This is a project to felt and sew a hand felted cushion cover.
Felt Pillow
Materials used:
Wool roving for making felt
approx 1 yard of cotton fabric
16 inch zipper
19 inch pillow form
Hand made Felt
To make the felt top for this pillow, I made a large piece of felt approx 24 inches square. During the felting process the felt will shrink about 15%-30%.
I don’t like to waste wool, so I use the leftover thrums from carding for making felt. This comes from the fleece that is left on the drum carder and isn’t a good enough quality for hand spinning.
I placed a thin layer of the leftover wool onto the felting mat. I then added a second layer of gray wool roving over the wool thrums, laying the fiber in the opposite direction. I added a third thin layer of gray roving over the previous layer, again in the opposite direction.
I wet the wool with warm water and soap and rolled it up in a felting mat.
For more detailed instructions of how to make a piece of felt please see below.read more
Santa’s Trousers
After felting I cut a piece of this felt that was wide enough to fit around Santa’s tummy, and long enough to fit his legs. Then I cut partly up the center of the piece of felt – to fit around his legs.
I hand stitched around the cut piece with a length of wool yarn, to strengthen the edges.read more
Weaving You Can Wear
Coptic tunic, mexican huipil, himalayan sherpa coat, african shirt, south american poncho. huichol indian pocketbelt and many more.read more
If you have been following some of my posts to our Forum, I had mentioned that I was on a search for a new sewing machine. When I moved to London several years ago, I had purchased a budget sewing machine – a Janome. At the time I knew that I would eventually need to get a better quality machine in order to sew handwovens, but at that time, it met my basic sewing needs.Since I rented a weaving studio at Wimbledon Arts Studios, and have started to weave again, the first warp that came off my loom caused me problems when it came time to hem the edges of the sauna towels that I had woven. The fairly loose twill weave and roughness of the tow linen caused the old sewing machine to choke. The thread constantly broke, or the seam skipped many stitches. So I did a bit of research on the suitability of sewing machines. I was looking for one that would have the power to sew heavier or thicker fabrics, yet could also handle fine silks.read more
Clothkits is a unique sewing store that recently opened up just down the street from where I live, in Chichester UK.
The shop specializes in sewing fabrics that have the pattern printed onto the cloth. This is a perfect way for a beginner sewer to learn to sew.
Clothkits was originally created by Anne Kennedy in 1969 and sold in 1988. It was operated as a mail order business specializing as sewing patterns forn children’s clothes. The patterns and designs were printed directly onto fabric. All you need to do is cut on the dotted line and follow the sewing instructions to assemble your garment. Clothkits was resurrected by artist Kay Mawer and the original patterns are now available once again through mail order and through their local shop in Chichester.read more
