Felt Fox Brooch Tutorial

I've just sent out this month's freebie for my pattern newsletter subscribers - a tutorial for sewing a felt fox brooch.

This is another old design that I used to sell in my shop which I'm now sharing as a pattern. I'm really enjoying revisiting these old projects and I hope you guys are enjoying sewing them!

There's still time to get this tutorial for free, just sign up to my newsletter before the end of the month (July 2019).

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If you sign up to my monthly pattern newsletter you'll recieve a free project from me in your inbox once a month, and you can also sign up to hear about what's new on my blog and in my shop.

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free patterns and project ideas.

Felt Badger Brooch Tutorial

This month's freebie for my pattern newsletter subscribers will be a tutorial for sewing a cute felt badger brooch!

 

I stitched lots of these badgers for my online shops a decade ago (how time flies, huh?!) and am really looking forward to revisiting this pattern to share it with you guys.

I've always loved badgers but have had a particular fondness for them in recent years after getting to see lots in real life, visiting my parents' garden for some peanut snacks. You can see a few video clips of them over on my Instagram, if you're interested, just follow the links: one, two, three, and four. 

Click here to read more about my newsletter and subscribe!

I'll be sending out the badger brooch tutorial later this month (June 2019), and you'll also receive last month's project: a felt barn owl mask tutorial.

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free patterns and project ideas.

Re-Starting a Neglected Project: a Woodland Cushion!

If you're anything like me you've got several works-in-progress that are not so much "in progress" as they are "massively neglected and currently shoved in a box or under the bed gathering dust".  

One of the downsides of blogging is that you've got a public record of exactly when you started all those projects that are sitting round your house still not finished. It can be quite embarrassing to realise just how many months and years have past since you first started making X item with huge enthusiasm... doubly so when you re-start a project and have to blog about it again while admitting just how long you've gone without working on it!

Waaaay back in 2012 I bought some yarn for making a new project. About a year later (Sept 2013) I finally bought the knitting pattern I wanted and started knitting: using the Woodsy Association knitting patterns from Tiny Owl Knits (cute wristlets decorated with woodland animals) to make a knitted patchwork cushion for my mum.

Blogging about my plans for the project, I wrote: "I've got no idea how long it'll take me to get the whole cushion made (I have told my mum that this is a present for her "at some point", could be Christmas or her birthday or maybe even Christmas next year!) but I'm really looking forward to seeing it develop and to stitching all those cute little animal faces" 

Aaaaand here it is, May 2015, and I've really not made much progress. Oops. I am a terrible daughter!

I've (finally) bought the missing shade of yarn that was out of stock when I placed my original order in 2012...

... knitted a few "squares" (they're not actually square but that's what I'm calling them in my head so shhh)...

... and (mostly) finished stitching the first pair of animals...

 ... but there's still a long way to go.

So, I'm resolving to get this finished by Christmas 2015 at the very latest so my mama can finally have some woodland cuteness for her sofa. Wish me luck!

Book Review: Craftydermy

Are you a fan of the recent trend for taxidermy-themed crafts? Well, I've found the perfect book for you: Craftydermy, edited by Tracey Benton. 

Craftydermy is a smallish book (about 8 inches high) containing 19 different projects, each one designed by a different maker/crafter.

It's got a fun keyhole cover, the inside pages are lovely matte paper and all the project titles and materials lists (and a few other bits of text here and there) look like they've been typed on a typewriter, which gives the book a great handmade / DIY feel.

The entertaining and informative introduction discusses the history of taxidermy, the recent"disconcerting" resurgence of taxidermy-as-decor in trendy boutiques and bars, and how crafty interpretations of the trend means you can get the look without having a dead animal in your living room.

Then the rest of the book contains the projects - each with step by step instructions, and some step by step illustrations for difficult projects and steps.

There are two kinds of project in the book...

... crafty recreations of taxidermy and other trophies, e.g. paper mache antlers, a knitted fox fur and a display case filled with paper butterflies...

 

... and more general animal-themed projects, e.g. an embroidered squirrel cushion and a cross stitched stag pendant.

If you expected the whole book to be full of faux taxidermy (a not unlikely assumption given its title) there's a chance you might be disappointed to find these projects in the mix, but I really liked these projects and I think it gives the book a broader appeal and usefulness (how many faux animal heads can you have on your wall, after all?).

 

The projects cover a wide range of different crafts, and while there are some quite ambitious and time-consuming projects in the book (including a hand stitched felt tiger rug which I imagine would take an age to stitch!) there are also simpler things you could make for yourself or as gifts like this faux fur hood:

As you'd expect with a small book with how-tos for making large projects, the templates do need enlarging. Having to enlarge templates from books only bothers me when with a little effort / creative thinking full size templates could easily have been included, which isn't the case here.

However is a bit annoying not to have clear instructions on what % to enlarge the templates by - some of the projects have that slightly frustrating instruction to "enlarge until X size" (just tell me what % to enlarge it by! don't make me measure the templates and do maths! I am not good at maths!) and others don't give a size guideline at all. 

Minor niggles about the templates aside, I think this is a great, quirky little book. If you fancy making some crafty taxidermy to decorate your home, or want to do some animal-themed crafting that's more cool than cute I think you'll enjoy making the projects in here!

Craftydermy is published by Cicada Books. RRP £12.95. It's available from Amazon UK, Amazon USA, The Book Depository and many other bookshops.

[Disclaimer: Cicada Books sent me a free review copy of this book. The Amazon & Book Depository links in this post are affiliate links]

Giveaway: Mollie Makes Woodland Friends

As I mentioned yesterday, I've got a copy of the new Mollie Makes book to give away!

One lucky winner will win a copy of Mollie Makes: Woodland Friends (published by Collins & Brown).

Please note: this giveaway is only open to people who live in the UK!

Just leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win. Leave your comment before 10pm on Friday 15th November, and I'll pick the winner at random on Saturday 16th November. I'll then pass the winner's details to the publishers so they can send out the copy of the book.

Please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no anonymous comments please!) and leave a blog link, Twitter username, Etsy username or email address so I can contact you. 

If I'm unable to contact the winner within a week, I will pick someone else. If you're leaving a comment with your Blogger profile, please remember that you need to have your profile set to public for me to be able to get in touch with you. If you have problems leaving a comment here on my blog, you can enter via my shop's contact form instead.

[P.S. The Amazon links in the post are affiliate links]

Update: this giveaway has now closed.

Mollie Makes: Woodland Friends - out today!

There's a lovely new craft book out today... Mollie Makes: Woodland Friends!

 

It's the follow up to Mollie Makes: Feathered Friends which was published earlier this year. Feathered Friends was full of bird-themed craft projects, and Woodland Friends is full of (yes, you guessed it) lots of projects featuring woodland animals plus acorns, toadstools, oak leaves, etc.

There are lots of very cute projects and a wide mix of different crafts to try. You can knit a fox draught excluder, sew a badger cushion, cross-stitch a squirrel hand warmer, make a silver leaf garland, crochet some woodland animal finger puppets... and more!

 

I've been really looking forward to this book coming out because it includes a project designed by me! It's always so exciting seeing a finished book that you've contributed a project to, and so much fun seeing who else has worked on it and what they've made.

Those of you with amazing memories might remember me blogging back in January about how it can be a bit nervewracking doing rough sketches and submitting them to editors... well, those rough sketches turned into this project: Felt Applique Napkin Ring Portraits.

There's an owl, a raccoon, a fox and a bear. It took me a while to get that little raccoon looking just right but now I think he's my favourite of the set! 

I love the little woodland motifs used in the design of this book - that acorn, and the little leaves for the page numbers. The end papers even have a woodgrain design:

Mollie Makes: Woodland Friends is published by Collins & Brown, RRP £11.99. The US edition will be out soon!

P.S. The lovely folks at Collins & Brown have a copy of Mollie Makes: Woodland Friends for me to give away to one of my UK readers. Check back tomorrow for the giveaway post!

[Please note: the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links]

My New Knitting Project: The Woodsy Association!

Remember I blogged about a week ago, saying I'd started a new knitting project? Wanna see what it is I'm making??

Well, last year I totally fell in love with The Woodsy Association knitting patterns from Tiny Owl Knits...

 

... little wristwarmers decorated with "a raucous little band of woodland animals that will gather around you for fighting crime!" Seriously cute stuff.

I didn't fancy making lots of wristwarmers, but instead decided to use them to make a knitted patchwork cushion for my mum who a) loves woodland animals and b) has an assortment of brown and cream coloured cushions in her living room so it'd fit in perfectly with her decor.

Originally this was going to be a surprise project but I have realised that keeping the secret was going to be pretty much impossible! I'm living with my folks at the moment and though I could squeeze in some knitting when my mum's not around or after she's gone to bed, not being able to work on this project while we're sitting watching telly in the evenings was reeeeeally going to slow down my progress. Plus it will be so much more fun being able to show her each finished animal and I work through them, and to share my progress with you guys here on my blog!

So, I told her about it yesterday and now I'm telling you guys :)

I don't have a detailed plan yet for how the cushion is going to look, but the basic plan is to knit squares and decorate them with the animals then fill in the other spaces with plain squares in the other shades of yarn, and just see how the colours end up looking together as I go. These are the shades of yarn I'm using:

I'm knitting each square and then adding the animal design in duplicate stitch (where you sew over the knitted stitches, instead of knitting the design using stranded intarsia). My first attempt at duplicate stitch was a bit of a mess because (like an idiot) I'd not bothered to look up how to do it! After looking online for some tutorials I totally get it now and my second attempt is going very well.

You can see the difference here - the first attempt is on the left, the second on the right:
 

I've got no idea how long it'll take me to get the whole cushion made (I have told my mum that this is a present for her "at some point", could be Christmas or her birthday or maybe even Christmas next year!) but I'm really looking forward to seeing it develop and to stitching all those cute little animal faces!