Feltie Goodness!

After a busy week at Creative Futures (more on that in my next post), I was pretty much done with lectures, and looking forward to the practical side of the Felt Mistress workshop.

I got the feeling that it would be a very simplified workshop, seeing as how detailed the work of Louise Evans (The Felt Mistress) is; I knew we’d never get anything so extravagant done in a few hours!

However, I was really impressed with the results, and how well a lot of the felties turned out, despite the time limit. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that we all skipped lunch and worked straight on into the afternoon. But we were enjoying ourselves – even those who had never sewn before seemed to be having loads of fun discovering a new craft.

As for me, I’ve sewn before, on and off, but the majority of what I’ve made in the past has turned out well. At the moment I’m currently working through a book I received as a Christmas Present: the awesomely cute Zombie Felties. Ironically, Louise mentioned that the same people who created this book are working on bringing one out for her. So I’ll be keeping my bug-eyes open for that.

Here are my first two creations, Ramone the mummy, who unfortunately lost one of his beady eyes. I managed to reattach it by nailing the poor bugger to my pinboard. Somehow I don’t think he minds, being dead anyway:



And Cujo, the zombie puppy, who now sits proudly on my boyfriend’s shelf:



These teeny tiny felties are no bigger than the palm of my hand, so working on a larger feltie in Louise’s workshop (and without glue!) was a little daunting. But once I got into it, I remembered how relaxing sewing is, and how adept I am at it… perhaps there’s something I can utilize there…

Here’s my finished monster:








I call her Kimi, as I wanted her to look as though she’d belong in Japan. Her hair was made from a beard template, and her tummy is a nose piece. Her buns were meant to be horns, and I added the ribbons, butterflies and flower-bellybutton for funsies. I also gave her some fingernails and rosy cheeks for added girlieness. I’m pretty chuffed with how she came out, and surprised, considering I wasn’t able to cheat with glue. I also learned a new stitch, the Blanket Stitch, which I used to sew her body up.

As for the Felt Mistress herself, she was really cool. Friendly and chatty, I found her to be very encouraging. Her work is really unique and, above all, adorable! Perhaps it comes from her working with her partner, illustrator Jonathan Edwards. I’d come across Edwards before and love his bold, funky characters.

Can’t help feeling that perhaps PIXAR should hire these two to work on Monsters Inc. 2, as their combined style would make for some really interesting character designs and plushies. Plus, imagine how badass a Felt Mistress-style Sully toy would be!

Anyway, I’m hoping to carry on with making felties and, given enough time, I’d like to make two plushies of my Morgue & Gor characters for my final year show.

In the meantime, check out my little flower pin cushion that I made:



I have some gorgeous Chinese fabric lying around and needed a pin cushion for my humble sewing box (I call in humble because it’s half empty). Using a book I’d bought a while ago, the S.E.W. Workshop, I was able to churn this out in about an hour. Although it went all kinds of wrong, I’m pretty chuffed with it. I think sewn things are much better when they’re obviously handmade. And luckily I had a little Lady Bug bead hanging around to emphasise that it is in fact a flower, and not a deformed blob!

Hopefully, with some practice, I’ll be able to use the rest of this Chinese fabric to make a dress or skirt, as it’s too beautiful to be stuffed in a bag at the bottom of my wardrobe.

Anyway, I’d recommend both the Zombie Felties and the S.E.W. Workshop books to anyone wanting to learn the basics of sewing, as they’re both incredibly easy to use, colourful and fun. Also, you might want to check out a book called Alternacrafts, which also features sewn projects, but also has a lot of other creative and simple crafts for you to try. Plus, it’s recycling, so win-win!

And obviously, check out the websites and work of both Felt Mistress and Jonathan Edwards. Really inspiring stuff!