I received a link suggestion and there were two different URLs and think both are worth our attention. The first one is for a lovely wool flower boa scarf pattern courtesy of Marcus Brothers a wonderful fabric supplier. The other is dolly donations, sending love one dolly the time. Sarah of dolly donations it is a mother of a beautiful daughter and the wife to a brave fireman, and she is an artist (Sarah L Hanson) who has a passion for sewing. Her mission is to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate, especially orphaned children around the world and to provide them with a source of comfort by sending them love, one dolly at a time!  Each project page has complete instructions for the scarf and the adorable dolls. What a lovely gesture on the part of Sarah to encourage us comfort children around the world. Each doll pictured on this site has its own precious expressions. You can even make up little accessories to go along with each doll.  This posting is a offering you two wonderful patterns for your crafting enjoyment and at the same time an opportunity to spread your love around the world. The beautiful scarf can be made in different wool colors and lengths to fit your needs. What a spectacular addition for all your spring fashions. 

Kim of The Inadvertent Farmer blog created this amazing bag out of a felted wool alpaca sweater. I love the decoration of her creative roses on this bag. She offers you a step-by-step pictorial tutorial on how to re-create this beautiful and useful bag. So save those old sweaters and make yourself a stunning bag like Kim’s.  She also has a shop on ETSY called sweetgrace, where she sells her designer clothing for children (now empty) but I hope she fills if soon because what she did sell were adorable young girls clothing. Check out Kim’s blog is filled with fun and unusual projects and just plain good living.

Her name is Kim, and she lives on a small 10 acre farm in Washington State (Gardening zone 8). She raises organic produce, animals, and kids, she has 5, 4 boys and 1 girl. She seems to specialize in attracting unwanted, abandoned, lost, and unusual animals.  The humane society has her on speed dial! They have a camel, 4 llamas, a pygmy goat, sheep, chickens, geese, and an occasional turkey now and then  She has a design business making custom clothing for little ones called Sweet Grace Designs (sweetgrace on etsy) that supports her fabric habit and keeps her only daughter in clothing as colorful and one of a kind as she is!  She gardens; home schools, farms, sews, designs, photographs, mothers, prays, and votes.

What I like most about this flower from Whipup.net,  is that you cam use any colors you want to create a pretty bouquet to decorate a jacket or a hat or anything that suits your fancy. Think of this flower in gorgeous shades of green for St. Patrick’s Day. This is something you could do with the children if they are old enough to handle a scissor. Don’t worry about what shape they cut it will be their own unique design and you can explain to them that they are saving the planet.

What makes this flower so grand? It’s simple to make and crafted from sustainable products: eco-fi felt made of recycled plastic bottle and sweet vintage buttons. In no time at all, you’ll have a new felt posy for your wardrobe by following this simple tutorial. In fact, you’ll just have to be patient enough to allow the glue to dry between steps.

 The crochet pattern comes from Suzie’s Stuff.  Suzetta created very cute Shamrock pins and on another posted using the same pattern did Shamrock garland.  I crocheted the one pictured with green wool and then felted them and decorated my votive candle holder tree with my little Shanrocks.  This pattern from Suzetta is quick and easy and can be worked up in minutes, so crochet up a bunch of Shamrocks for pins or whatever comes to mind.  

Amanda is an artist from the great northwest with an extraordinary knack for the art of felting. She has done a series of mushrooms that are amazing. Her last posting on her blog is gilled mushroom that is mounted on a beautiful natural branch. She is an experimenter in felting and is producing some outstanding work. Do visit Amanda’s blog and look around her ETSY shop and visually get a taste of her extraordinary talent. The shop is called “Amandafiebing” I think you will enjoy looking around her shop.

This is Lolly’s very first video tutorial and she did a marvelous job. In this tutorial she shows you how to create adorable little flowers to decorate a picture frame. She uses felt and craft paper and other types of paper. Her blog is called LollyChops and this is one of the most interesting blogs I’ve seen in a long time. She makes the most adorable items and she also has downloadable PDF designs for you to use. There is a whole family of Chops when you read about her and it is very sweet the way she describes her family. One of the things that I thought was really neat is that she offers beautiful recipe cards in a PDF format with the recipe and pictures on them for you to download and try some of her goodies. My mouth watered when I saw her carrot cookies and homemade strawberry yogurt. you will what to watch her  informative video and you will also want to check out her entire blog, so take a trip over to  LollyChops and find out what she’s up to. Enjoy!

Maddy, of Maddy Craft e-mailed me this adorable projects and downloadable in a PDF format for you to create these delightful embroidered felted hearts. These are great alternatives to handing out paper valentines.  Maddy shows us just how to create these lovely hearts and just what embroidery stitch to use. This is a complete pictorial tutorial and I want to thank Maddy for sharing this with us. Once your hearts are complete, you can personalize them as Maddy did, with little tags. Be sure to visit Maddy craft.com and see all her beautiful felting designs and she offers a number of free patterns. To download the PDF file for the embroidered felted hearts click here.

 

On the blog called “Craft Side” you will find a video on how to make a felted bookmark made from a sweater which is commonly referred to as up-cycling.  As you all probably know up-cycling a wool sweater is taking that sweater and shrinking it down in to a tightly woven fabric that is called felt. Once a sweater is felted it can be treated as you would treat fabric as far as cutting it out and it does not fray and you can use it for appliqués on any item you choose. This is a fun video on how to create this up-cycled sweater bookmark.  In the video they are using a die cutter machine, but I am sure these designs can easily be cut by hand.  So watch the video and see what a fun idea this is.  Our very own Recycled Crafts editor Stefanie Girard is the sweater surgery gal and the author of Sweater Surgery: How to Make New Things with Old Sweaters available on Amazon.

I found this delightful blog called crafty sisters felting and I immediately fell in love with the beautiful felted heart pillow they created.  The red wool felted hearts and with the tiny felt rosebud on the pillow is charming. The crafty sisters show you just out to go about creating this beautiful pillow for Valentine’s Day or any other day of the year showing your heart is in the right place. Following is a snippet on how this pillow came to be. Take a trip over to the crafty sisters is and see this wonderful pictorial tutorial.

When I was playing around in the felt the other day making the felt door hanger, I found my felting tool that I picked up a couple of years ago.  I had bought strands of real wool, and heard about a tip of dying it with Kool-aid.  Yes, I dyed in wonderful colors of cherry, watermelon, and black cherry.  It really worked with a little vinegar added.  I also found that real wool felt sold on the bolt works well with this tool. I had a pretty red wool felt on hand….not dyed with kool-aid:)

What other bag could bring the spirit of Valentine to your wardrobe better than this adorable Heart-Felt bag from Martha Stewart’s site.  The hilarious Joan Rivers joins Martha to craft a heart-shaped felt bag via a video from Martha’s show. The idea for this bag comes from Marc Jacobs Andy Flesh Big Heart Tote Bag, $1895. Sit back and enjoy this hilarious show and at the same time learn to make the Heart-Felt Bag.

This pattern comes from knitting daily. It is a downloadable PDF file so it’s an instant gratification pattern. The girl in the picture is using it to carry a load of wood for her fireplace, but I see this as a wonderful all around tote. You can use a solid colors or a mix it up with colors that you like as well as patterns. It is listed as easy and this would be good for a beginner felting project. Do pay knitting daily a visit as they have many wonderful free knitting patterns with complete downloadable instructions. This would make an adorable Valentine tote in a red with a large white heart on it. I hope you enjoy this pattern and if you do knits one I wish you would send us a picture of your finished tote.

The tutorial for these awesome boots has been all over the Internet and if you did not see it, here it is.  I love these and found the complete tutorial on Urban Threads. From the designer: As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing the DIY movement can’t do. It seems to be able to turn anything into anything, kind of like if MacGyver really got into sewing. Well, one of the DIYers favorite up-cycling materials is a bulky old sweater, and today through the magic of craftiness, it’s going to be transformed into a pair of super cute sweater boots! Ha. Bet MacGyver never pulled that one off… (Note: not that I’m dissing MacGyver in any way.  Find the complete tutorial on Urban Threads or a printer-friendly PDF of this tutorial.

Martha Stewart has two really cute felting projects I want to share with you.  One is a Heart-Felted Scarf and the other is the Kids’ Mitten Sweaters.  There is a video tutorial for the scarf along with a template.  The Kids’ Mitten Sweater has complete instructions along with a template for the mittens. Both are adorable projects that you should try.

 White is introducing a brand new video blog called “HandworkTV.com” with free weekly give-away contests. It features seasonal crafts you can do with your children.  I featured her pumpkin video in Sept. before, but now it’ll be a regular show. She is offering us a 2 part video tutorial on how to make a needle felted snowman.  I hope to see more awesome tutorials from White.

How to Needle Felt a Snowman: Part 1

How to Needle Felt a Snowman: Part 2

How To Needle Felt A Snowman: Part 3

 It is said that good things come to those that wait or in my case asked.  I asked Kim of Wildly Woolly to make up a little tutorial showing her Easy way to make Felted Balls and she did.  Kim is an awesome felting artist and has a lovely blog called Wildly Woolly and an ETSY shop by the same name.  She does amazing things with felt and you should check out all her art.  Thanks Kim!

Tutorial: The attached photo depicts the 3 easy steps: 1. tie a single knot in the center of your roving; 2. needle felt the ends up around the knot to pre-felt it; 3. wet-felt the ball in soapy hot water and let dry