Print or trace the pattern onto the paper side of paper-backed fusible adhesive. I like to use Heat & Bond Lite.
Roughly cut out all the pieces and fuse them to the wrong side of the fabric.
Cut out all the pieces neatly. Cut directly on all the solid lines. Leave a little extra seam allowance wherever there’s a dotted line.
Peel off the paper backing and fuse the pieces onto your block. Tuck the seam allowance at all the dotted lines behind the adjoining pieces.
Outline all the pieces. I like to use black thread and a simple straight stitch for a fun cartoony look.
Finished!
A lot of the fun of this pattern is in the fabrics you choose. You can also play around with the angle of the stem, and the flower at the top of the stem.
This little felt bird was such a delight to make! Seriously – I loved every minute of it. I want to make a whole flock of them in rainbow colors! And now you can make her too.
Flora is all hand sewn from wool blend felt and colorful embroidery thread, making her an easy, portable project, perfect for carrying around in your purse.
Transfer the pattern to the felt. When I discovered Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy it changed my life. I made a video showing how awesome it is here. I call it The Magical Embroidery Stuff and I use it for everything. Here I’ve printed the pattern directly onto the Sulky Sticky Fabric-solvy, roughly cut around each piece, and stuck it to my felt.
Step 2 Stitch the design. I used two strands of embroidery thread and the following stitches: backstitch for all lines, French knots for all dots, lazy daisy stitch for the flowers. (Those links all go to video tutorials for each stitch.)
Stitch right through the stabilizer and the felt.
Step 3 Cut out the shapes.
Step 4 Soak off the stabilizer and let the pieces dry.
I lay the pieces face down in a bowl of cold water and just let them sit there for about an hour. Longer is fine – I’ve forgotten mine and let them soak overnight with no problem. The soaking will make the stabilizer all mushy and soft. Rinse it off under cold water. Use a kitchen sprayer if needed to get off any stubborn bits, but try not to rub the surface of the felt. Lay them out on a towel to dry. Don’t wring them, twist them or even smoosh them – just lay them dripping wet on the towel and leave them alone.
Step 8 Sew up the back, starting at the tip of the tail. Stop sewing about halfway up the back and stuff the tail. Mix a few large nuts (from the hardware store) into the stuffing to weight her bottom, otherwise she’ll tend to tip forward. Sew up a bit higher on her back and stuff in more stuffing. Finish sewing and stuffing until she’s nice and plump, and all sewn up.
Step 9 Pin the wings in place, one on each side of the body.
Use the grid pattern you embroidered to line them up exactly. Thread a long needle and knot the end. Starting sewing underneath one wing, near the top. Sew through the body and out the other side, through the opposing wing. Take a small stitch back into the wing, through the body and out through the first wing. Stitch back and forth like this a few times to secure the wings. Don’t pull the thread too tight or you’ll distort the shape of her body. Knot your thread underneath one wing and bury the tail.
She’s finished! don’t you want to sew a whole flock of these beauties?
Everyone knows that a little Vicks Vapo-Rub smoothed onto a kid’s chest can help ease a cough and clear up a stuffy nose. But some kids (and some adults too) don’t like the sticky stuff smeared on their skin. And some grown-ups are concerned about using a petroleum jelly-based rub.
I recently had a major Mom-lightbulb-moment. I make rice bags for bedtime – usually scented with orange oil, cinnamon stick and cloves. I will sometimes put one on my “I don’t like sticky stuff on my skin” daughter’s chest to help ease a cough and soothe her to sleep when she’s sick. What if I make a special rice bag for sick times and scent it with the aromatics in Vicks VapoRub?
Awesome – if I do say so myself. Cue the chorus and trumpets please. 🙂
The pattern calls for 2 1/2 cups of rice. Before you put the rice in the bag, stir in 20 drops of eucalyptus oil and 20 drops of rosemary oil.
Put the rice in the bag and sew it closed. Ta daa!
The smell will be very strong at first – keep it stored in a ziplock bag to help preserve it. After a couple of months it will seem like it’s lost its scent, but microwaving will bring it right out again.
Microwave at 1 – 1 1/2 minutes (depends on the strength of your microwave and how hot you like it) and lay it on your child’s (or your) chest. The warmth will help soothe a cough, and the aromatics will help clear a stuffy head. No stickiness needed. 🙂
For extra comfort – sew up this rice bag cover.
I designed it especially to fit the rice bag I linked to above. Sometimes having a special critter like this monster to help scare away a cold does as much good as the aromatics and the chicken soup. 🙂
Here’s how to make it. . .
Step 1 Cut 1 square of fabric or faux fur 10 1/2 inches square, for the back of the rice bag cover.
Step 2 For the lower jaw, cut two rectangles, each 4 3/4 inches tall and 10 1/2 inches wide. Cut a piece of white jumbo rickrack 10 1/2 inches long.
Step 3 For the top of the face, cut one rectangle 8 1/2 inches tall and 10 1/2 inches wide.
Step 4 Make the eyes. Trace a 3-inch circle on the back of one scrap of white fabric. (I used the inside of a roll of masking tape.) Layer that scrap and another scrap of white fabric right sides together. Sew around the circle, right on the line you drew. Sew all the way around. Trim away the excess fabric, leaving about 1/4 inch seam allowance all the way around. It doesn’t need to be exact.
Pul the two layers of fabric apart slightly and cut a slit in the center of one of the layers. Turn the eye right side out through the slit, smooth out the curves, and press the eye flat.
You’ll need to add the rickrack teeth to the bottom of the face. Draw a line 1/8′′ from the long edge of one of the smaller rectangles, on the right side of the fabric.
Lay the rickrack on the right side of the fabric so the valleys line up with the line you drew. Stitch the rickrack in place along the 1/8′′
line.
Lay the second small rectangle over the first, right sides together, with the rickrack sandwiched between the layers. Stitch them
together using 1/4′′ seam allowance.
Flip the two rectangles right sides out and smooth them down where the rickrack comes out of the seam. Press. You can watch a video demonstrating the technique here.
Step 6 Hem the bottom edge of the larger rectangle for the monster’s face. Turn up the bottom edge of the rectangle 1/4 inch and press. Turn it up another 1/4 inch and press. Sew the seam in place. This video will help with that hem if you’ve never done it before.
Step 7 Position the eyes on the rectangle so they’re centered, and the top edge of the eyes is 2 inches down from the raw edge at the top of the face rectangle. Stick them in place with a quick swipe of fabric glue stick. Sew around the edges of the circles with matching thread. This video will help if you have trouble sewing those curves.
Step 8 Add a couple of black buttons (I used 5/8″) to make pupils in the eyes, and a couple of tiny black buttons (I used 3/8″) to make nostrils below the eyes. You’re almost ready to sew all the pieces together!
Step 9 Lay the back of the rice bag right side up on a flat surface. Layer the jaw rectangle over the fur so that the bottom edge of the jaw rectangle is lined up with the bottom edge of the fur square. Smooth all the fur to the inside, so it’s sandwiched between the two layers and pin or clip into place.
The bottom of the face is it the top of the photo here; I like to pin toward myself. See how all the fur is tucked inside the pinned edges? That’s what you want.
Step 10 Layer the rectangle with the eyes face down over the top of the fur. Smooth the fur to the inside and pin or clip into place. The bottom of the eye rectangle should overlap the top of the teeth rectangle.
Step 11 Sew all the way around the edge using 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Using 1/2′′ seam allowance, sew again up the two sides (not across the top and bottom). That will help reinforce the stress points at the sides of the “mouth.”
Turn the cover right side out and slip a warm rice bag inside!
Happy sewing! And to everyone fighting the cold and flu this season – get well soon!
Unless you have these fire-breathing hand warmers, of course!
These pocket-sized monsters are easy to whip up, use scraps of fabulously fun faux fur, and are filled with rice so you can pop them in the microwave for hand-warming goodness. Add a few drops of essential oil or a bit of herb or spice to the rice and you get scented breath from your fire-breathing beasts!
Trace around the pattern template (I like to glue mine to cereal box cardboard before I start) and cut out one oval from from the woven fabric and one from the faux fur. If you’ve never worked with faux fur before, watch this video before you cut to eliminate the flying furry bits.
Trace the face onto the non-furry fabric. Use paper-backed fusible adhesive to applique eyes, teeth and/or mouth onto the face. If you’ve never used paper-backed fusible adhesive, you can see how to use it in this video.
You’re going to heat these babies up, so be sure to stitch around them so the pieces don’t come unstuck when they get hot. I just straight stitched around all the edges in matching thread.
Use embroidery thread to hand stitch the pupils of the eyes, the line mouths and the nostrils. I used 6 strands of DMC #3371– a very, very dark brown.
Just take simple straight stitches for the pupils of the eyes and the small nostrils. Use lazy daisy stitches for the pink nostrils (this video shows how) and backstitch the mouths. Watch this video if you don’t know how to backstitch.
If you don’t want to fuss with hand embroidery, no problem. You can use satin stitch on your machine or even use a fabric marker. It’s all good.
Pin the face to the furry back, right sides together. Tuck all the fur to the inside of the layers so you get a nice furry halo around the edge of your monster. Watch that Intraux to Faux Fur video to see how and why.
Sew the two layers together around the edge using 1/4 inch seam allowance. Leave a small opening on the side to turn it right side out. Keep that opening as small as possible – the faux fur is not fun to sew up by hand. I left about two inches.
That opening won’t be fun to hand sew, but the fur is totally worth using because…
Holy Wow! Look at that fur explosion! Tell me that’s not fun and totally worth the swearing you’ll do in a few minutes!
Fill him up with 1/4 cup of uncooked rice and any scents you want to add. This guy got 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary leaves (my daughter’s current favorite scent).
Sew up the opening. I think ladder stitch is the easiest to do on faux fur; watch this video to see how. Make sure you stitch through the backing of the faux fur, not just the furry pile.
Done!
This fiery redhead has two drops of orange essential oil stirred into the rice, along with a few bits of broken cinnamon stick and some whole cloves. My favorite.
This guy looks grumpy so I gave him a less pleasant scent: a few peppercorns mixed in with the rice. Mustard seed is a good angry option too.
Recommended microwave times to heat them up will depend on the strength of your oven. I do mine for 15-30 seconds each.
We all know that most New Year’s Resolutions fail. Do you know why? They’re too grand… too lofty. And they often seem impossible.
So here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to set a practical crochet goal, and dedicate 10 minutes a day to reaching it. You have ten minutes a day, right?
And I’m going to give you a handy worksheet to use. Sounds do-able, huh?
Set realistic expectations, and remove roadblocks
If you’ve never knit before, then you’re probably not going to knit your first sweater this month. (Sorry if I’m the one who had to burst your bubble on that one).
But, there’s good news… the needle arts (knitting, crocheting, sewing) are all about putting in practice. I can pretty much guarantee you that if you practice in a consistent way (even if it’s not for huge blocks of time), you’ll get better.
So, step one: pick a realistic goal that you think you can accomplish in a month.
Okay, onto step two (and I think this bit is really important!). You’re going to remove any possible roadblocks that you can think of that might come in between you and your goal. How many times have you sat down, ready to work on a project… only to discover that you don’t have the right hook?
The best way to guarantee success is to solve all of your roadblocks in advance. Before you begin working on your goal, gather all your materials and tools. This means downloading your pattern, getting your supplies, and even bookmarking resources that you might need. Then, when you need help… you won’t be slowed down. You’re prepared.
Notice that there are 4 weeks, with 6 boxes each. Can you commit to spending 10 minutes a day, 6 days a week, to working towards your goal?
And if you find a little spare time… buy all means, keep going!
What’s important is that you consistently spend a little bit of time working towards your goal.
Let’s have a peek at an example:
Look at how I came up with a list of concrete and helpful steps that will remove roadblocks and help me reach my goal. Nothing crazy… just little things that will help make the goal easier.
What’s your goal?
Notice this worksheet isn’t about setting your goals for all of 2013… it’s about picking one thing that you’d like to do within a month. Easy. No pressure.
If you’re feeling daring, you can print out 12 worksheets, one for each month. But, that’s optional! Start with the first month, and see how you go!
Crocheting should be fun, right?
Tell me about what you’re going to start with… I’m excited to hear your goals!
There’s no reason to settle for the bland fabric that comes on most ironing boards – making a new cover is super easy!
I loved my old ironing board cover, but it had gotten badly waterstained and really faded in the sun. Plus – I made all kinds of new sewing room accessories using the Ed Emberley Happy Drawing fabric collection and I wanted my ironing board to match. So time for a new cover!
This time I needed to replace the pad too, so it was a great time to shoot a video showing you how to do the whole thing from start to finish.
If you want even more padding, I recommend a couple of layers of 100% cotton terry cloth. A towel won’t fit the length of most ironing boards, but you can buy it by the yard at the big box fabric stores.
Here are handy links to all the posts about quilting tools and supplies.
Make a sweet little softie with this free felt chicken pattern.
These simple little hens can be so many things!
Fill them with heavy aquarium gravel and you have some pretty dang fancy pattern weights.
Fill them with lightweight Poly-fil Stuffing and add a loop to the back and you have a pretty ornament for your tree.
Fill them with plastic pellets and you have a pocket-sized softie that sits in the palm of your hand.
These felt chickens are hand-sewn from scraps and a bit of embroidery thread and take about an hour to make. Want a little quiet handwork for couch-potato time? This is the perfect project. And it’s FREE!
Cut out all the pieces. I don’t like to trace onto felt, because I don’t want even a tiny bit of that marking line to show on the finished piece. I trace or print my pattern pieces onto freezer paper, cut them out roughly, fuse them to the felt, and then cut around the edge.
It’s a nice way to cut clean, precise shapes.
Step 2
You’ll need two body pieces, one gusset, one beak, and one comb.
Step 3
Transfer the dots you’ll use as guidelines for stitching the wings.
I don’t like to draw the whole wing shape because the thread of my Ustitches might not sit right on that line, so I just mark the dots where each stitch will start, stop, and be tacked down.
Step 4
Stitch the wings in a contrasting color (I like to match the beak and comb color) using the U-stitchand four strands of embroidery thread.
If you want really precise lines you can use backstitch, split stitch, or stem stitch, but the tight curves at the tips of the wings won’t be loads of fun in any of those stitches.
Step 5
Lay the gusset along the bottom edge of one of the body pieces and stitch the two layers together using a running stitch and four strands of thread. If you use 36 inches of thread you’ll have enough to sew the whole hen without having to knot off and start a new thread. Sneaky. :)
I would normally use thread that matches
the chicken body. I used contrasting here
just so you could see it better.
You could use whipstitch instead of running stitch - choose the look you like.
Step 6
When you get to the end of the gusset piece, layer the second body piece with the first one.
Pin the beak between the two layers and start stitching your way up the front of the hen’s face.
Step 7
Stitch up to the top of the hen’s head.
Step 8
Slip the comb in between the two layers at the back of the head and stitch the rest of the way across the top of the body.
A little felt chicken – all finished. Right? It looks like it’s done, doesn’t it?
Step 9
Not quite. Turn it around and you can see that you still need to sew the bottom part of the other side of the body.
Line up the body edge with the gusset edge and keep stitching.
Step 10
Sew most of the way along the bottom edge.
When the opening is just big enough to slip your thumb inside, stop stitching but leave your thread tail there. I even leave it threaded on my needle.
Step 11
Tuck a tiny pinch of Polyfil stuffing in the head and another in the tail. Work it right up into the points.
If you’re making a tree ornament, fill the
whole body with Polyfil stuffing.
If you’re making a pattern weight, add two
tablespoons of aquarium gravel.
If you’re making a softie, add two
tablespoons of plastic pellets.
Step 12
Pick the needle and thread back up and finish stitching across the bottom of the chicken. Tie a knot and bury the tail inside the hen.
You’re done! Better make another - chickens don’t like to live alone. Now even felt chickens!
Happy stitching!
Play with some felt! Try the Oddballs – a fun pattern for silly monsters.
These pattern weights are sooooooooo easy to make. Seriously. Each one takes less than five minutes. Dig into your fabric scraps and make a big batch of them for a sewing friend. This fabric (to match the rest of my sewing room) is designed by Ed Emberley for Cloud 9 Fabrics.
I’ve tried a lot of different styles of pattern weights and these are, hands-down, my favorite. The pyramid shape makes them really easy to grab, and they’re super heavy. My secret ingredient is aquarium gravel. I actually weighed all kinds of possible fillers to see which one weighed the most by volume. Gravel weighed more than twice as much as the next closest option!
Ready?
Cut a piece of fabric 6 1/2 inches wide x 3 1/2 inches tall.
Fold it so the right sides are together. Sew across the short ends using 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Turn the little tube right side out. Flatten it so the seam is running up one side. Sew across one end using 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Using contrasting thread is fun. 🙂
Fill it with 3 tablespoons of aquarium gravel. Flatten it this time so the seam is running up the center. Sew across the end using 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Careful not to spill the gravel while you’re getting it under the presser foot. 🙂
Trim up the edges using pinking shears. Not too close to the seam!
Done!
If you’re making these for a friend, 6-10 is a nice quantity. That’s enough to hold down just about any pattern.
These are really handy for more than just cutting patterns. I especially love using them for holding down the corners of freezer paper when I’m tracing applique designs.
Here are handy links to all the posts about quilting tools and supplies.
Do you want to know the question I’m asked most often?
No kidding. Almost everyone asks me this. It was actually the only downside that my husband brought up when I began designing. “Aren’t you going to run out?”
In fact, the inverse is true: the more I design, the more ideas I get!
The key: flourish in the constraints
Do you watch Project Runway? Most of the time, the participating clothing designers are given difficult constraints: like designing a garment using $250 of candy.
And what challenge to contestants usually say is hardest? The one with the least constraints. While you might think it’s freeing to be able to do whatever you want… it’s actually debilitating. How do you know what to do? What criteria do you use to make your choices?
In my designs, I set a lot of constraints:
The yarns must be commercially available and easily substituted.
There can be no more than one technically complicated stitch (for example, the loop or bobble stitch)
Overall, the design must be accessible to a crocheter who has accomplished one simple amigurumi, and is open to learning a new skill.
Any new technique that I use must be accompanied by a video/descriptive blog post to assist my customers.
Why do I do this? I began placing these constraints so that my customer would receive the best possible pattern. With these constraints in place, my customers are guaranteed that:
they won’t get lost in a pattern due to insufficient photos/videos/help.
the quality of the finished product isn’t dependent on non-quantifiable artistic skills (because I have none!). If they follow the directions (attach to round 25), then their finished product will look lovely!
the pattern is accessible to their skill level and fun (uh… no color changes with a loop stitch and attaching felt pieces at the same time!)
This makes customers happy. But, over time, I discovered… the constraints make my designing happy!
The tale of 10 monsters
A few months ago, I was asked by Knitting Fever (the distributor of Ella Rae Classic, a yarn I frequently use in my designs) to design 10 monsters for distribution on their site.
Now… you get to ask that gem of a question: how do you design 10 monsters without getting bored?!? And, how do you come up with 10 different monsters?
I’m not going to fib… the number 10 even had me a little worried. After all, I’ve taught a course on designing your own monsters (which included patterns for about 7 monsters), and I couldn’t repeat any of those!
I started sketching…
As I was sketching, I knew it was not only important that I didn’t feel bored with my monsters, but that a customer would really want to crochet all 10… and love every minute of it! That meant that every monster needed a purpose: a novel shape or technique. And what’s that? More constraints!
In the end, I came up with 10 that I really loved:
And some that didn’t make the cut:
Among the winners were some great techniques, shapes and skills that I new customers would be excited about:
Legs that are joined as you crochet, instead of the usual stitch-them-on-afterwards
A ruffle!
Stripes that make use of stranding as you change colors
A fun rectangular-shape that uses working the bottom side of the foundation chain to begin
A monster that begins with a long chain: and not the standard circle
Funny antennae that make use of pipe cleaners for structure
Crocheted-on mouths with (simple triangle) felt teeth
All of these features (at least I hoped!) would make the crocheting exciting, but also teach the crocheter a skill that they could apply to other animals. Don’t like the mouth on a pattern? Now you’ll know how to crochet a smile and stick on a felt tooth!
Once I had my faves, I colored in my sketches so I could figure out which colors of yarn I’d like to use:
So does this mean that I could design another 10 monsters? I don’t know… maybe! But I can say that what helped me is coming up with specific goals (aka constraints) that I wanted each design to accomplish.
The finished monsters
Here’s the whole gang… do you like them?
I hope you do!
And you can have them all!
All 10 of these patterns are available as free downloads from Knitting Fever! Isn’t that awesome?
I really hope that you grab them and enjoy the process of crocheting these fun monsters!
Thanks for stopping by and reading!
If you want to see more great finished items… make sure to visit Tami’s Amis blog, the organizer of this great FO Friday theme!
I hope you have an awesome and craft-filled weekend!
