felt - I'm Topsy Turvy

Pom Pom hair clips

January 19, 2011 9 Comments

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get to attend a cookie exchange at Jen’s house (of Tatertots and Jello fame). There I met the adorable Amy of Ameroonie Designs. She had this AWESOME felt flower on her purse. And she has a great tutorial for it!!!!

I’m not really a purse gal (but I want to be, I’m just not yet) but I AM a hair band, hair clip gal… This is so easy and so fun to make I made three different sizes. The first two are made from the same sheet of felt.

First I cut the felt page (mine is 9 inches wide) into 3 inch strips. I first tried making a flower with all three strips, but it was a BIT to big for hair, and too small for a bag. So I switched to using one strip for the small headband size pom pom flower, and the other two strips for the medium size flower. ALTHOUGH I did cut the last 3 inches off the second strip of the medium flower first and use that little square for backing both the small and medium flower.

Once you cut the stips, fold them in half and cut strips every 1/2 inch from the folded side, but don’t cut all the way through. I put my plastic cutting thing over the bottom1/4 inch and then used my rotary cutter, but if you have nice sharp scissors that will be just as fast. It’s all about preference. Make it easy on YOU.

See??? This is what it should look like when your done.

To make it easier I tried using a hot glue to glue it closed, or you could just skip to rolling it. I tried it both ways and decided which way I liked it better. Different effects, so you might one better than another.

Then starting on one end start rolling… I tried rolling tight and loose. I prefer it a little loose, but try it and see what you think. I first tried layering all the strips together and then rolling, but I found that I liked it better rolling one strip at a time.

this is what the back looks like (medium)

Out of the extra square (remember to cut 3 inches off the last strip before you cut the strips and roll the flowers to use for backing) cut a circle the size of your back. Cut a slit and slid you clip of choice through it. I like these snap clips, they work well in my hair… add your glue…

and add it to the back!

there you go, medium flower! (the one above is the three strips rolled tightly. The one below is the two strips rolled loosely.) I prefer it, not so TIGHT or bunchy.

For the Larger flower I used two sheets, this time in two different colors. White and red.

I started by cutting the sheets in half, 4.5 inches wide each.

Then I did the strips every 1/2 inch, like before, but of course this time they are longer. Now I glue the two colors together and started rolling.

Here is the back, you can see how pretty it is, and I love the two colors together. Of course this would also look great in one color, but I wanted something for my coat for the winter months.

And the front! It’s HUGE, like the ones on Amy’s bag’s. Personally I’ve been wearing it on my coat and getting complements everywhere. If you have that perfect bag it would look great on it too, but this flower is about twice the size of my small denim purse! And too much for my zipper purse!

Here’s computer girl modeling it on her coat. It’s just too hard to take pictures of myself, and I never have anyone around to take pictures of me! So I know it’s way too big for her coat, but it looks great on mine (at least I think so) Also… My camera died, died died died! So now I’m stuck sharing tutorials of things I already have pictures of, and I CAN’T replace it any time soon.

Filed Under: crafts, felt, flowers, hair, headband, tutorial

Ruffled Felt Flower Hair Clip

October 30, 2010 14 Comments

I’m sure there is a more “right” way to make these, but since I had a hard time finding a tutorial I just made it up. I think they are a little too full, so I’m going to try to make it with a few less petals and see if I get the desired results next time, but since we wore these with our Costumes I wanted to get this up!

You want to start out with some felt, and a stencil! I used a plastic round lid. Remember the flower will be the same size as your petal so pick the size you want! I doubled up my fabric and marked it up!

Then cut them out! I cut a TON of petals, knowing I might not get it right the first time,and also wanting to make three flowers at least. So I just cut and cut and cut!

Next we begin the folding to create the ruffled felt petal shape. First you want to fold it in half, pretty easy.

Next we want to fold it in half again, so we have this folded quarter circle.

At this point you can go on to make flowers, ruffled pillows, ruffled wreaths, etc… In fact this was so fun I’ll probably make a few of those myself! Lovely. But for me it’s time to stitch the bottom of the folded petal to hold it’s shape. Most places suggest you hand stitch. BUT having my machine RIGHT here I figured I might as well try sewing it! So I ran the bottom 1/4 inch though the machine

Now I thought I can pull out the thread and sew another petal and then later sew them together OR I could sew them together WHILE I was stitching the bottom of the petals. SO I turned the first petal and added the second one.

So I made a circle, sewing 4 petals together. Then I made a second circle of four to place as a second layer.

stacking these two layers together it was clear that I needed a center of some kind. A single petal didn’t seem right. SO I sewed two together to try that.

Now I folded those two together. It seemed to fill in the gap I was having in the other layers. Next time I’m going to try one in the center, 3 in the middle and 4 on the bottom. I think that might solve my too full feeling I’m getting from these flowers.

I placed the center two petals in the middle of the middle round of four.

now I used my machine again to stitch the center and the middle row together. This was SUPER thick and hard to sew, BUT I’m amazing and I did it! This was the last time I was able to use the machine, because it’s so thick. I might have stopped right there, maybe I should have. I wasn’t sure it was quite big enough, so I got ready to add the other layer.

This layer I had to hand sew of course. Now it’s HUGE! Still debating the right size for hair clips vs pin vs bag decorative attachment. The next step is adding some greenery, cut out a leaf shape, cut a slit so you can overlap it to create a 3D effect.

Sew the leaf to the bottom of the flower and now is a great time to also sew your hair clip/pin/rubber band/headband on! Or sew it to a purse, or other accessory.

And your done! Wear however/wherever you’d like and have fun! I’m still not 100% in love with these, BUT in love enough for now! And they looked great with the girls ponytails!

Filed Under: crafts, felt, flowers, hair, ruffles, sewing, tutorial

Poodle-skirt tutorial, 50′s costumes

October 29, 2010 17 Comments

So here’s how our Halloween costume choice came about, here is the boys letterman cardigan tutorial and now onto the Poodle-skirt tutorial! It’s actually a pretty simple costume to make. First you’ll want to figure out the waist size your working with. We want to figure out the radius. My daughter’s waist was 19 inches. Divide it by Pi (19/3.14=6.05) and you get the diameter. Divide that in half to get the radius (6.05/2=3.02). Just so you know it’s better to go a little to small rather than to large in this case, you can always cut a larger hole, but once it’s cut you can’t go smaller. Get some felt in whatever color you’d like. My felt is 72 inches wide so it’s wide enough to make an adult skirt as well. So start by folding your felt in half.

The easiest way to mark the waist is to take a string, pin the end to the FOLDED half of your felt. Measure to your radius length, mine is 3 inches. Not take a pen and while pulling your string away from the center take it and mark a half circle from fold to fold. Now you have your half circle for the waist! STOP, don’t cut yet, we still have to use our center pin first.

For this we need the length of the skirt you want. Let’s use mine again, 16 inches. Add to it our radius (16+3=19) and we have our new length. So use the same technique as before, measuring out a string and mark our half circle! NOW you can cut!

And we have the body of our skirt! We’ll need to try it on to make sure the waist is the right size. Since you can’t get it over our hips this way we need to cut a slit down one side. But not too large. Also felt can stretch and we don’t want that so be careful.

Once you have tried it and know your waist and slit are right it’s time to add a waist band. You can use just felt, but remember that felt can get stretched. So what I did to strengthen it was to use adhesive interfacing. I measured out the waist for the waistband. You can go the exact length or go a little longer. I did both for comparison. You’ll also want to double the height that you want. Cut the interfacing to the same length, but half the height. Iron on the first side of the interfacing, peel off the backing, fold it over and and iron it again!

Now it’s time to sew the waistband onto the top of the skirt. Pin the right sides together and sew! Easy peasy!

Now you have a decision to make. How you want to close your skirt, you can go with a simple button, works great, a hook and eye, or a zipper. I’d had poodle skirt costumes growing up so I know how easy it is to stretch out the slit so I decided to go with a zipper. PLUS I have lots of zippers around my house! Now it would be easier to go with a zipper that’s already the right length or at least has an end! But since my zippers are all continuous I had to cut and make “ends” for my own. It makes mine look a little messier than your’s will be! Use a zipper foot and sew it in!

Now it COULD be finished, but it depends on your zipper. I tried my daughters on her and the zipper is so smooth it kept slipping down! SO I added a hook and eye.

If I had known I was going to be adding a hook and eye I wouldn’t have sewn the zipper all the way up. Also while the hook and eye works my favorite of my skirts was mine where I had overhang and used a sew on hook with eye closures. And this way it covers up the zipper.

Now comes the fun part! Choosing your image! There is always the classics, poodle or Scotty dog, etc… But I decided to go with something more personal to us! A pig! In case you didn’t know we have a pet micro mini Potbellied Pig, that and I’ve collected pigs since I was a baby! So pig it was! I again used the double sided adhesive interfacing for this. First I pinned my image onto black felt AND the interfacing, now cut it out!

Now follow your interfacing directions. For mine I first ironed the interfacing onto the skirt.

Let it cool. Then peel off the backing, place the felt on top and iron it again!

And now for the bling! Our pig needs a leash! You can go any route you want for your leash. You can add collars, beaded eye’s? Anything you want. I went with a sequined ribbon! I THOUGHT I’d be able to sew it on, but my longest stitch was still to short to hit the holes perfectly, also that wouldn’t have been precise enough. SO I hand stitched it on. On all three dresses. It ended up taking 3 nights! So DON’T go this way if you are in a hurry! But I love the way it looks so it’s okay, AND I emptied out my HULU queue while working on it.

And all three finished and on! We went with the classic ponytails for the girls and I made us all felt ruffled flowers, tulle neck tie, white collared shirt, white bobby socks, black shoes (I could only find zebra ked’s, but white ked’s would have been better) and cardigans. Complete package! Don’t forget to check out my boy’s outfits!

Filed Under: crafts, fabric, family, felt, halloween, holiday, kids, me, sewing, tutorial

Pom Pom hair clips

Ruffled Felt Flower Hair Clip

Poodle-skirt tutorial, 50′s costumes

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