Book Review: Felt Fantastic

It wouldn't be a proper Book Week on my (felt-obsessed) blog without at least one book dedicated to felt crafting! :)

So, today I'm reviewing Felt Fantastic by Sarah Tremelling & Morven Jones.

Sarah is the lovely lady who runs Blooming Felt, a shop name you probably recognise as one of my current blog sponsors. I've known Sarah vaguely for years as we were in the same biz (selling felt) for many years and you may remember that we met up earlier this spring for a fab day out in London.

Blooming Felt specialise in wool felt, selling (among other things) those lovely thick handmade felt sheets and shapes, and lots of colourful felt balls/beads. I have to confess that I tend to oooh over these sort of supplies but to not really know what to do with them. I'm so used to just working with thin craft felt, and these chunky shapes are such a different material!

So I was really interested to see this book and to get some inspiration for ways I could use the handmade felt supplies in my stash.

Felt Fantastic contains 26 projects that use a mix of felt sheets, shapes and felt beads... plus other supplies like seed beads, colourful buttons and embroidery floss. They're divided into 4 chapters: Cute for Kids, For the Home, Easy Accessories and Festive Fun.

Some of the projects include more than one design, like the set of of animal masks and this selection of brooches:

 

All the projects have step by step instructions and sketch-like illustrations to guide you. There are also lots of "further felty ideas" included with suggested variations for each project, which is great. The templates are dotted throughout the book instead of being in one section at the back and most of them do need enlarging, which is a bit of a shame.

The emphasis throughout Felt Fantastic is on fun, colourful, easy-to-make projects (many of which you can make even more quickly by using craft glue instead of sewing). This is crafting as a fun afternoon project, maybe to make with your kids or just to get a quick crafty fix and have a finished piece at the end of it instead of working for hours and hours doing detailed handstitching.

I love the rainbow felt scrap wreath on the front cover (maybe I should try something like that with my own felt scraps?), the colourful coasters made with rows of felt beads and the cupcake-style trinket pots.

There are projects that really make the most of the thickness of the felt, like these trinket boxes:

And others which you could easily adapt and make with ordinary craft felt, like this charming beehive sewing set:

My favourite project has to be the joyful gingerbread house, decorated with buttons and felt beads. This looks like it would be so much fun to make!

This book would be great for beginner crafters, people crafting with kids, anyone who likes their crafting to be quick and simple so they can squeeze it into a spare hour here and there... or someone who (like me!) has a whole bunch of felt beads and handmade felt that they don't know what to do with.

Felt Fantastic is published by David & Charles. RRP £12.99. It's available from Stitch Craft Create, Amazon UK, Amazon USA, The Book Depository and many other bookshops.

Please note: I was sent a free review copy of this book. Blooming Felt are one of my current blog sponsors but I wasn't paid to write this review and am always honest in my book reviews! The Amazon & Book Depository links in this post are affiliate links.