i'm doing a lot of traveling this month and next, which means posting here will be sporadic for a bit longer.
i'm off to seattle for a wedding, and here is the flower girl basket i made for it!
cut 9 strips of felt, 50cm long, and 4cm wide. of course you can alter these dimensions, these are just the ones i used, which work well for a square basket 3 strips wide in each directions. 6 strips make the bottom of the basket, and become the sides. 3 more strips are woven around the sides. you'll need another 50cm by 12cm strip for the handle.
lay out 3 vertical strips, and weave 3 horizontal strips. here's the 1st one.
the 2nd one
all 3.
baste around the edges, after pulling the strips tightly together. this is just to hold them together as you move on to the next part.
take a new strip and start weaving around the side.
when it goes all the way around, overlap the ends, pull them snug, and baste them together.
repeat with a 2nd strip woven around the sides.
for the 3rd strip, cut it in half lengthwise. this actually means you have 4 strips total, 2 wide ones and 2 narrow ones. weave the narrow ones around the side of the basket, and baste the ends as before.
fold each verticle strip coming up the side of the basket (these are the same strips that started out as the bottom of the basket) over the edge. fold it over TWO of the horizontal strips (i.e. fold it over BOTH the narrow strips, and then tuck in the end under the wide horizonal strip. that means that half of you side strips will be folded inside the basket, and half outside the basket. they will stick out the other side of the wide strip after you tuck them through it, this is fine, we will trim them later.
this is the basket with all the side strips foldeded over the edge and tucked in.
next we make the handle. i used a 50cm by 12 sm wide strip, which i folded over itself in 3rds and sewed together (to make a handle that has 3 layers). this was pretty sturdy even with the felt i was using, which was quite thin. for the felt veggie basket from the previous post, i used 2 layers sewn together, which worked fine, but since this basket is actually going to be carried by a little girl in a ceremony, i wanted the handle to be pretty sturdy and hold it's shape.
i wove the handle into the basket, doubling it up with the middle side strips. i chose to put the handles on the two sides where the handle is OUTSIDE the basket at the top row. is this picture, the handle is sticking out a little at the bottom of the basket, this is just to show you that you insert the handle piece all the way down the side. then pull it even so that the end of the handle lines up with the edge of the side/bottom of the basket. and baste this end.
the handle inserted on both sides.
next, sew the edges of the felt together, while making any adjustments to make the basket more even or the woven strips more tight an consistent. remove the basting stitches.
for this basket, i sewed around all the edges on the outside of the basket only. the order that worked best for me was: sew the 4 corners of the basket, in the vertical direction. then sew the other verticle edges (2 on each side). then trim off the ends that we wove in earlier. then sew the 2 horizonal edges all the way around the basket.
here's the rest of my felt vegetables!
they were so fun to make...i blogged about beginning this project here.
all from this book: cute fruit and vegetables made of felt; more info here.
i wove a felt basket for them. i will post a tutorial for how to make the basket later this week, when i am making one for a different project...
i finished these last month, for a gift, and seeing these photos again makes me want to make even more!
i discovered a number of things this week, including new fabric! who doesn't like robots?
there's a lot of cuteness in japan by way of scandinavia, a great trend i fully support.
i found this adorable print from the 'rabbits and racecars' series by heather ross for kokka,
and cotton canvas with baby goats. eeeek, so cute!! oh, and the fabric is finally all in my shop.
this is one of the projects i was working on last month: tiny stuffed animals.
they are super easy to make, i used a cute cotton ed emberly print, and just sewed around the animals.
i made a simple background cloth with fabric crayons.
here's how to make them.
cut them out.
turn them inside out and stuff. hand sew the rest of the way around. (sorry, no photo!)
these are the fabric crayons (from muji, my favorite store). they worked great. after using these or other fabric crayons, heat set with an iron on low heat, put paper on both sides of the fabric before ironing.
fabric crayons are great for kids too! here are my little pals that i made the animals for, helping me give the fabric crayons a test run.
look at these adorable baby shoes by mette from erleperle (where there's also a link to the pattern if you want to try to make them yourself).
kanzashi is the traditional japanese craft of making intricate flowers or petal arrangements from fabric. the image above is one of the amazying pieces created by atelier kanawa who is one of the few tsumami kanzashi artisans today. it's a hairpin called 'rain drops world,' which is quite appropriate for these days in japan, as we are waiting for rainy season to finish up this week maybe.
kanzashi in bloom, by diane gilleland of craftypod, just came out, and can be seen around the internet on a blog book tour. whip up has an feature about kuniko kanawa of atelier kanawa, and also a giveaway for the book. betz white also has a copy to give away (you have until wednesday to enter, u.s. addresses only).
i've been slowing recovering from a broken foot, and today the rehabilitation specialist at the hospital gave me my custom made insole, which means i can wear sneakers! and put a little weight on it (along with my crutches). since it's still a bit swollen, i couldn't fit my injured foot into the sneakers i already owned, so i was pretty justified in buying these new ones from muji, where else! i'm looking forward to this week being easier and easier than last.
and, at the shopping mall, there was this display of photovoltaic panels. yes, i realize it's a bit of a jump, but it is design related....apparently now that the japanese law allows people to sell energy back to the grid, solar panels are becoming popular. pretty cool that they are so commonplace that you can see them in the mall on sunday.
free pattern for this cute froggy, 'ribbit' is available from the spud and chlöe blog, where they are also having a giveaway right now!
recycle LACMA is a very cool project by robert fontenot, reinventing new uses for textiles that were decommissions by LACMA. this pink garment bag is made from the dress below:
On January 14th, 2009 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it was deaccessioning more than 100 items from its costumes and textiles collection. Once carefully collected, catalogued, and cared for, these items have now been cast back out in to the world. What will happen to them? Like any other useless item, they will need to be recycled or disposed of.
Recycle LACMA is a project of Los Angeles-based artist Robert Fontenot. At three separate auctions he purchased over 50 items deaccessioned by LACMA and is now trying to find new uses for these otherwise unwanted items.
where there are more projects, like this sailboat made from guatemalen pants (below).
via design sponge
this cute pencil case is by alliebeans, whose etsy shop is full of even more goodies, lots made with sweet japanese fabric.
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