Felt & Fabrics

I made this using some of the things I bought from Harrogate this year and some that I bought last year.  I used all sorts of fibres and materials including silk rods, scrim, hessian, felt, mulberry bark, throwsters waste and silk cocoons, as well as buttons, sequins, hat pins, beads and mount board. 


I arranged my layout onto the hessian and machine sewed the pieces in place.  The sequins and buttons were hand sewn afterwards and the beads added to the pins.


I wanted to use some bright colours for a change, I think I managed it!!!!

Comfort Doll

This is a Barb doll, otherwise known as a comfort doll.  Mine is a lot smaller than Barb's as it's only my first one and I had to do the needle felting by hand and Barb has a fancy embellisher to do it for her.  I think the face may be a little bit too big, but I didn't have any smaller face molds for the clay.  I used black, but coated it with a layer of micaceous iron oxide before baking in order to take the perfect pearls.  I used silk rods, merino wool tops, silk waste and bamboo wool to needle felt into the piece of felt.  I then cut out a random shape.  Using my sewing machine I attached another piece of felt to the back leaving an opening to put stuffing in.  Once stuffed, I sewed the hole up.  I glued the bamboo hair to the clay head and then glued the head to the body.

Shades of Green

I made this for my friend Kath aka LazyKay as it's her birthday today.  Like me, she is a worshipper of green.  Unfortunately, the felt is of the type that doesn't burn properly, so it's just gone brown around the edges and I tried to burn holes in the top left hand corner, but without success, again another brown patch!!!  Hope you like it Kath - Happy Birthday xxxx

Pockets of Secrets

The base is a piece of dark brown felt but it must be of a different fabric mix as it didn't burn very well, it was from Boyes and the pieces from The Range are certainly much thicker and singe much better. There is a piece of batting next to give it some spring and padding, then I laid on a piece of cream frayed scrim.  The image is another ice resin piece and was sewn on with the machine with a piece of chocolate organza over the top.  I left the top open to insert the wire hanger.  Once this was in place I put fibres, wool, threads, sequins, beads and buttons on the opposite side and sewed in 3 little pockets to house all the bits. I printed the word 'secrets' onto a piece of scrim, padded it out with a bit of stuffing, sewed around the edges, frayed the right hand side and then sewed some lines into it and sewed it onto the bottom of the felt. I finished by adding beads to the hanger. Pity that the felt won't burn any more as I wanted it to have a more distressed look, but never mind.

Under my Umbrella

Again the main image is an ice resin piece.  As you can see there is a bit of white still left on it, that's where I haven't quite covered it properly.  As it was my first attempt with it I think it's ok.  The image is suspended in the frame and attached with the buttons!!!  The buttons are attached to the image and the felt.  The felt is wrapped round the wire frame and sewn with embroidery thread.  The backing materials, duck egg scrim, chocolate tulle and burgandy felt were all attached with the buttons.  Using my craft tool I melted the edges and burnished a few holes!!!!

Alter it Monthly

I discovered this challenge site, Alter it Monthly, via Zoe, so thanks Zoe.  This will be the first time that I've entered anything so I'm hoping this piece will qualify as the theme is 'music' and the background of this piece is from a sheet of music.  I covered it in ice resin, along with the main image.  Ice resin makes the paper transparent (ish), with like a greasy sticky look, although it isn't (once it's thoroughly dried out). I made a small frame from green wire, suspended the image inside it.  Sewed the frame onto a piece of red velvet and white frayed scrim. These were then mounted onto a piece of burgandy felt which has been subjected to the craft tool for a singed effect. I also burnt the holes the ribbon is threaded through with it too.  I then mounted everything onto a piece of ice resin music paper and added a couple of eyelets.

Heart felt

This piece is made up of all leftovers from previous projects.  I basically just stacked them all on a piece of felt and placed a piece of tulle over the top.  Randomly sewed all over the piece, used the heat gun, then went back in with the textile tool and burnished some random holes.  I added the felt heart and the beads to finish.

Colour Co-ordinates

For the base of this piece I used felt. I dyed all the other materials with various shades eco-line inks.  Laid the larger pieces down on the felt, added the fibres, lace, organza and tulle over the top.  Sewed all the pieces together in a random fashion.  Using the heat gun I melted away some of the fabrics and the felt.  If you click on the photo for a close up you will be able to see that I didn't go too mad with the heat, just enough to give the materials some movement. Lastly, I added the felt heart.

I made this in exactly the same way as above except the base is a piece of dyed vilene and I also used silk paints along with the eco-line inks. I didn't use the heat tool on this piece as I liked the way it had come together without, but felt it needed a little something else. So I printed an image onto acetate and sewed it onto a used and dried out babywipe.  I used the heat tool to melt the edges and sewed it on as the main feature.

Eco-Line Ink & Gesso Background

Having recently purchased a set of Ecoline inks I thought I'd best use them.  I used a purple and a green, along with gesso to create the background on this piece of fabric.  I sewed all the other pieces of fabric onto it, added the buttons, beads and sequins and randomly stamped the words altered and believe.  Using one of my felting wool sausages I'd previously made I painted some wooden beads and added them along the bottom.  I can't seem to get the colours right with the photo, must be the light, or lackof it.  It looks more striking IRL. 

Lotstodo - Hats / Crowns

This week over on Lotstodo the theme is 'hats and/or crowns'.  I free motion embroidered the hearts using black felt and bright yellow thread and then cut them out. I cut the wings and crown from yellow felt with T!m's alteration dies. Stamped the word 'alternative' onto a piece of fabric and covered it with black netting.  A piece of hessian was sewn with yellow thread and filled with wadding, the 3 buttons were hand sewn.  A strip of bronze criss cross fabric was attached to the background fabric and a piece of black wooly fibre across the top.  The pieces where then assembled to create the above.

Bleaching Felt

I've been playing with bleach, felt and stencils today.  I know this is hard to see as it wasn't the best colour of felt to use.

I hi-lited the hearts with a gold leaf pen.

It shows up better on the brown felt.

I used a white paint pen to hi-light some of the hearts.

This came out quite well on the lime green.  Unfortunately I don't own any decent stencils - yet!!!!

I hi-lited the petals with a black sharpie pen.

And lastly, an orange one, again hi-lited with a black sharpie pen, but I decided it do the little flowers around the edges too.

Stuffed Heart

I cut a heart shape from yellow felt.  Free motioned around the edges a couple of times, leaving a gap at the bottom to fill it with.  I stamped the word believe with black stazon. Filled it with some toy stuffing (thanks Jo) and sewed the gap up.

Just Playing

Having dyed all the fabrics I stamped a script image on the base layer. Cut a piece out the middle of the next layer so the image would show through and placed a piece of organza over the top. I attached the lace down the right hand side and used the heart that I'd previously made. I sewed all these onto the base layer. I stamped the word moments on a piece of untreated fabric, used a small piece of wadding to pad it out and sewed around it, again sewing it onto the base layer. I added a button and a piece of ribbon. The brown section is a piece of foam attached with eyelets, which I heated, stamped into, cut out and rubbed over with glimmer paste. I rolled a piece of net curtain around a piece of wadding and tied it at each end with a piece of hemp and hand stitched it to the base layer, top left. I then blasted everything with my heat gun.

First Fabric Postcard

This is my first attempt at a fabric postcard. I cut the flowers from T!m's alterations die in yellow and orange felt. I stamped them with a script image using black stazon. I attached the smaller piece to the larger one by sewing the centres. I cut some wool and laid it on the fabric, placing the flowers over the top. I then stitched the flowers to the purple fabric taking in some of the wool. I put a piece of black tulle across the bottom and again trapped the wool. I stitched a few times over it. I attached a piece of white card to the back which was postcard size (6" x 4") stitched right around the edge and cut off the excess materials. Not quite what I had in mind when I started, but then it never is!!!!!