When I need a quick fabric fix, I turn to felt. Felt crafts are like comfort food for me. Working with felt is easy and satisfying, because it comes in a huge array of colors, has enough heft to stand on its own, and the cut edges don’t fray.
 |
| One of my embroidered felt valentines. |
Felt projects can be created with everything from simple supplies like scissors and glue to more elaborate sewing, embroidery, and embellishment applications and techniques.
I particularly like to embroider on felt. Hand embroidery on top of needle-felting projects adds amazing detail and interest. And stitching on thick, hand-felted wool (made with wet-felting techniques) is sheer heaven.
But honestly, I’m just as happy to embroider on craft felt. It reminds me of childhood craft-making. You can get synthetic craft felt sheets in a rainbow of colors on the cheap. But I do prefer the felt fabric you buy by the yard. Even though it’s synthetic, this type of felt feels softer and seems a little sturdier. More felty, if you know what I mean.
To keep my hands busy while watching television the other day, I pulled out some red felt and an array of brightly colored skeins of embroidery floss. I love the folkloric look of embroidery and felt, and chose hearts as my motif. I just stitched and played, freehand cutting the felt and adding stitches until I was satisfied with the result.
 |
| More elaborate stitching give my felt project a folkloric look. |
When I was done, I mounted the felt hearts on stitched paper I created using Jenny Cochran Lee’s technique, and mounted that onto cardstock. Now I have two felt valentines ready to give to someone sweet—probably my daughters.
I bet you have some felt somewhere in your stash that you could use to make a quick and satisfying craft. Or perhaps you’d like to learn more about needle-felting or wet-felting techniques. We have some wonderful videos and books on the subject in the Cloth Paper Scissors Shop.
P.S. What about you? What do you like to make with felt? What kind of felting techniques do you enjoy? Leave a comment below.