The weather is getting colder, and we have a handmade holiday on our minds! Handmade gifts have heart, are better for the environment, and, if you opt to buy, it supports independent artists!
If you want to have a totally handmade holiday, now is the time to get started. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be posting about recycled gifts and giftwrap you can make yourself and great handmade finds for sale!
Really, it was like kismet. My girlfriend’s birthday brunch was on Sunday, and on Saturday my booth at the Cabbagetown Chomp and Stomp was right next to the lovely Lightdaughter Press. Since my friend is back in school, I picked up one of their journals printed with “Today you will be happier than a bird with a french fry” printed on the cover. To make the gift extra special, I decided to make her a little cozy to keep it in along with her favorite pen. I just love that her gift is a combination of a purchased handmade item and something handmade by me!
Want to make your very own journal cozy? Here’s how!
Fall is officially here! It’s cool and blustery, and we’ve got cozy fabrics on our minds. What better way to welcome in the lovely changing leaves and chilly weather than with some beautiful recycled felt? Feltwerker, a Chicago fiber artist, offers beautiful recycled wool felt scraps that you can incorporate into your Fall and winter projects!
”Fashioning Felt presents an extraordinary range of felt. From two-dimensional carpets to three-dimensional environments, each work reveals the virtuosity of both the material and the designers. The exhibition and book focus on felt that has been produced by traditional hand- or machine-felting processes; they exclude non-woven felt and techniques, in order to underscore the essential elements of feltmaking — wool fiber, agitation, moisture, and pressure.”
I fell for this Felt Ovoid Jacket and Empire Pant look. Isn’t this draped felt suit creative?
The Rose and Radish gallery and boutique in San Francisco offers a fresh mix of springtime creativity!
I am inspired by this creative way to upcycle felt with these little tabletop cup cozies. Their goals for showcasing craft designs are admirable and charming:
Um, you’ve probably gotten the idea by now that I like to craft with felted wool sweaters, right? The twenty-pound cardboard box on my study floor full of cut-up wool sweaters tells me that this is true. And you’ve probably also figured out that I prefer to use acrylic felt made from recycled plastic over conventional wool felt (and you don’t agree–I swear, that Wool Comes from Sheep post is the only one I have ever seen on all of Green Options in which a commentor calls a blogger a Bad Name. A Bad Name! Really? Because of crafting? I sort of left the world of academics in favor of crafting to avoid crazy politics, but anyway…).
Ahem. My point, now that I’ve gotten around to it, is that I actually do craft with new wool, but I need to know where that wool has come from so that I can assure myself that the sheep were humanely raised as the happy, frolicsome beasts they’re meant to be (I assume–never having raised sheep myself, they could be fierce and blood-thirsty predators, for all I really know).
And one of the awesomest kinds of wool to craft with, especially if you’re not a spinner or a knitter, is wool roving (just don’t use superwash!). You can felt wet-felt wool roving to make your own felt, or you can welt-felt it around a form. A good project for a newbie is this one, in which we’re going to wet-felt some roving around a river rock. It will be hefty but soft, good for anything from a paperweight to a plaything:
If your family includes a preschooler and people who aren’t preschoolers (such as yourself!), it can be challenging to find a family art activity that can equally engage the skills and creativity of each family member.
In my family, which includes two people who are preschoolers and two people who aren’t, one of our favorite family art activities is to make more creations for our little girls’ felt board. Felt is easy to cut, holds its shape well and doesn’t ravel, can be drawn on with permanent markers and glued with hot glue, and, if you work with wool felt or an acrylic felt made from recycled plastic bottles, it’s an eco-friendly craft material, as well.
Here’s a sneak preview and a little bit more about the author.
White is not new to the craft scene. Her first book, Warm Fuzzies — 30 Sweet Felted Projects was published in 2007. Betz has a passion for wool felting and walks us step-by-step (patterns included in the back of book) on how to transform second-hand sweaters into some unique craft items. Projects include a bonbon journal, messenger bag, scarves, a hand-puppet, and some delicious felted cupcake pin cushions.
White’s newest book, Sewing Green — 25 Projects Made With Repurposed & Organic Materials , is all about taking an existing item (think cashmere sweater found in a thrift-shop, or a dress shirt that’s been hanging in the back of a closet forever) and turning it into something ‘new’ and functional. White will show us twenty-five projects that all start with re-purposed materials. Cashmere sweaters are deconstructed, then re-constructed to become a warm and cozy blanket. Men’s dress shirts are transformed into an apron AND a wallet.
I started writing the Fabulous Fabrics series here in March, and I thought the six month mark would be a good time for a retrospective.
What I’ve liked best about doing this series is seeing the combination of creativity and passion that goes into what these fabric designers and manufacturers do. If someone’s making organic fabric, it’s because they believe in it. It’s not just because a market analysis told them they would make some money. (In fact, I sometimes worry if they’re even making enough to live on, given the extra work they’re doing to source and use eco-friendly materials and fair trade practices.) These folks really want to make a difference.
So here are the fabrics and shops I’ve covered so far in the Fabulous Fabrics series here on Crafting A Green World. At one point I was afraid I would run out, but more and more come to my attention all the time. So here’s the past, and I’ll see you next Tuesday to start in on the next six months!
Felt is one of those materials that reminds me of my childhood. It brings me back to story time and felt boards. Oh, remember felt boards?! The boards were covered in felt and then people, trees, houses and many other things, also made of felt, were stuck to the board. They were a great prop that aided in telling of a story.
Today, felt is a cheap material that comes in many colors. Mostly used for kids crafts and plushes, not all craft felt found in big box craft stores are 100% wool. Most are made of some synthetic fiber blend such as acrylic or polyester.
So what to do when you want to use felt in your projects and not use fiber made from plastic? There are several options to green your craft project and feel good about your materials:
Um, you’ve probably gotten the idea by now that I like to craft with 
If your family includes a preschooler and people who aren’t preschoolers (such as yourself!), it can be challenging to find a 
Don’t forget! The next 
Kelly posted last week about 
Felt is one of those materials that reminds me of my childhood. It brings me back to story time and felt boards. Oh, remember felt boards?! The boards were covered in felt and then people, trees, houses and many other things, also made of felt, were stuck to the board. They were a great prop that aided in telling of a story.
