Handmade Holidays Part 1

Are you making any gifts for the people on your list this year? Or, are you like me and love handmade holiday home decor? Simple to make, these cute heart shaped ornaments make wonderful gifts or gift wrap accents. Hearts are one of my favorite shapes, and I love crafting with recycled felted wool sweaters. So I combined the two to make this version of my Heart Felt Ornaments. Heart shapes are cut from a felted wool sweater, then embroidered and accented with beads and buttons. Sew two layers together and fill them with stuffing.

Here's a quick tutorial to show you how I made these ornaments.

Don’t worry if you can’t find a wool sweater to felt. Wool felt fabric will also work just as well and can be purchased at your local fabric store, craft store or ordered online.

Tools and materials needed:
Felted wool sweater or wool felt
Embroidery thread and needle
Cotton or wool thread
Assorted beads and buttons
Stuffing
Scissors, pins and tracing paper

For my Heart Felt Ornaments I used red and white as my colors.

What to do:
Step 1. Cut out hearts. To make a heart shaped paper pattern, fold a piece of paper and starting at the fold, cut out one side of the heart so that the fold is the center of the heart. This way when you open the paper you have a perfectly proportioned heart. Try several shapes and sizes until you have the desired heart shape. Then pin the paper to the wool and cut out two hearts for each ornament you want to make. I also cut out some smaller hearts to make contrasting centers for some of my ornaments.


Step 2. Embroider and embellish the hearts. I used a contrasting color embroidery thread to sew simple stitches in star and swirl patterns on some of my hearts. Then I stitched on seed beads as embellishments. On other hearts I used a blanket stitch, or buttonhole stitch, to appliqué smaller hearts to the center, then added a button for embellishment. You will be using two pieces of wool for each heart ornament. You can decorate one or both sides of the ornament.

Step 3. Sew the hearts together. With wrong sides together, use a blanket stitch to sew around the outside edge of each heart. When about a one inch opening remains, fill the heart with stuffing, then finish stitching to close the opening.


Step 4. Hang the heart. Thread a short length of wool or cotton thread through the top edge of each heart to hang on your tree or tie to a package.

If you don't have time to make ornaments this year, check my Etsy shop next week. I'll have a shop update with some of these listed for sale.

The Christmas Open House Is Open!

FeltSewGood on Etsy is having a Christmas Open House, November 16-30! It's time to do some Christmas shopping and there will be new items listed every day during the Open House. Handbags, mittens, scarves and flower brooches make great gifts. I'll also have some new plush animals and Christmas decorations.

AND you can receive 10% off your purchase price simply by typing "Open House" in your message to seller at checkout on Etsy. I'll refund the 10% to your PayPal account when I ship your items.

It's also time for a FeltSewGood Giveaway! As a Thank You to all my blog readers and customers, I'm giving away a zippered pouch of your choice ($25 value) to one winner. Just leave me a comment at this post between now and Sunday, November 22 at midnight EST to be entered to win. For a second chance to win, leave a comment on the wall of my Facebook fan page by Sunday, November 22 at midnight EST.

I'll announce the winner here on Monday, November 23, so be sure to check back, and make sure I have a way to contact you, through your own blog, shop, or email, when you enter. The winner will be able to pick the zippered pouch of choice from the shop.

Good luck to all entries and I'll have another giveaway starting Monday, November 23!

Happy Holidays!

Just in Time for the Holidays!

It's almost November and I've been working on some new woolen holiday decorations and some ideas for a few Felt Sew Good blog giveaways! Here's a peak at some work in progress:

Starting Monday, November 2, I'll have some Christmas stockings and some new ornaments in the shop.

Then later in the week I'll announce the details of my first Felt Sew Good blog giveaway!

Wool Crafting in Progress Here!

Earlier in the week I completed and listed some new handbags in the shop. Then I looked at the calender and realized I have less than two months until my very first craft show! Yikes!!! I am excited and decided I'd better take inventory of my supplies and set a schedule for myself so that I have plenty of items both for my Etsy shop and the craft show. I love summer and hate to see it starting to come to an end, but I need to start thinking about (dare I say it!!!) holiday ornaments, Christmas stockings, mittens and scarves! So here's a look at what I found and what I'm working on.

More felted wool sweaters ready for crafting.

I started cutting out heart shapes for a new batch of Holiday Heart Felt ornaments.

Recycled wool flower brooches, in various stages of completion.

I love all the different colors and textures of the various types of wool!

So, that's what I'm working on these days. Now I'd better get busy and start sewing again, I have lots of work to do!

And The Winner Is!

Congratulations to Amie P., the winner of the Felt Sew Good Customer Appreciation Giveaway.
http://feltsewgood.blogspot.com/2008/11/customer-appreciation-giveaway.html

Thanks so much to all of those who entered.

There is still plenty of time for holiday shopping

and I'm still adding lots of new items to my Etsy shop, FeltSewGood.

Handbags, scarves and mittens made wonderful gifts!

I have some new Christmas stockings
and there are more Holiday Heart Felt ornaments on the way.

Handmade Holiday Ornaments

I just made some new ornaments for my Etsy shop, Felt Sew Good. These Holly and Berries Christmas ornaments were made from pieces of felted, recycled wool sweaters and needle felted balls.

And a new batch of Heart Felt ornaments will also be available later this week in my shop.

'Tis the season!

New Holiday "Heart Felt" Ornaments

I've just made a new batch of "Heart Felt" hearts!

I've been getting reading for the first holiday shoppers in my Etsy shop, Felt Sew Good. I'm not an early shopper myself, but some of you may want to get a head start. These are the latest version of my "Heart Felt" embroidered hearts. I love these little hearts, and they are fun to make. These cute puffed heart ornaments were made from felted recycled wool sweaters. They are embroidered in traditional Christmas colors of red, gold, dark green, light green and cream and each is accented with a tiny vintage button. They are blanket stitched around the edge and "puffed" with a little stuffing. Each heart has a tiny red satin ribbon loop for hanging. The back of each ornament is unadorned. They would be lovely hanging on your Christmas tree, or spreading holiday cheer anywhere in your home. Or use one as a sweet accent tied to that very special holiday gift!