***Tea Cozy***

Tea Cozy & Tea Pot

Wet-felted tea cozy with needle-felted cardinals and teapot.

Teapot

I found this cute teapot to give as a Christmas gift to my son's mother-in-law. She loves cardinals so, of course, I had to make a felted tea cozy with red cardinals.

Wet-felted tea cozy with needle felted red cardinal

To make the tea cozy I used the same resist process as seen in my felted vase blog post:

http://lisasfeltedart.blogspot.com/2013/03/felted-vase.html

After making the felted cozy, I added a handle on top using wet-felted wool. Once the cozy was dry, I needle-felted a red cardinal on each side.

Wet-felted tea cozy with needle felted red cardinal

Here is the cardinal on the other side of the cozy.

End view of tea cozy

Here is the end view of the tea cozy.

Tea cozy & teapot

There is nothing like a tea cozy to keep your pot of tea nice and warm. ♥

***Felted Vest***

Felted Vest

This is a wet-felted vest I made for my brother this past Christmas. As I am new to making felted clothing, I opted to create wet-felted material and sew it onto a preexisting vest.

Felted Vest

Here is a closer view. I attached the wet-felted material in a way to still utilize the buttons and the satin back on the vest.

Felted Vest

Felted Vest

Here are side views.

Felted Vest - back

Felted Vest - open

Here is the back and a front view of the vest open.

Felted Vest - open

The next step will be to make a wet-felted vest completely out of wool roving. That said, it worked very well sewing the felt I created onto the vest and it fit my brother perfectly!

***Pixie Fairy Felted Skirt***

Pixie Fairy Felted Skirt



My latest felting inspiration was this Pixie Fairy Felted Skirt for my sister-in-law for Christmas. It was my first attempt in blending felting and sewing. While it was challenging creating my own pattern, it was very fun creating this whimsical piece of felted clothing.

Front view

Back view

Front and back views. I cut out varying size triangle strips of chiffon material, hemmed the edges and then layered the pieces to be sewn onto the inside of the belt.

Natural Wood Button

I attached a natural wood button to the outside of the top of the wet felted belt but actually used a strip of Velcro sewn on the inside to attach the wrap-around skirt, which allowed for variation in sizing.

Sewn on felted vines

I used a zig-zag stitch to attach the wet felted vines with leaves.

Sewn on felted vines

A closer view of the zig-zag stitch used to attach the wet felted vines with leaves. This also shows the detail needle felting on the leaves.

Needle felted leaves

Needle felted leaves and vines.

Back view

View of the back showing the belt made from two pieces of wet felted strips sewn together.

Pixie Fairy Felted Skirt

Skirt showing wet felted belt, decorative wooden button, wet & needle felted vines & leaves and layered chiffon triangles.

***Felted Hat***

Wet felted hat made with Alpaca wool and a ceramic flower button 

I've been wanting to make a felted hat for the longest time. The other day I was in the yarn shop and, low and behold, they had alpaca wool, something I have been looking for and wanting to try for felting. I have watched several videos on how to wet felt a hat, so here is a combination of techniques that I used to make my felted hat...

Step 1:  Partially fill a water balloon with warm water and then blow it up to about twice as large as you want the finished hat to be and put it tied end in a bowl. The bowl and water in the balloon will help to keep things from moving around too much.

Step 2:  Wet and cover the balloon with a thin layer of dish soap.

Step 3:  Place sections of wool (I used alpaca) over the balloon.

Step 4:  Continue placing the wool over the balloon going in the same direction.

Step 5:  Complete one layer of wool around the balloon.

Step 6:  Using a spray bottled filled with warm soapy water, wet down all of the wool.

Step 7:  Wrap pieces of wool around the balloon going in the opposite direction.

Step 8:  After spraying the wool, add a layer of thinner pieces of wool going in the original direction. Then you can add decorations or embellishments to the outside of the hat.

Step 9:  Spray all of the wool to gently wet it down and then cover it with tulle (or you can use the top part of a pair of pantyhose), making sure that all the wool is covered.

Step 10:  Turn the balloon and wool over and tie the pieces of tulle together where the balloon is tied.

Step 11:  Fill the sink (or a large container) with warm soapy water and gently make sure all of the wool becomes wet. Then gently press the wool against the balloon to get as much water out as you can in order to move the balloon to your work area.

Step 12:  With your hands and fingers, gently rub all around the tulle being careful not to move any embellishment. After rubbing for about 10 minutes or so, do a pinch test on the wool. If the wool is sticking together, you can take the tulle off to continue the felting process.

Step 13:  After you have removed the tulle, continue rubbing the wool on the balloon using bubble wrap. When the wool and embellishments have felted together and you can see the wool is starting to shrink, pop the balloon (over the sink) and remove it. Rub inside and outside of the hat to make sure all of the wool is felted.

Step 14:  This is the fulling stage. Fold the wool piece in a square and throw it flat in the sink. Keep turning it over and re-folding it to make sure it that as it shrinks, it maintains its shape. After several folds, refolds and throws, start rinsing the wool. Alternate rising in warm and cold water, first in warm water and then in cold water, and keep checking the shape and size. As the wool hat starts to take form, gently squeeze it to get the water out and also squeeze it in a towel so you can try the hat on to make sure it is forming into the size and shape you want for your hat.

Step 15:  After you make sure all the soap has been rinsed out and the hat is the size you want, shape it and let it dry. You can trim off the edges or unwanted extra wool, but be sure to rub and felt those areas were you cut so they are not left open.

Step 16:  Now it's time to add a little something extra. I have a friend who makes beautiful ceramic art and things, so I decided to add this very cute ceramic flower button she made to my alpaca wool felted hat. If you are interested in purchasing a ceramic button for your hat, please check out Lauren Mesa's Facebook page...

 

https://www.facebook.com/LaurenMesaArt 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Here are some photographs of my hat so you can see it from different angles.

 

 

 

 

Alpaca Wool Felted Hat with Ceramic Flower Button
♥ I thought it looked cute sitting atop a rock in our garden waterfall ♥

***Vertical Garden Wall Hangings***

I recently became intrigued with vertical gardens...this got me thinking and gave me the inspiration to make my own vertical garden incorporated in a felted wall hanging. The perfect plants would be Tillandsias (Air plants), a member of the pineapple family (Bromelaid). They grow on rocks, trees, shrubs, etc. without soil and receive their water and nutrients from the air through specialized leaves. They are utilized in terrariums, glass globes, drift wood or just sitting on the table...and now my felted wall hangings. The plaints do require an occasional misting or soaking (depending on the season and house temperature) and like to be near a natural light source but not direct sunlight.

 

Here are my first two felted wall hangings/vertical gardens...

Wet/needle felted vertical garden wall hanging using Tillandsias (Air plants)

I made this wall hanging with a wire design for hanging.

 

Wet/needle felted vertical garden wall hanging using Tillandsias (Air plants)

The following photographs show my pattern for laying out the wool to create the wall hanging.

Four layers of wool with a vine design on top

I utilized two bamboo mats to roll up the project during the wet felting process

This shows the vine wall hanging before adding the needle felting embellishments and plants. 

Wet felted vine wall hanging prior to needle felted embellishments and plants

Following are some photographs showing the needle felted embellishments and close-ups of the Tillandsias.

Two Tillandsias (Air plants) &
needle felted vine edges and border

Blooming Tillandsia

Felted wall hanging/vertical garden

Felted wall hanging/vertical garden

It was fun designing and making these wet/needle felted wall hangings. It was also fun picking out the Tillandsias at Home Ec in Chico. They have quite a variety of Tillandsias and it's a fun place to shop for unique home, kitchen and office items.

I look forward to hearing what you think of my vertical garden wall hangings...