Material Musings: Small Scraps, Lovely Possibilities - Fabric and Felt Fiesta

 

What could you create with those little pieces of fabric you’ve been saving?

In this week’s Material Musings, I’m bringing together fabric scraps, rediscovering my felt supplies and giving some much-loved clothing a little more attention. There’s so much to explore with materials we already have!

 

I’ve been making small fabric clusters, layering leftover pieces onto hand-dyed fabric and adding stitches. These little clusters can become embellishments for journals, bags or larger textile projects, whatever I decide. They’re also lovely to keep nearby for those moments when you want to create but aren’t quite sure where to begin.

A little creative detour led me back to felt, and I remembered how much I enjoy working with it. Adding stitches and French knots gave additional texture to the surface. Sometimes seeing a familiar material in a different way is enough to get us excited again.

I also shared a comfortable top that I’ve been patching as holes appear. I love the thought that, over time, it might become covered in fabric and stitching—a piece that changes with me. Even an upcycling experiment that didn’t turn out as planned offered something useful: sections of crochet that I can use in my trinket tags.

Before You Go

Something for you to try: Make one small fabric cluster

Choose three scraps and layer them onto a small piece of soft backing fabric. Attach them with a few simple running stitches, then add a button or a little contrasting thread if you wish.

Keep it small enough to enjoy without feeling you have another big project to finish. You can decide what to do with it later!

Join me over on Patreon for more creative reflections and three activities to help you explore your scraps, stitching and forgotten supplies. 

Textile Art Adventures - Material Musings

 

Welcome to Material Musings where we look at a range of fabric projects, see what is inspiring us and elements that we can add to enhance our projects each week.

I also share some of the new items that have made their way into the studio - I found a felt kit supplier.  I share in my Amazon Store other felting products which you can check out - get it online HERE

Experimenting with Felt

Here are the artfoamies on fabric, I have created a variety of looks with the foam stamps.  Check out some of my Digital Art downloadable files here

ArtFoamies by Amanda Trought

Every week I share on Material Musings different projects and creations made with fabric, you can get early access for FREE on my Free Tier on Patreon - Check it out HERE

Working with Beads, Felts - Visual Feast

 

Welcome to this weeks Material Musings take out your fabric and beads and lets have some fun on our projects!

I love collecting beads and have done so for many years, so much so that some of the beads would be considered 'Vintage'.  Come and join me and see just a fraction of the collection - a visual feast for the eyes!

Here are some of the collection - all different sizes and colors

I love using the beads on my fabric projects especially the ones with figures.

Before you Go

Felting Faces - Expermentation

 

I am experimenting with faces using felt.  It is a new activity for me and I enjoy the slow pace of it.  I am still at the beginning of my journey and eventually would like to incorporate the slow stitching in the work as well.

I share a new project on Patreon looking at some of the yarn I already have and seeing whether I can repurpose it in the felting process.

Come and join me on my Patreon Tier as I go down the rabbit hole, looking at the yarn that I have in my collection this is just waiting for something exciting to happen.

Looking at creating a figure and looking at the yarn that is best for the job

Comparing the end results and looking at some of the key takeaways

Come and join us on Patreon to see the full video.  

You can join us for a one of payment and just access the video, or you can join us on the $10 tier for the month and you get to access all of the other posts for that tier and below, over 700 videos and resources.  Join us HERE

 

LEARN MORE HERE

Crochet flowers

I learnt to crochet at school. Learning what seemed a skill that died out only to see it resurfacing over the past few years as something quite popular alongside other traditional crafts.

When we were younger mum used to make these intricate circular table place mats using the finest of needles. By my teenage years crocheting and knitting seemed to be what older people did... how the tables have turned. Over the past few years I started to give it a second glance, and have come across so many who not only crochet, but knit and make felt products. I had held on to the needles I had inherited for my mum and over the years I think I made a scarf once. But saw some flowers recently on you tube and decided to give them a go.

The basic flower is pretty easy and you can have as many layers as you wish or add rows to make the flower bigger. I’ve decorated mine with some buttons and beads. Armed with your flower you can use them to go on a number of things. I made a couple of wrist cuffs, and I will do a tutorial on how to make a a broach, hair accessories, decorations for journals even a mini bag. 

There are some great patterns out there if you want to be more adventurous. If your a beginner check out you tube for some easy how to steps, just type in what you want to learn and it could be a great skill addition to your creativity.  Blessings!

Join me every day this month for the   Ultimate blog challenge

Felting

Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibres.

I came across some beautiful felt cupcakes after taking part at the Christmas fair and carol service run by Emmanuel Evangelical Church and organised by Angie Ng.  It is always a really lovely event and many thanks goes out to Angie Ng and her team.

On my stall I had decided to offer some of my art work and cards for sale.  I will be adding these to my website, over the next few weeks.

There were many talented people that had stalls and the one that specifically caught my eye was a young lady called Veron and her Cupcakes by Design.   The cupcakes were beautiful, not your traditional cupcakes, even though they looked good enough to eat they were fat and guilt free.  Veron had lovely designs and they were also scented.  Seeing her designs made me want to try my hand at felting and it seems to be getting quite popular, with several magazines featuring designs and how to recreate yourself

Miss V's Crafts - Cupcakes by design

I encourage you to give her blog a visit and see the designs for yourself.  She is in the process of updating and adding some new deigns, so do leave a word of encouragement.

Also on my tour of pinterest I found some interesting designs - (Click on the images to find out more)

Felt slippers

The Margarita, Felt Chair by Vanja Bazdul

Felted purse

 If you want to give it a go yourself there are lots of tutorials available, check out Living Felts or many of the others that will come out in the search results on youtube.  Blessings!