Christmas Felt Sewing Needle Saver / Folder / Holder, Tutorial, Handmade Holiday 2010

I have had such fun making this felt sewing needle saver / folder / wrap. I thought it would be a lovely gift for someone special at Christmas time or anytime. So I thought I would share my tutorial here today. I am going to make up a few for my mom and mom-in-law and my friends at knitting group;) This is also a great activity for little ones and quite easy for them to make.

Materials I used:
Wool felt
Fleece for needle felting
Felting Needle
Felting sponge
Embroidery thread
Button
Floral fabric
Scissors
Pinking Shears

Cut out your felt piece for the outside of your wrap.
Dimensions: 6 inches x 3 inches.

I needle felted an acorn onto the front right hand side, I imagine I will add muchrooms, autumn leaves etc... to the others I am making:)

I cut out a piece of floral fabric to line my needle wrap, this should be slightly smaller than the outer piece of felt. I used my pinking shears, I love these scissors, so wonderful not to have to sew seams! Then I sewed on the fabric to the felt around its edges.

I then cut another piece of felt for the inside of the wrap, slightly smaller. This will hold your needles once your holder is finished.
Dimensions:
4.5 inches x 2.5 inches.
Sew this piece of felt down the middle of your wrap and attach it.

Sew around the outside of your felt with blanket stitch, (my favourite stitch at the moment)!

Sew on your button on the outside.

Sew a little loop on the other side of your felt that will loop around your button to hold your needle wrap closed.

Button and loop sewn on and holding wrap closed.

And there you go, one needle saver / holder / wrap ready to hold your needles!

A close up of the lined inside fabric.

Finished!

This project is lovely because you can use many of your fabric and felt scraps to finish it off. I will also be adding a few of these to my Etsy shop soon:)

Have a wonderful weekend,
Happy Sewing:)

xo

Linda

Creative Friday

Welcome to Creative Friday :) Thank you so much to everyone who shares the love and posts their links to their amazing work:) Please feel free to post your links to anything you have created and would like to share, it can be a recipe, sewing tutorial, knitting tutorial, felting, crochet, crafts, art, spinning, weaving, working with fiber, photography, poetry...etc...

I also love to hear from you, so if you have a moment, please leave a comment:) Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful talent with us! Just add the name of your blog to the widget and then add your blog link with the http:// at the beginning of your link address:) I have added a Creative Friday button on the sidebar of my blog, please feel free to add it to your blog for Creative Friday and link it to http://www.naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/ so others can find this space and share their creativity too:)

xo
Linda

Felt Gingerbread Man Christmas Tree Hanging Ornament, Decoration Tutorial

Today we made another felt Christmas ornament, a hanging felt Gingerbread Man. He is really easy to make and the blanket stitch gives great detail for his edging.

Materials Used:
Brown wool felt
Fleece for stuffing
Pink thread for sewing on the blanket stitch
Colourful fleece for eyes and mouth
Sewing needle
Scissors
Ribbon for hanging him up
Gingerbread man biscuit cutter
Black marker pen
Felting needle

Template for your Gingerbread man, actual size.

I drew around my gingerbread man biscuit cutter to create my template and then I cut it out, placed it on my felt and drew around the template in black marker pen. I cut out two exactly the same for the front and the back.

Placed both sides together and started sewing around the gingerbread man in pink blanket stitch. Leave an opening to fill with fleece.

Once you have sewn around your gingerbread man, fill with fleece.

Sew the opening closed and needlefelt some buttons, eyes and a smiling face onto your felt .

Attach the ribbon at the back and he is finished! Perfect to hang on your Christmas tree...

Or on your door handles around your home:)

Enjoy!
xo
Linda

WIP Wednesday and Black and White Wednesday

Here is my WIP Wednesday post of what I have been busy working on this week...

And our Black and White Wednesday Photo Challenge post...

Cutting and sanding wooden acorns, we are going to decorate them for crafts and leave some natural for our nature table. I have just cut them on our scroll saw, you cannot believe how easy it is to use a scroll saw. You just draw your design on some wood, cut it out and sand your treasure to your desired smoothness. It really is empowering to create something from a piece of wood!

I have also been working on my giraffe pattern, he is very large indeed, 13 inches tall, and weighing over 350 grams, he will be going into my book that I am writing at the moment. He is also avaliable in my shop for sale as a custom listing and I will probably add the pattern there for a limited time...

Today, I designed a hedgehog pattern, I hope to have him and his pattern in my shop by tomorrow, I will also be selling kits that will contain all the yarn and fleece you will need to make him and I will email the pattern off to the customer. I am going to be making kits out of all my patterns! I am so excited to do this, I just need extra hours in the day:)

Black and White Wednesday Photo Challenge:

Our Lovely Lake

Just a few turns of the road from where we live is this beautiful bird sanctuary. It is such a wonderful area to go for a walk. There are so many different varieties of local birds that live and migrate to and from here each year. It has also been a venu for amazing learning experiences for our children, looking up birds in our bird guide and discovering how they build their nests, what they eat and studying their behaviour.

In the foreground of the photo you will notice Egyptian Geese and a little further in, a white Spoonbill, the black birds in the distance are called Coots. The Coots are so sweet as they build their nests right on the water and lay down sticks on the floor of the lake until they reach the surface, where they make a platform to lay their eggs and raise their young.

Jen, Erin and Kye playing on a tree stump... 

Exploring...

Discovering seeds...

This was such an amazing sight, this Grey Heron, flew in with a bullfrog in his beak for a snack...

A Coot on her nest of reeds on the water...

Hadeda Ibis and a Grey Heron sitting on the branches overlooking their sancturay...
xo
Linda