Needle Felted Pumpkins

It is October! I love, love, LOVE October! Why? Well, of course you know the answer already-HALLOWEEN! What is it about Halloween that makes me fell all aglow inside? I'm not sure. I think it has something to do with memories of my childhood- pumpkin patches, corn mazes, crunching leaves on the ground and trick or treating with friends. There are also memories of hot mulled cider, apple picking and jumping in a mountain of leaves my grandfather raked into a pile.

Now I live far away from the American Halloween festivities that I grew up with as a child. In fact, it isn't even autumn here in Sydney. It is spring. The weather is lovely and I can't complain, but it just doesn't seem like Halloween with daffodils in bloom and my knit sweaters in the back of the closet.

This will be my fourth year in Australia. My oldest child is two years old and I decided it was a good year to bring back some of the Halloween festivities into our home. It isn't the easiest task in a country that doesn't really celebrate the holiday. It has started gaining some popularity. Many of the shops have begun to sell a few decorations. Trick or treators are a rarity, however and the two children in the last four years that we did have knock at our door just stared at me like deer in headlights. They didn't even know they were supposed to say, "trick or treat." Before you begin thinking, "those poor darlings!" you need not worry, I gave them a lesson on Halloween door knocking etiquette.

So I only have a couple weeks left now until Halloween. I've been a busy little beaver making decorations and creating games for all the little ones. I've also been having fun experimenting with various pumpkin recipes. Oh! Did I mention that my son's party is going to be a pumpkin party?! Yes, indeedy! Nothing scary. They are toddlers afterall (though I have been longing to do the ol' eyes and brains in the touch and feel bowls trick- have to safe that for another year or two...)

Now that I have revealed to you the theme of the party, it is pretty obvious I need pumpkins and a lot of them. All you fellow Americans are saying, easy peasey! Go to your local pumpkin patch you're thinking and fill a pickup full of pumpkins and gourds, huh? Not so fast. I WISH it was that simple. First off it is spring remember so pumpkins aren't in season so that is a bit tricky. We don't even grow the traditional orange round pumpkins here. If you search you can find them; imported and pricey. The first year I moved here my hubby and I splurged and bought one. It was only a medium sized pumpkin and it cost us 40 bucks. Crazy! I did however see a couple at our local supermarket for $3.99/KG so that is an improvement. However, I'm not going to spend that kind of money to create a pumpkin patch in my back yard for the party. I have to be a bit more frugal and resourceful.

I don't want to give away everything I'm making for the party because I want most of it to be a surprise for those attending. I will share though some little needle felted pumpkins I have been busy making. These can be used as little decorations, of course but I have something a little more fun in mind for these minis. My son has been obsessed lately with loading up his toy trucks with fruit pieces from his Hi-Ho Cherrio board came. Watching him gave me a great idea. Wouldn't it be fun for the kids to have a bunch of little pumpkins to load up in trucks? I think so! They are all toddler to preschool age so they are very much into that sort of play so I hope that they'll find it appealing. If anything they'll like the trucks and if the pumpkins get thrown to the side I'll just save them for deco :)

Easy Folded Fabric Flower

An easy fabric flower!

 I've been wanting to make some more flowers for Lachlan's sister. The goal is the to use them to accessorize. Afterall, what girl, no matter how small doesn't need just a little sass to her wardrobe? While Lachlan was busy playing with his trains (as always!) and Noelle was occupying herself by discovering her toes (she's 5 months) I set out on a little sewing adventure.

I've made cloth flowers before but with felt. I wanted to make some with extra fabric I had lying around the house. I'm also a sucker for just picking up fat quarter bundles when I see them at the craft shop. There are always a few prints of fabric included that I don't really like. I thought today I would use those to make some flowers. You have to look at the big picture; some prints might not be your cup of tea in a large amount, say for a shirt, but in a small amount, such as a little flower, it might just be just to your liking; this was the case for some pink fabric I had in my craft box. I'm not a huge pink girl. I do like it but I like it best in limited quanities.

I'm positive there are hundreds of tutorials out in the blogoshere that show one how to make a flower with fabric. This is how I do it, but there certainly might be a better way! I'm a novice sewer but this is pretty easy and a great little beginner project. The flowers are so versatile you can do anything with them: use them for headbands, hairclips, add to shirts, pants, shoes, handbags and on and on the list will go... Visit the ever so poular Pinterest and you'll be inspired I'm sure. How could you not be?

So here it goes...

First step is to find some fabric and make 6 circles the size you want. I just traced one of my glass kitchen tumblers with a disappearing ink fabric pen and then cut. My circles are 2 inches in diameter.

Use disappearing fabric ink so you don't have to worry about any lines showing when finished

2 inch circles X 6

Now we can begin to make a flower. Fold each circle in half and then in half again (so it is folded in 4ths)

Left: Folded in half     Right: Fold in half again

You should now have 6 pieces folded like the one to the right in the above photo. Now it is time to attach these babies. All you do is place each one a little bit inside the other and secure with a pin. I like to do one hald first (so attach three together) and then do the other half, to ensure that it is even. Then join them both together.

Pin each folded side a litte bit into the other

Secure with thread- this is one half or 3 circle sewn

Back side- connecting all the pieces

The above is the back side so it doesn't matter how messy it looks back there! I sew all the corners together and then also so through each of the folds. I put the needle through one crease,  and then through the next. Make sure you only sew inside the fold and not through the entire piece, otherwise you'll have thread showing on the other side and we can't have that, can we?!

See, the other side is fairly neat and tidy. This doesn't matter so much either because we are going to cover it with a button. I just used a spare button from my collection. You might also like to have a go at using a covered button or a felt ball. Be creative!

Right-side up

Now attach your button on one side a small piece of scrap felt on the other. This scrap piece attached will allow you to easily sew the flower on whatever you want. I'm planning on attaching it to a snap which I can either put on a headband of shirt. You might decide to just secure it to a safety pin and wear as a broach. Not recommend for litte children for obvious safety reasons, ouch!

I just love gray and pink together!

Felt attached

There you have it! A folded fabric flower. How easy was that!? Now where to put this little beauty?
Perhaps on one of my little darling's singlets? And it just happened to brillianlty match a little shorted skirt that arrived in the mail this week!

or perhaps on a headband for your little poppet:

Whatever you choose, I'm sure it will look perfect on your little one!

Welcome!

So here you are. Don't you have something better to be doing than surfing the web for crafty inspiration? I'm sure you do, but what could feel better right now that simply relaxing and going comotose in blogosphere. If you are like me, you love to search and search until you find that perfect inspiration; something that will motivate you to head off to your local craft shop in search of supplies or to your neighbourhood garage sale, hoping to find something to transform!

Now if you are like me, you have GREAT intentions. Don't we all? However, my intentions commonly get put on the back burner. Perhaps they are on hold because life as a mommy and wife comes calling and I don't get around to it...OR...Perhaps I loose motivation because I'm just dog tired at the end of the day...OR...the best one yet...while searching blogosphere I was inspired by another craft and JUST HAD TO MAKE IT, so off I went to buy more supplies, only for them to sit on my table for a month and then later get shoved into my linen closet with all the rest of my forgotten fabrics.

Well folks, today I say NO MORE! Today I'm going to dust off that old (okay, BRAND NEW) sewing machine I have never used and get started. I'm going to start cross off those crafts on my 'to do' list and actually make them. Sure, I do an occasional craft from month to month, but not nearly as many as what I have bought supplies for. Times are a changing and I hope they are for you. So dig up those supplies and let's get started!