Felt

I've been using a lot of felt lately - mostly for doll hair on the Black Apple dolls, but also for the little bunnies I made for easter. I've acquired a box full of it - a lot is the crappy acrylic stuff that comes in squares from Spotlight, but I later found that they had some lovely wool felt that you could buy by the metre. Not in very many colours, unfortunately, but better than nothing. It's much nicer than the acrylic stuff - soft and tactile. I remember having felt play sets when I was little - you got a printed background and had shapes that you could stick on - no-glue-magic! - to make a picture. I'm sure I had a circus set. I was easily amused in the 70's.

I saw this free (!!) pattern at The Purl Bee for a felt doll, designed by Mimi Kirchener.



I have a friend with a birthday next week, so I thought I'd try one of these dolls. I used the felt I had on hand, hence the hot pink - it was the only piece large enough to cut the dress from. The instructions at The Purl Bee are very clear and easy to follow - along with some great ideas like tracing the pattern onto freezer paper and then ironing onto the felt to cut the pattern pieces. I took a step out of this and printed the pattern straight onto the freezer paper. (Cut it the same size as A4 paper and you can feed it through a printer).


Here's mine - the pink is darker than it looks here, and I haven't rinsed the blue marker off her face yet. I'm pretty happy with how she turned out, despite my limited range of felt colours (I only used felt that I had, just to test the pattern out.)



Here's what I had to contend with while I was trying to sew her - a lap cat. I must have looked un-busy, because she wanted to sit on my lap all day while I was trying to sew. Normally, she just stays for 5 minutes and then goes off to her own lounge, but not yesterday.

Back to Spotlight to buy some more wool felt this morning. Not many colours (sigh) but enough to keep me going for a while. I would love to get some flesh toned felt, maybe I'll be able to get some at the textile festival at the end of May. I can't think of any local shops that would carry it anyway - I doubt quilt shops would sell any (or if they do, I haven't noticed it).