Some like it hot.....

A tea-loving friend asked me to make her a capacious tea cosy to accommodate a large teapot. 

I used 3 layers of merino wool around a resist and decorated the final layer with green, shading through grey to lavender at the top.  Before felting I added an elongated tuft of roving to the pointed top which I rolled into a rope. The final decoration was a couple of white silk hankies laid on top to give a cloud-like effect, and some shine. 

The whole was well felted and fulled - a tea cosy needs to be hard wearing. Before drying I coiled the rope at the top. 

I decided to hand embroider some simple seedheads on each side. 

I neatened the bottom edge by curling it in and hand stitching. I then added a cotton lining. Choosing a brownish colour was deliberate, as it does not show the tea stains! 

A fancy bag

I made this bag from some old rather matted merino dyed in shades of pink/lavender/blue. The decoration was bits of an old indian silk scarf, some dyed scrim, and a few curly locks. I laid the decoration on the resist first, and built up the bag inside out, in the manner of the wonderful Heather Woollove. Here is a detail:

 I will definitely use this method again! Partly because you forget about the design once it's hidden, and it is so exciting to rediscover it when you finally cut out the resist. 

Here is the  back, which I possibly prefer - (note to self - less is more!)

Inside the bag I incorporated two pockets using more silk and wool, These were added on the outside as I was making it. 

In some ways this is not really my style - too fussy, but I enjoyed making it and learned something. One for my present drawer! 

Couple of cushions

 My husband wanted a cushion for a new leather and tweed armchair. I didn't want it to be too feminine, so I chose a large plaid design, to echo the plaid tweed  on the back of the chair. I simply but some pale grey and green shading on the surface of the cream wool, and them lay on some strands of mohair wool to create the lines, before wet felting.

I had made a piece if experimental felt, using circular resists with holes in the middle, between the brown layers  of wool and the top pale yellow shade. Snipping around the outer line of the circles created fluted raised flower like shapes, revealing the brown layer underneath. I needle felted some circles of dark reddish wool into the centres to create the look. 

The piece wasn't really big enough for a cushion, so I stitched it onto some dark red faux suede fabric. 

Tea cosies and pods

My daughter asked for a tea cosy for her new kitchen in her new flat. She likes polka dots, and a bit of glitter, She wants it finishing with a felt bobble on the top, which I still have to do. 

And I thought I'd make another one for some friends we visited for the weekend. They thought it looked a bit like planets on the night sky. 

I like to finish them with a cotton lining. Felt has fantastic insulating properties, and keeps a pot of tea piping hot for ages. 

I had some fun making these pods.

What are the for? you may ask. Isn't it obvious? Suspend them from the ceiling, and they make perfect little homes for air plants! 

Experimenting with colour and texture

I made this piece as a possible wall hanging. I kept the colours pale, with whites and neutrals, and added hints of pastel tones above and below the resist strips, which show where the layers are slashed open. 

The texture on the top is created with wool nepps, pieces of white scrim, curly locks, and silk hankies. 

I like the restrained touches or colour in this, so that the texture is predominant. 

This is similar to a piece I made a while ago. I might add some embroidery and beading in the slashes, in which case I'll post another picture.

Bowls of colour

I am making a few small objects to sell for charity at our village fete next month. Here are 3 felt bowls. Useful for holding bits and bobs, and I love the way they hold their pod like shape, yet are so light. I made them with different bright colours on the inside, and a mid grey wool on the outside, Again, I followed the great tutorial from Rosiepink.

I like the way the bright colour fibres have worked through the grey and give a haze of the inner colour on the outside. I did incorporate circular resists in them all, but this only really worked on the yellow bowl. On the others they ended up in the wrong places, so I did not cut them out - that's their little secret! 

I added some simple running stitch.

Talking of colour, just look at these amazing irises that we saw at Helmingham Hall today!  

The Egg-Bag (part 1)

I haven't done any felting for ages! And it was hard to decide what to make to break the felting fast. How about an egg?
I have been wanting to try a one piece handbag with an integrated handle, so here goes.

I used 3 layers of merino wool around an egg shaped resist with a slightly flattened bottom.
To make the felt very strong, I incorporated a layer of cotton scrim between the top 2 layers of wool. I'm not sure if this has made very much difference, but I had some purple dyed scrim.
I carefully felted and fulled the piece using a bamboo blind and cool water with savon de marseille.  In this picture it is lying on the resist, so you can see how much it has shrunk.
I also added small pieces of silk in a random way as surface decoration, but they have all but disappeared into the felt.

It is still damp, and I have cut a curved line to remove the resist and form the handle and flap.

And the same on the other side.

Here it is stuffed with plastic bags and drying. I am feeling very pleased with the shape. 

I am planning to put some thick cord into the handle, and stitch the edges together, so that it holds its shape even with some weight in the bag. 

How should I decorate it to finish it off? - any ideas welcome! 

From little acorns . . .

I have some great oak trees near me, which produced lots of acorns this autumn. I've seen that several people make charming felted acorns using the real "caps" but replacing the acorn with an elongated felt bead.  I discovered a fool-proof way of making felt beads in issue 7 of the wonderful Australian Felt Magazine. You put the wool into a small container, add water and soap, close it up and shake vigorously. Then remove the loose ball of felt that has formed, and roll between your palms under running water gently at first and applying more pressure until it's a tightly felted ball. Rinse, squeeze out excess water, and roll in one direction to elongate a bit for acorns before drying. I used a glue gun to attach them into the (cleaned) acorn caps. 

I wanted to give these as small gift to my special friend Dawn who likes all things autumnal. But what to put them in? A little felt pot of course! I followed this great tutorial from Annie and Lyn. I used yellow felt on the inside and green on the outside, with little wisps of silk to decorate.  

Here's the gift feeling at home among some other seasonal objects on my friend's table.

A Holiday Bag

I am off on holiday  - to Sri Lanka. I love holidays but hate packing, and will use all sorts of avoidance tactics, like suddenly deciding that I need a little evening bag. So I rapidly put this together, using a resist, out of merino wool decorated with wisps of silk.
I experimented with the tumble dryer method of felting, using no rolling at all. It's brilliantly explained here. It worked really well! Much exhaustion and mess avoided. I will definitely do that again.
I added  a chain strap from an old bag, and a flower I had made earlier.
A great thing about felt is that it doesn't add many grams to the baggage allowance.
Now,back to the packing.....

Helter skelter vase

This felt wrapped vase reminds me of the helter-skelter rides I used to go on at the fair when I was a little girl. I can still feel the excitement of climbing up the dark interior and the prickly coconut mat they gave you at the top before you whooshed down the smooth metal slide.

I felted a thin layer of lilac wool directly onto the bottle, until it just started to hold together, then, still wet,  I wrapped a strip of Sellotape in a spiral around it all.  Over this I layered some white Icelandic wool, and felted it using my hands and bubble wrap.
When it has sufficiently shrunk around the bottle, I could feel where the sellotape resist was, and snipped along it with sharp scissors, and pulled it out. I pushed back the cut edged as it dried to reveal the lilac under felt.
It looked a bit plain, so I decorated with toning beads.