Soon to be named podcast 2

Felt Garland

It's September and autumn is in the air! This year I really wanted to decorate for fall so decoration crafting is underway. I just made this adorable felted garland for my little tree! I use this little tree to decorate for many different holidays so I think I will make felt garland for all of the holidays as well!

These little felt balls are so quick and easy. Also you can make a bunch at once so even a large garland would be simple! Let's get started!

Materials~
wool- batting or roving but my preference is batting
yarn
soap
hot water
needle
That's it!

You will start by pulling away a small amount of wool. Really the amount depends on the size ball you want. You can play around with this by rolling it up to get an idea of the size.

Now tightly roll a ball starting at one end and rolling and folding until you have a ball.

Once you have a ball, needlefelt it lightly just to hold it's shape while you make more.

Once you have all of the little balls rolled, place them in a container and pour a small amount of hot soapy water over the balls. Just enough to dampen them. I used Ivory dish soap.

Now place a lid on your container and shake the container for a few minutes. This will begin the felting. After a few minutes you can place the balls on a bubble mat with a bit more hot water and roll them with your hands against the mat. If you are only doing a few, you can just roll them in your hands after wetting them with hot water. No mat needed. With either method they will now felt down completely. I don't like to felt them too hard so that I can easily get a needle through when stringing them for garland.

After rolling them in your hands or on the mat to the density that you prefer, rinse them with cold water making sure that all of the soap is out. Next, toss them in your dryer. This will finish the felting nicely.

Now it is time to string them! I used a doll sewing needle because it has a sharp point and a large eye for the yarn. simply run the needle through the center of each ball to string them up.

At first I used this cotton crochet thread but them I switched to a brown acrylic. I liked the brown more for autumn and I found that the acrylic held the balls in place on the garland better.

Space the felted balls evenly apart on your garland and knot off both ends of yarn. Now hang and enjoy! Happy autumn!!!

Drawstring Bag

Do you go into fabric shops and absolutely fall in love with gorgeous fat quarters only to bring them home and put them away in a drawer for a year? I know I did! I used to sew all of the time. But it has been years since I have done any real sewing as crocheting and felting have taken over. But I still adore pretty fabric and I want the pretty fabric!

Well, I figured that a simple drawstring project bag for my crocheting would be better than beautiful fabric shoved in a drawer. So I looked up some tutorials and found this extremely simple one by Purl Soho. This goes together in 20 or 30 minutes. Truly!

You can keep it as is or add a lining like I did! To add a lining just make another bag that is about 1/4 smaller than your outer fabric. You will place your lining down into your bag with wrong sides together. So that you see only the right sides of both. Turn down the top of your lining until it is just under your folded drawstring section for the outer part of the bag. Pin that in place around the fold and stitch around the top of the lining as close to the fold as possible! Still only takes minutes and now you have a very nice and finished bag!

For my drawstring I chose some coordinating yarn from my stash. I cut my yarn 10” longer  than what is called for in the pattern. This is because I braided my yarn. Cut twelve strips of yarn all the same length (whatever is called for in the pattern +10”) separate into two groups of six as you will be making two drawstrings. Tape six pieces of yarn to a table from one end and braid the entire length. Pull up the tape and thread one end onto a large eye yarn (darning) needle. Follow the Purl Soho directions for threading through bag. Now hold the two ends together and wrap a long length of yarn around the top where the two braids meet leaving a 2” tail. Follow the wrapping directions for the top of the tassel from this tutorial. Just the last wrap because yours was constructed differently. Do this for both drawstrings and you are finished!

Now you can snatch up all of the pretty fat quarters and have project bags galore!