Sunset

Good morning.

Something a bit different today. I have started working more on textiles that I used to. You can do more with them than with paper in some ways - they don't tear for a start! (Well, not unless you want them to that is.)

Here I have worked with strips of recycled sari silk which work beautifully with the embellishing machine. I started off with a plain white cotton base sheet and just felted the strips of sari silk in place. This gives some lovely textures as the edges of the strips are frayed and the are all wrinkled. Some I flattened out to give a smoother surface and then some I have deliberately left wrinkled to give extra layers. Some of the silks have a shine to them which add an extra dimension and some even change colour slightly depending on how the light falls on them

Once the felting process was finished. I added freehand machine embroidery to add the bushes and some lines in the water. I may well add some hand embroidery too to give even more texture.

Another Bag Design

Good morning.

Here I am with another bag design. I managed to pick up a tremendous selection of chiffon and silk scarves in a charity shop the other day. I like this recycling thing (or up-cycling as some people call it!). This time the design is of a bunch of flowers rather than single stems. Again it features Swarovski crystals in the centre of each of the flowers to give it a bit of bling. The flower fabric has a purple background with a lovely floral design in various pinks.

Embellished Bag

Good morning.

Well, it is certainly very wet and blustery here this morning. Definitely a day for staying indoors and crafting.

This is the first of my new bag designs made using a base bag of 100% unbleached cotton and then the flowers have been added using my embellishing machine. The leaves and stems are made from green felt. The flowers are recycled chiffon scarves. In the centre of each flower are five flat backed Swarovski (I hope I spelt that correctly!) crystals  applied with hot glue to give a really strong bond.

Some New Felt Brooches

Good evening.

I had fun over the weekend creating some felt brooches of which I have added 6 to my Folksy shop and the other 10 will go to the craft Emporium in Stonehouse which has already sold some of these for me. These were made by embellishing commercially made felt with various fibres and also some white netting, as seen on the top example. Do please pop over to the shop and have a look at the rest of the designs at Designs on Craft Folksy Shop

Felted Key Ring

Good afternoon.

My first example of felted work which is totally hand felted. No commercial felt here. This started off as a bunch of fibres. I had to make 4 flowers, exactly the same size, two for each chain on the key ring.

I drew the flower onto dissolvable fabric to give a base for the flower. Fibres were added using a hand felting tool and then the felting was completed on my embellishing machine. Orange fibres were made into the centres of the flowers which were machines in place.

A flower was placed either side of the jump ring at the end of one of the chains and sewn through to keep it in place. A few seed beads were added to give extra texture.. The two flowers were then sewn all around the edges to totally secure them in place. This was repeated for the flower on the other chain.

PS: If you liked my 8 pointed brooches yesterday, pop over the my other blog to see some 6 pointed ones which I think look quite elegant.

Felt Brooches

Good morning. Welcome to Saturday. Here are my first examples of felted projects. I got a 12 needle embellishing/ felting machine for Christmas and I am having great fun with it. These brooches are made from commercial felt but I have added black and silver fibres onto the white surface. The two sheets were then shaped and layered to give this look before sewing onto a brooch pin and adding the centre bead(s). The next version is on black felt with white and silver added and the final one is purple with blue wool fibres and Angelina fibres added to texture.

The next step is to create my own felt sheets from scratch. Watch this space.....!