Felt Ornament

Continuing on my Pinterest theme...  I found this cute ornament from zakkalife who has one of my favorite blogs for crafts.

All of the samples I have seen use red felt and red thread.  I think this is a perfect ornament for experimenting with some different color combinations. I did not go too far off the original for my first attempt.  :-)

I have some gold organza ribbon that I used for the hanging loop and then I found some metallic braid in my beading stash!

This braid is from Kreinik...

And my favorite thing about it...

Hooray for Kreinik!  I think the bowl is another story.  My youngest received it as a gift from a cast mate when she was in King and I locally.  But it measures just under 4.5 inches and after I traced the bowl, my circle was just right.

And I will leave you with a close up of the knot details.

I think the metallic thread adds just the right touch of sparkle to this ornament!

One last day of crafting.

Only one thing to show today so far.  My youngest DD will be a clown this year at AAA and we have been planning her costume for some time now.  Shortly after school started, the teacher asked each student about what their plans were for their costume. DD said she wanted to be a button clown.  The teacher then told her about a style of dress in the UK where the clothing is covered in buttons.  I thought she meant something during the victorian period but after researching we found this.

These people are members of the Pearlies and the women are queens and the men are kings.  You can read about the Pearlies on Wikipedia.  The group has quite the history.

Back to the clown costume...  We could not use a Pearly type costume for clowns as they are not colorful enough!  The AAA clowns are known for bright shiny colors with black and white accents.  But in an homage to the Pearlies, I made a headband for DD today.

I used  wool blend felt (2" x 9") and sewed 35 white buttons onto it.  Then I used a blanket stitch to attach the back to one side.  Before sewing the other side together, I inserted a narrow black elastic headband.  When DD tried it on, the ends seemed to be too wide as they stopped well above her ears.  I had her remove it and I found that I could taper the ends by folding them over each other towards the middle.

Next time, I would cut the tapers into the felt and use the blanket stitch so as not to have the extra fabric on the ends.  But this way does still work!



You can get a glimpse of my photography setup in this photo! 

And this one is a bit blurry but it does show how well it spans the head.

And another project designed and created tonight!

The same DD has been asking for ribbons for headbands lately.  I knew I had a stash of beautiful ribbons that I found in Nashville a couple of years ago.  (Textile Fabrics is fabulous for trims!!!)  Then I saw a tutorial a day or so ago on making ribbons into headbands.  The tutorial I saw did not do it quite this way but it was very similar.  I also didn't pay attention to the part that said to keep your width  to two inches or less.  Oooops!

This ribbon is 2.5 inches wide (maybe a little less) but the colors are so vibrant!  When DD saw this, it became the headband.  So we chose a wool blend felt and lined the ribbon with that as the back of the ribbon was lots of threads from the weaving of the design.  Is there a term for that type of ribbon?

I should also note that I am an impatient crafter and took photos before I actually finished the ends and trimmed the threads.  What can I say?  I couldn't wait to share it!

DD complained about modeling for me saying that her hair wasn't right but she is beautiful still.  The light in the hallway where we took the photos does not do justice to the colors though.  That's why I showed the detail photos first!