Felt with Love: Felt Hearts, Flowers and Much More

By Madeleine Millington

“This book is a joy. Medieval, Elizabethan and folk art inspire Madeleine’s work and she creates using a wonderful palette of bright and bold colours.” —Love to Make

Felt with Love is a must-have book for anyone with an appreciation of adorable hand-crafted objects. It is a colourful one-off book, filled with fifteen cute, fun and simple projects (plus some variations) made from felted wool. As well as easy to follow instructions and step-by-step photographs for each project, the book explains various stitching and embellishment techniques. Projects include mini hanging decorations, beautiful brooches, pincushions, various wall hangings, a couple Christmassy pieces, plus much more!

The author has provided templates for all the projects so that everything can be replicated with relative ease. The shapes are simply cut out using the templates and applied using easy hand embroidered stitches. Details such as veins in leaves and flowers can then be stitched with French knots or using tiny beads. Madeleine uses hand-dyed wools for the appliques, which vary in depth and hue giving beautifully unique effects. Old clothes and fabrics picked up in charity shops can be cut up and used, so instructions on dying fabric have also been included in the book. Overall, this book is a great collection of bright, affordable, and easy to sew felt projects embellished with simple stitching, buttons and beads. They are great to do “on-the-go” and once completed you have a beautiful gift for a special person or a timeless treasure for yourself!

“What a treat for anyone who loves working with sequins and beads, bold colors, simple embroidery stitches, appliqués, felted wool and the prettiest motifs!” —Crafter’s Choice

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781781266434

Book preview

Introduction

I have been working with gorgeous fabrics now for over twenty years. My first project was a large-scale wall piece, but I couldn’t find exactly the right colours that I needed. This was when I embarked on learning how to dye old wool blankets in the washing machine –and the rest, as they say, is history.

Inspiration comes from looking – patterns and colours are everywhere. Folk Art, with its enormous richness, is a great source of inspiration for me, and it is the simplicity of this style coupled with the use of old or recycled fabrics that produces such exciting, rustic results. Folk Art is inventive and uses readily available materials, which makes for a very satisfying and inexpensive craft adventure.

The projects in this book can be made from all sorts of felt: synthetic felt, wool felt or felted fabrics such as a wool blanket, an old tweed skirt or a scarf. Everything can be made by simply following the step-by-step instructions and pictures provided, and you don’t need to have any previous experience. The projects are here to inspire you, so make them exactly as they appear on the page or adapt them to suit your own taste. For example, the Tree Top Bird (page 68) could look equally charming on the front of a cushion cover.

Appliqué is the name given to the decorative technique of sewing fabric shapes on to another piece of material, and it has been around in some form for as long as humans have been able to use a needle and thread. Felt is particularly good for appliqué, as the build up of layers and different textures can produce exciting results. I love working with wool felt in particular because it is so soft and pliable. Wool felt has a wonderful surface to stitch on; the stitches sink into the fabric to give it an almost quilted look. Another great feature of felt is that you do not have to turn the edges under, which makes for less work and means that the projects grow quickly. There is certainly something very pleasing about working with this charming fabric.

The step-by-step projects in this book will enable you to create colourful and highly original decorative items that you can keep for yourself or give away to someone special. In this hectic world of mass-produced products there is nothing quite like presenting someone with a hand-crafted gift, or making something festive to match your Christmas decorations. I hope you will have as much fun stitching the projects in this book as I have had designing and making them up. Create, decorate and celebrate.

Happy stitching!

Materials & equipment

The materials and equipment needed for the projects in this book are very simple indeed, and in this section I have outlined the basic requirements. All the stitching is done by hand, which means that you can work on projects when away from home, travelling or just sitting in a cosy corner. I have used a sewing machine to stitch the cushion together (see page 50), but even this could be hand stitched if you don’t have a machine available.

A selection of dyed wool felt and tweeds.

Felt fabric

There are many shop-bought felt fabrics readily available. These range from synthetic, mixed-fibre felts through to wool felt. Synthetic and mixed-fibre varieties are cheaper and thinner than wool felt. Though wool felt is wonderfully soft and gorgeous to work with, it is more expensive. It can be fun to mix up the different qualities of fabrics to give richer textures.

I also enjoy using wool fabrics that I have felted myself because they have such a wonderful tactile surface, particularly when stitched or appliquéed. The layers, stitches and embellishments sink right into them, producing a lovely quilted quality. There is a wide variety of wool fabrics on the market these days, and I particularly love using old wool blankets, which I dye. You could also recycle the fabric from old wool skirts and jackets. Experiment!

Needles

Use a darning or sharp chenille needle when working with the double knitting-wool yarn, making sure the needle has a large enough eye to take the thickness of the thread. For the projects using cotton perlé or stranded cotton thread you can use any needle, so long as it is sharp and accommodates the thickness of the thread, allowing it to pass through the eye of the needle easily. A beading needle is used for some projects where a single strand of stranded cotton is being used.

Threads

A variety of threads has been used throughout the book. Where the project has required a bold, chunky look I have used double knitting-wool yarn. Where the project requires a finer thread, then I have mostly used cotton perlé or a stranded cotton (two strands) in a variety of colours. It is a good idea to use high-quality thread as it is stronger and will last longer.