Craft Fun!

Over the past few months - well since before Christmas - I have been busy crafting - - sewing, crocheting, beading, and now felting gifts for Christmas and birthdays.  My goal is to handmake gifts for these occassions as much as possible and reduce what we purchase to some extent.  To that end, I am posting links here for the various websites that I have found to be helpful and I will make sure to comment on those that I have actually used and put up pictures, if I can of my finished projects. 

Crocheting:

Felted Bowls:

Small Felted Bowl

Larger Felted Bowl

This particular craft idea would fall within the parameters of crocheting and felting, but since you crochet a bit more than felt, I am putting it here.  I don't have a pattern for the smaller bowl, but it is essentially made in the same way.  Just stop working the bottom a bit earlier.  In addition, since the sides are done in the same yarn as the bottom, rather than end and tie off, chain 3 and start DC in every stitch around until the bowl sides get the height you would like (see instructions for specifics). 

The pattern for the large felted bowl is here.  Since this is my pattern, I ask that you do not share it, but link back to this page.  (Thanks!)

Crocheted Dolls:

Amy Caroline over at Knit Together Designs has a growing number of patterns for these saint dolls.  They include the two you see here:  St. Therese and St. Elizabeth, as well as St. Francis, St. Anthony, The Fatima children and Our Lady, St. Margaret and the Holy Family.  The patterns are easy to follow and the dolls come out great!  Anyone (which would include me) with a basic knowledge of crocheting should have no problems with them.  They are available here or here. 

Easy Hat:
This free pattern for a skull cap was made some quick and easy and quite cute hats for Christmas gifts.  

A Soft Ball for Baby:

Currently, I am working on this baby ball pattern as a gift.  So far it seems to be going well.  I will post pictures once it is done.  The ball came out okay, but not perfect.  Not the fault of the pattern, but I am pretty inconsistent  when crocheting.  Sometimes I crochet more tightly and sometimes more loosely.  In addition, I used a worsted weight yarn, when sport weight was called for in the pattern.  I was using what I had on hand.  All in all, though, I think it turned out okay. 


Felting:

These eggs came out so adorable.  They begged to be touched!  The method for making them can be found here - - though I recommend getting a piece of tulle (netting) and wrapping that over the wool and egg to help prevent it from slipping off of the egg.

These little sheep are cute and adorable - - easy to do, too!  You can find the tutorial here.

Another cute and easy to do felting craft - - these gnomes will enchant your kids.  The tutorial can be found here.

Felt food:

This particular posting at The Olsen Family Journal has links to literally dozens of free patterns for felt food.  I've been making these as gifts for Christmas (my godchild) and for birthdays (my nieces) and for little Daniel.  You can also find patterns at www.youcanmakethis.com for a price.  Many of these patterns can be sewn either by hand or machine and can use wool or acryllic felt.  Sew up some cooking fun for your littles today!!!

Sewing Fun:

I have the pattern for making an angel doll out of felt (can easily be done out of muslin, too) posted here. You can sew dresses quite easily for it. 

I also made this market bag for my nieces.  It keeps all of the felt food together and allows them to pretend.  I don't have the pattern for it as of yet, but I want to make another for Daniel and will include directions, hopefully some time later. 

These pillowcases were fun and easy to do with my girls!  Use an old pillow case as a pattern and cut the main material to size.  For the border, take a coordinating fabric and cut double the width you would like, fold and iron to crease edge.  Sew to the main fabric.  Add embelishments, such as rickrack, and then pin right sides together and sew around.  Easy - peasy! 

These totes were fun and easy to do.  Many came from fabrics (canvas, outdoor and home decorating) I found in the remnant bin.  I also lined the regular totes.  The drawstring bags are beach bags for the kids.  I made them so they could carry them like the popular drawstring backpacks.  They are roomy enough for a towel, hat and sunscreen.  The directions can be found for both here.

Quick and easy vestments - - I will say that this wasn't as easy as I had hoped.  The material is really slick and easily frays.  For that reason, you need to either surge the edges or fold them under and hem around.  I basically took a piece of fabric and cut a T in the middle.  I edge the opening with bias tape (remember the fraying part?).  The IHS was cut from tissue gold lame that had heat 'n bond applied to the back of it.  WARNING:  You need to put a piece of scrap fabric under the lame before applying the heat 'n bond.  It will go through the lame and onto the ironing board, which will ruin a perfectly good cover.  (I've done this twice now.)  In addition, make sure that the design for the IHS you cut is traced backwards on the backing of the heat 'n bond paper so that it will come out the right way.  I also rounded the bottom corners of the fabric.  I made a stole using an extra piece of fabric and sewed down and added some gold fringe that I had left over from another project.  This was a Christmas gift for a dear nephew who always blesses us when we see him.

Woodworking Fun:

Over the winter, the scroll saw has become a new friend!  Check out the Sacred Play to see some of my scroll saw pieces that I have made with some help from my dear hubby.  The above craft is easy to do.  Trace a copy of a coloring page of the desired image onto a piece of wood or mdf - - here we used St. Joseph since I didn't have a St. Joseph statue to adorn my altar.  Cut around the outside of the image using the scroll saw.  Also cut a triangular shaped piece to glue to the back for a stand.  Paint the back and sides, if desired, and allow to dry.  Also paint the triangular shaped piece, if desired.  Then paint the front side, using the lines as guides.  I used simple acryllic (Folk Art brand - these and similar brands can be found at AC Moore and Michaels).  When the painting dries, spray with an acryllic sealer.  Hot glue the stand to the back and display. 

Okay, technically, these are not wood working, unless you are making the doll bodies yourself, but these are made from wood, so I included them here.  I guess I could make a heading for painting fun, but  . . . I had seen these wooden saint dolls at St. Luke's Brush etsy shop.  These dolls are gorgeous and they put these simple creations to shame.  My s-i-l gave me the idea to make them myself and so over Christmas, I found myself painting these little dolls for Daniel.  These were made from what I had found readily available.  I did find a source on line for the wooden doll bodies here.