Knitted Sheep (with link to pattern)

Ages and ages ago I knitted this sheep from the pattern on the Flutterby Patch blog.  It’s taken me this long to get photos of it.  This is such an easy and quick pattern that anyone with half an idea about knitting can make one.

So, anyway, this particular sheep is called Mary.  One day Mary was out walking and came across the most beautiful felted rock and spiral basket.  Mary wished that the rock was in the basket and hey presto, her wish was granted (she’s a magic sheep don’t you know).

Mary climbed on top of the rock to get a better view of the valley below.  She smiled as she spotted some of her sheep friends frolicking through the fields.  Mary wanted to get down to join them but she worried that she might slip and fall.  Suddenly as if by magic (told you she’s a magic sheep) a pile of stones appeared.

Mary was overjoyed.  She climbed down the stones…very carefully…

… and toddled off to meet her friends and tell them all about her mini adventure.

Mary says while you’re having a look at the pattern, check out the rest of the Flutterby Patch blog…it’s very uplifting.

Make Your Own Scandinavian Style Hanging Bird Ornament

You’ll need:

printer
paper
sharp needle
sharp scissors
6″ x 4″ piece of felt
36″ of 6 stranded embroidery thread
stuffing

Stitches used:

Blanket
Lazy Daisy

Instructions:

1. Click on the pattern below and print and cut it out.  It’s sized to A4 so you’ll need to make sure your page size is set to 210mm x 297mm so that the picture doesn’t distort.
2. Pin the template to your felt and cut two bird shapes.  You may find it easier to do this one shape at a time.
3. Separate two strands of thread by holding one end of the strand and gently pulling it from the group.
4. Using lazy daisy stitch, Sew three small flowers on each bird shape around about the belly of the bird.  Pay close attention to make sure you stitch on the right side of the bird shapes.
5. Separate another two strands of thread.  Using blanket stitch sew the two bird shapes together starting at the mid back and leaving about an inch of a gap for stuffing.
6. Stuff the bird quite tightly and sew the gap closed (with blanket stitch).  You might find at this stage a pencil or chopstick is useful for getting the stuffing into the corners but be careful you don’t poke it all the way through!  Secure your thread with a few small stitches.
7. Thread the last two strands through your needle and double them up to give you four strands.  Starting on the back of the bird, roughly where you started the blanket stitch, sew a few small stitches to secure your thread and then create a loop.  Sew some more small stitches to secure the loop.
8. If you wish you can sew a few loops onto the tail end of the bird to resemble feathers.
9. Hang from your tree/door handle/peg and marvel at the cuteness.

 Pattern:

The copyright of this work belongs to MadeStuff.  You may use this pattern to create as many ornaments as you wish for your own personal use and to give as gifts.   You may not use this pattern in any shape or form for commercial gain.

If you can’t be bothered going out to buy the materials you’ll need to make this lovely bird ornament, I have some kits for sale in the shop.  The kits contain the pattern, including instructions for the stitches, thread, felt and stuffing…enough for one ornament.

houndstooth scotty dog

What fabric would be more fitting for this delightful scotty dog than houndstooth felted wool?

I spied this pattern on the Allsorts blog about a year ago now and went scouring our local charity shops for the right fabric, which I found shortly after…actually getting around to making him took a good deal longer!

vintage fashion atcs

I’ve decided to start swapping again.  The first of the swaps I tackled this week was to create two Vintage Fashion ATCs.  Here’s my interpretation and a bit of a how to.

I love this effect and it’s really quick and easy to acheive.

First find an old dressmaking pattern that you are done with or don’t mind never using again.  For my purposes I have a huge box of vintage patterns for size 10 clothing…even with the best will in the world I’ll never fit into these so they’re perfect for other crafts.  The background I used actually has two patterns stuck to it as the one I had with words on it didn’t look old enough for the effect I was trying to acheive.

Using a glue stick, stick the pattern pieces to a plain postcard.  Wait for these to dry before the next part, otherwise they will tear and the whole thing will be a mess.

The figures were applied using the packing tape transfer method shown in the video below.  Pay particular attention to removing all of the white bits, unlike me who did this in a poorly lit room and missed bits!

I photocopied the pattern packaging and coloured in the figures with crayon and coloured pencil before sticking it to my “packing tape”.  The green one is crayon and the red one is coloured pencil.  Crayon gives a more vibrant finish, although I prefer the washed out appearance from the coloured pencil.  I guess anything would work as long as it’s waterproof.

The cool thing about this method of transfer is that ech time I’ve done it, the packing tape (or sticky backed plastic in my case) stays sticky even though it’s been wet, which is perfect for finishing the ATCs.  I just smoothed it on and rubbed my scissor handles over it to get a really good contact between the transfer and the patterned postcard.

The back is finished with another plain postcard for neatness.

cute hanging bird pattern and instructions

I’ve uploaded a pattern for my cute hanging bird.  It’s a great way to quickly use up all those bits of fabric we all have that we just can’t bear to throw out.

Make a lot of these into a mobile or do what I have done and hang them in your child’s bedroom for decoration.

Whatever you do with it, have fun and please remember to let us know when you’ve made one so we can link to it and let all our readers see your handiwork.