Annie
I like to continually try new things because I find that's the best way to learn - embracing all successes and disasters as learning opportunities and then using that in future projects. I won't pretend I don't get upset when things go wrong though! I can throw a good wobbly when the need arises!
Anyway, I hadn't made a pod in a while so thought that would be a refreshing felty project to do. But I wanted a new twist to play with - so despite having safely made many many pods using resists - I realised I hadn't seen fabric set in as a 'loose' component before, only ever nuno'ed on as decoration - so thought I'd give it a go.
I started off with great zest as I envisaged a lovely flowery frilly pod - however it didn't quite turn out as I had envisaged in my mind's eye - but technically it was great. It worked perfectly with a number of resists used throughout the felt.
I started chopping in through the layers and found them all nicely separated as I had wanted. The only thing is that I think I made the inner hole too big to start with.
After the initial chop I thought it was pretty but looked maybe a bit uptight and I wanted it more free - so I got the scissors again - chop chop chop!
I like this but think it may have worked better if it was slightly larger. Will have another go though as I liked the effect.
As it was a bit of an experiment I couldn't resist (excuse the pun!) taking the scissors to it quite severely to see how the layers had taken deeper down - the fabric had attached in all the right places so I was pleased with that. The photo of the layers looks really pretty but the pod will now have to be placed in the "bits n pieces" felty recycling box to be used in another project as I completely killed it as a pod!
Still, it was worthwhile cos now I've got lots more ideas how to use this in other projects.
Given the cold and gloomy weather recently I decided to make a wintery inspired project. I love the cosiness of tealights and remembering a previous piece of machine embroidery I had done that looked twinkly when held up to the light I thought that would be a good place to start for inspiration.
So I made a small piece of felt then machine embroidered it in much the same way as before.
But what I forgot was that the light wouldn't be as strong from a tealight as an electric light so the tiny holes in the sewing don't show up as clearly as before so it's not quite as pretty in the same way by candlelight, but I think the felt still makes lovely cosy tealights and will endeavour to make a good selection of these for when winter comes round again (although it hasn't really left us yet has it!). Apologies for the slightly grainy photos - I haven't quite worked out how to take effective candle photos in the dark yet!
Talking of cold - Am off to Yorkshire tomorrow morning - we had planned to do a few days walking. But given the weather it might end up being 3 days sat in a selection of nice warm bars and restaurants! Hey ho, it's a hard life! :-)