2 fabulous felt projects to make your holidays sew much easier

Yesterday we talked about the use of fabric, decorative machine embroidery thread and a little time spent quilting to make gifts for the chefs in your life.

Today’s projects for How to make the Holidays “sew” easy involve the use of craft felt, specifically Kunin Rainbow ClassicFelt, Kunin PrestoFelt. We’ll also use some hand embroidery and machine stitching to make this felt look so festive without hours of effort.

Kunin felt is made of polyester, acrylic. Did you know that this product is also Eco Friendly and partially made from recycled post-consumer plastic bottles?

Felt is also very versatile as it does not fray, it’s easy to cut, DMC embroidery floss goes through it like butter and you can use it in single or multiple layers. It’s very affordable, light weight and makes great soft toys for children. So why not give it a try this season?

Today I’ll talk about 2 fabulous festive felt projects. Say that quickly!

Snowflake Coasters 

(Make 4 at a time)

The first fabulous festive felt project is snowflake coasters made easy by using  Rainbow Classic Felt,Hi-tak Glue, Sulky Holoshimmer Silver and Schmetz Metallic Machine Needles. These little coasters could also be ornaments, gift package decor and are also a great addition to a bottle of wine for those holiday parties or take away gifts.

materials

• Copyright free snowflake design measuring 3¾″ x 3¾″ or download this free design from here 
• Schmetz Metallic Machine Needles
• Sulky Holoshimmer Silver
• Rainbow Classic Felt in green and white or colors of your choice
• Hi-tak Glue
• Ripple Blade Rotary Cutter (optional)

sewing instructions

• Cut out 4 snowflakes from white felt from design source of your choice.

• Cut out 8 Rainbow Classic Felt squares 4½″ x 4½″.
• Using the Hi-tak Glue, glue the snowflake to the center of 4 of your felt squares and let dry for one hour.

• Insert your Schmetz Metallic Needles into your sewing machine and thread your machine with Sulky Holoshimmer Thread.
• Sandwich 2 squares of felt together with a plain felt square and a snowflake square facing up and pin to hold together.
• Top stitch and quilt the snowflake through the two layers with an applique, open toe or free motion foot.

• Square your coasters to 4¼″ x 4¼″ with a ripple blade rotary cutter or straight blade.
• Using a ¼″ foot, top stitch through 2 layers around square ¼″ in from the perimeter.
• Admire your efforts!

Felt Christmas Tree for Toddlers

If you have some toddlers/grandbabies visiting over the holidays, this project may just keep them out of the real Christmas tree. Give them one of their own!

This project uses PrestoFelt, Rainbow ClassicFelt, Hi-tak Glue, DMC Embroidery Floss and Heirloom Quality Gold Eye Crewel Embroidery Needles. This little tree and ornaments is a quick hand embroidered DIY project that when packaged up, could also make a very thoughtful gift for those little ones on your Holiday list.

materials

(makes one tree and several ornaments)

• PrestoFelt and Rainbow ClassicFelt, comes in 8 x 11½″ sheets, assortment of colors
• 1 yd of green for tree (ClassicFelt), width should be at least 39”
• Hi-tak Glue
• DMC Embroidery Floss (used silver and light blue in this project)
• sharp scissors
• simple hand drawn holiday shapes of your choice or copyright fee clip art
• chalk marker for tree
• Gold Eye Crewel Embroidery Needles
• embellishments (optional) i.e. buttons, sequins, beads, embroidery stitches

sewing instructions

• Cut out felt designs from design source of your choice for ornaments for the Christmas tree.

• Cut out the Christmas tree as shown by folding a 24” x 39” fabric piece of felt in half lengthwise and draw the Christmas tree with a chalk marker. Draw this shape free-hand, starting with a wider bottom and working smaller towards the top. Refer to photo below:

• Layer and embellish the ornaments using ClassicFelt with Hi-tak Glue and PrestoFelt. The PrestoFelt already has a sticky backing so it is easy to layer with it. Remove the paper backing and presto it’s easy!
• Use DMC Embroidery floss and Gold Eye Crewl Embroidery Needles to make basic embroidery stitches such as a running stitch, french knots, stem stitch and blanket stitch. The crewel embroidery needles are strong and go through the Presto Felt and Hi-tak Glue with ease. The DMC Embroidery Floss adds nice dimension to the ornaments. Refer to photo.

Once you complete this felt Christmas tree project, you may also please some parents with hours of ‘felty’ fun for their little ones. Be sure to share with us your completed felt projects and your comments below.

Join me tomorrow when I discuss a machine quilted project and gift idea for all ages that will build the excitement that the holidays can bring!