my thread for the eyes, held in place by seed beads.

On the back, stitch the little drop with the beads and tear drop, then make a running stitch to where you want the pin back to be. Cut a small rectangle of felt that will fit over the center bar of the pin back, and stitch it in place over the pin back.

Cut a small piece of plastic to sandwich between the two layers of felt. Stitch the felt pieces together with a blanket stitch around the plastic stopping about 3/4s of the way around to very lightly stuff it on the front side. Finish stitching.

Super easy! And you have a cute little rain cloud pin.

Vintage Inspired Crafts- Felt Ball Ornament Project

This super simple ornament is one that my son said was "Pretty cool". It was inspired by a paper ornament in Christmas Crafts for Everyone by Evelyn Coskey published in 1976.
This is the original project. Click on images to enlarge.

The original project calls for 9 layers of paper, however, felt is thicker than paper. 4 wound up being perfect.

To make the ornament, you'll need:

green craft felt

red craft felt

yellow 6 strand embroidery floss

Tapestry needle

scissors

something round to trace circles

pen to mark felt

I used a bottle that was 2 inches in diameter.

Mark 2 circles on each color felt and cut out. Thread needle with 3 strands of floss. Stack them in alternating colors and stitch a line down the middle. 

Match one green edge to a red edge, and blanket stitch through both layers to a 1/4 down the length (the length being just that circle half, so 1/8th of the circle), then blanket stitch through one layer only until you're a 1/4 of the length away from the bottom. Match the circle half from the other side to the layer you're stitching, and sew through both layers to the bottom. Continue around, then after all the segments are made, weave your needle through the stitches, being very careful not to pull, or just stitch back through the stitches, and finish the stitched edges. Knot off and hide knot and thread in center seam. 

Cut another length of floss and thread needle with it. Put through the top of the ornament and tie in a loop.

Here's the cover of the book if you're interested. My copy is a library discard. It distresses me that libraries discard such books, but I'm happy to give them a home!

Book Review- Crafting With Cat Hair

Crafting With Cat Hair : Cute Handicrafts to With Your Cat by Kaori Tsutaya and translated by Amy Hirschman is written by the author of a popular site, and is Japanese craft style in a very feline way. Using the soft hair you brush from your cat as well as store bought wool felt, you create projects for your home and as accessories for yourself.

Just so you know, I'm a cat lover since I was a kid. My very first pet in fact was a parakeet. I named my 'keet Pretty Kitty just to make sure my mom knew that a parakeet wasn't a cat and I still wanted a cat. People owned by cats can be a bit dotty about them. This review is for those people. The cat people who understand why we needed a book on crafting with cat hair.

The author loves cats, and gives lots of tips on proper brushing, using just the hair that sheds naturally and taking good care of your cat.

The projects are felted using the soft, fluffy undercoat that cats have in the winter and that brushes off in what seems like incredible amounts in the spring. The top hair, the hair you see and feel when you pet a cat and that seems to wind up everywhere tends to tangle and doesn't felt as well.

It starts with a cute wet felted finger puppet which is the image on the cover. Her instructions are clear on how to make the template and how to felt the puppet and she gives advice on making little collars. After that project, the rest are needle felted on a backing fabric. Wool felt is recommended. These is a great technique for lightly felted thrift store sweaters.

She gives instructions on how to sew, glue and make the projects in the book. There are adorable badges, trinket boxes, little zipper pouches that can be handsewn, pin cushions, purses and ideas for needle felting on clothing and accessories.A lot of the projects have their own little stencils you can trace from the pages. They are incredibly charming and sweet silhouette poses.

She also explains how to wash and care for your cat felted items since cat fur doesn't bond as strongly as wool does when felted.

With all the information, the projects and the love for cats that the author clearly has, this is a just a wonderful and inspiring book. Some of the projects as written repurpose things for crafty use. A lot of the rest can be done using thrifted sweaters lightly felted.

The full color photos of cats and the projects are well done. The instructions are clear, the technique is simple and the book is just charming.

You can get this book directly from Quick Books My reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Starfleet Badge craft pattern

My daughter is a geek.
Well, everyone in my family is to one extent or another. I consider myself a craft geek, full of trivia about glues, drills, techniques and history. My husband loves physics, my son loves games.
The Turnip loves science fiction.
She's 14 and her big bag of holding that she carries with her everywhere has in it usually a light saber, a communicator, a phaser and 2 sonic screwdrivers.
She can tell you how different effects in movies were made because she's the one they did the director and actor commentaries for. She watches all those extras.
I made her a Star Trek:TNG communicator badge out of craft felt.

I cut out 2 each of the shapes, the smaller ones in my diagram, then stitched them together using a blanket stitch and 3 strands of embroidery floss. Stitch a pin on the back and it was good to go.

Then I put it on and wore it until she noticed. She told me I looked like Troi (I'm wearing a square necked sort of low cut teeshirt today). She likes it a lot.

Here's the pattern I used for it, plus I did a slightly larger one that would work for appliques on fleece scarfs and such. Or you can use it as an embroidery pattern. Click on the image to download the full sized version.

ETA: Check out Abigail's great How to Sew Felt Microbe Stuffies project for more felty fun!

Printable Mini Princess Crowns 2

With the first set, I said that I was making a pattern for a felt crown for my daughter. 

She's thrilled with how it turned out.

  

It's stitched to a hair comb because her hair is so thick and wavy they work very well for her. For girls with finer or straighter hair a head band made of elastic, ties, or a barrette might work better.

Here's the pattern for the crown.

  

I used two layers of craft felt glued together with PVA glue. I spread a thin layer glue on a sheet of felt than folded it in half width wise. Put it between 2 layers of wax paper and set it under a book to dry flat. The next day, trace the crown pattern on the felt and in the jewel color, cut out 5 circles to fit in the top. With embroidery floss, all 6 strands together in a tapestry needle, blanket stitch around the whole thing, stitching the "jewels" in as you get to the top of each point. Butt the ends against each other and stitch them together. Stitch to whatever you are using for your hair. 

Lots of different things possible. Sequins, embroidery, whatever. I went with simple but do plan to play more with the pattern.

Here are printable versions if you'd like those instead. I didn't mark the holes for the elastic cord like the other crown, but the holes go roughly halfway between the center point and the back seam towards the base of the crown.As usual, click on the small versions for the full sized versions.

 

 

Pirate Eye Patches

Repost from the other blog. This was a project I posted in 2005 when my daughter was 10 and completely into pirates.

You will need a couple colors of felt, whatever your two colors are.
Embroidery floss to match or contrast.
and some elastic to hold the whole thing in place (I used a pretty stretch lace, but just a 1/4 inch black elastic will work as well)
and needles. I use fairly large ones, but that could just be in comparision to the size 12 beading needles I'm so used to using.
Total cost? Under a 3 dollars to make a few.
Skill set needed:
blanket stitch
back stitch
french knot

all one picture, you can right click and save
cut out two of the main patch piece out of the color felt you chose for the eyepatch, and then one skull or whatever sort of shape you want out of the other color. Don't feel like you have to use my skull. That would be silly. Do what you want, esp. if you are an embroidery person or a beader person who might want to do something more detailed. Like a tattoo design. Wouldn't that be neat? Esp. that sort of outline style embroidery that is so minimalistic but colorful? Except if you are going to embroider, you might want to do that *before* you cut the patch pieces out, and if you're going to bead it, I'd strongly suggest gluing or ironing on a small circle of interfacing on the back of the patch piece. Hmm.. maybe an article for Halloween? I could do beaded ones?
If you're using glitter felt, make sure the back piece you cut out is cut out so the non-glitter part will face your eye. I don't know that the glitter will flake off, but you don't want to risk your eyes.
Decorate the front piece, with the pretty little skull or whatever, the skull is blanket stitched on, with tiny circles cut out of the black felt for eyes, and a backstitched mouth and "french" knots for the nose. I used a contrasting color to stitch on and kind of outline the skull. You could glue it on, I like the more finished and folky look of the embroidery.
Cut off a piece of elastic that fits your head comfortably. Emily and I have big heads. It takes a decent sized piece of elastic. You want it to *fit*, not too snug. These are actually fairly comfortable if you can ignore the whole "I can't see out one eye" thing. Stitch the ends together securely.
Sandwich it at an angle between the two eyepatch pieces, and stitch it all together using a blanket stitch.