Tiny Hands Turkey FELT Applique

I wanted to make another Tiny Hands Turkey shirt for Serenity, but wanted to do it little differently this year.

So I decided to use felt!

I've made a Gingerbread House shirt for Serenity using eco-fi felt and it work out great.

You can find a huge selection of eco-fi felt at Wal-Mart for only 20¢ each or in bundles for less than $4.

For the Turkey shirt I wanted to try wool blend felt.
It's nicer than eco-fi, but more expensive too.

Both types can be washed in cold water, but I suggest hanging it to dry only.

I also tried to do a tiny bit of embroidery, but I messed up on the beak.
It was a little hard to go through two thick pieces of wool felt!

Maybe next time some little french knots all over the beak would look cute?

Embellishments on the turkey's belly and the hands would look adorable, but I was worried I'd mess up.

I used the last of my orange and yellow felt on this shirt!

I do like how the felt shirt turned out.

Sewing of any kind isn't required, but small extras are fairly easy to do.

It's going to look great with the Thanksgiving outfit I'm planning for Serenity.

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Materials:

yellow, orange, red and brown felt

iron-on transfer web (I used Pellon)

permanent sewing glue (Hobby Lobby $3.49)

2 wiggly eyes (Hobby Lobby 99¢)

felt ric-rack (Hobby Lobby $1.99)

a template of your child's hand

turkey template (I used this picture)

lighter or fray check

red ribbon

2 buttons

Iron the transfer web to the felt.

Use a hot iron (wool or medium setting), NO steam.

Cut out all the pieces.

2 hands of red, yellow and orange, and a brown turkey.

Make sure the flip the hand templates so you have a right and left hand of each color.

I embroidered around the turkey's body and beak using a running stitch, and then attached the ribbon wattle.
I thought about making a running stitch around the fingers too, then realized I would probably be in for a huge headache if I tried!
I think it would look nice, but that's beyond my skills - for now!
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Before ironing the felt pieces to the shirt, try moving them around until you've decided you like the placement.

Iron down.

Take your time, press down firmly, and move slowly over the pieces.

Sew on the buttons using embroidery floss.

Glue down the eyes and give them time to dry before handling the shirt.

All done!

Update:
I forgot to put the glue I used in the list of materials picture.
I found this at Hobby Lobby for only $3.49.
It worked very good, it's cheap, dries quickly and bonds permanently without heat and can be washed.

So far I like it better than the liquid stitch I used previously, but I still have to try the wash test to be sure.

Have Fun!!

Tiny Hands Christmas Tree Tee

Merry Christmas!!


Here's a quick last minute Christmas Tree Tee I made yesterday:

I just followed the simple instructions to make the classic kid's craft Hand Christmas Tree, but used material and felt instead like the Tiny Hands Turkey and the Felt Gingerbread House applique shirts I made for Serenity.

This time I traced Serenity's BFF, Cobee Lynn's hands.
Then I used some eco-fi felt for the tree trunk, and made the hand and trunk appliques using Heat 'n Bond.
I did hand sew the biggest star button I could find on the top of the tree - but no machine sewing is needed if you use the red package of Heat 'n Bond.
The star is very small - so maybe a felt star will look better?
Oh well!
I plan to make Serenity's tee later - I want her to wear it to see Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.
She's been asking to see it since the first time she saw the commercial with the girl chipmunks!

Here's cutie pie Cobee Lynn wearing her new Christmas Tree tee shirt!

Making tees by tracing your child's little hands is a BIG hit with them!
They LOVE 'em!


Hope y'all have a wonderful day!




Happy Holidays!!

Felt Cell Phone Case

I made this felt case for my Blackberry (and iPhone would fit too), using Juicy Bits' free Owl ornament pattern. I just used it as an applique for the front of my felt case.

1. First I cut out 2 pieces of tan felt 4" w x 5" l, then folded one piece in half lengthwise and cut a small curve along the top.

2. Next, I attached the applique (using felt, buttons and fabric), to the piece of felt with the curvy top. Use whatever stitch you'd like - I'm still learning so I just did something simple, but it would be interesting with a few fancy stitches.

3. Then I cut two pieces of matching cotton material for the lining - the same size as the tan felt. I ironed a "hem" at the top to give it a more finished look, but I think it would look good pinked too.

4. Finally, I pinned the whole thing together, and then hand sewed a blanket stitch around the edges.

All done!

I purchased the felt from American Felt & Craft. It's an excellent online store and shipping was very fast!

I used bamboo felt for the owl. Bamboo felt is so soft! It's also expensive - so I used a sample pack I ordered for $5. It's wonderful to work with and the colors are beautiful and bright.

The case is a wool/rayon felt blend (75¢/piece). American Felt & Craft has tons of beautiful colors to choose from too! It's not as soft as bamboo felt (of course), but it's still great to work with - much better than the craft felt I've been using!

The case doesn't fit my Blackberry as snug as I'd like it to, so next time I'll make it a little smaller, maybe 3 1/2"w x 4 3/4"l instead.

Even using the nicer wool/rayon felt blend and bamboo felt, this project is cheap. And simple. It would be a cute present for Christmas and Birthdays. I think older kids would enjoying making these for their parents and friends - or themselves!

Happy Holidays!

Felt Gingerbread House Applique

I made this Gingerbread applique using eco-fi felt.
Eco-fi felt is made using recycled plastic bottles by the Kunin Group.
It's machine washable, fade-resistant and won't fray.
You can also iron it and it won't shrink or melt.
You'd think it would melt since after all, it is made from plastic bottles.
But nope - it won't!
When I read all that about eco-fi felt, I thought it would be excellent for t-shirt appliques.

I made Serenity's pretty Gingerbread house applique based on this one from Cole's Corner and Creations.
I sewed the rick-rack, buttons, and door onto the house before creating the applique.
I used some no-sew Heat 'n Bond to make an applique out of the house, roof and the little heart.
Then I just iron it all to the shirt on medium heat - no steam.

Instead of sewing, you could embroidery all kinds of pretty embellishments on the Gingerbread house before turning it into an applique.
The roof would look pretty with sequins sewn on or glitter added.
There are so many creative possibilities with this project!

It took me around 30 minutes to complete - easy!
And pretty cheap too!
I paid $4.99 for Serenity's shirt at Target.
The eco-fi felt is around 35¢ at Wal-Mart and as you can see, I didn't use all that much to make the applique.
I used buttons and some Heat 'n Bond I already had, and about three inches of rick-rack.

Total price?
Less than $5.50!

How cute would this be for Christmas presents?

Happy Holidays!

Tiny Hands Turkey Applique Tutorial

I meant to post this last week, but I was busy and Serenity and I wasn't feeling too good - that's the reason it's so last minute.

When I thought of the idea, I search the internet to see if anyone else doing this age-old kids' project in fabric.

I was so surprised to find there wasn't!

So I thought I'd do one to share with y'all.

This is a very easy, NO-SEW turkey applique you can create using your child's hands!
Of course you can sew it down if you want to, but it's not necessary if you fuse the applique to the shirt correctly.

This is similar to the hands and feet turkey craft projects kids do in school - but with fabric.
It's a great project to do with your child too since it's mostly just cutting, ironing, and gluing!

This is a cute shirt that's great for girls and boys!


Materials needed:
White tee shirt
Heat 'n Bond
(the red package)
2 3" pieces of medium orange Rick Rack
(I have jumbo yellow pictured, but I changed my mind)
1 1 1/2" piece of 3/8" red ribbon
4 pieces of 9"w x 5 1/2"l fabric in red, orange, yellow, and brown
(this depends on how big your child's hands are)
Liquid stitch
2 googly eyes
lighter or fray check

I used this picture for the turkey's body and it's beak, but you could draw your own or use your child's feet to create a template.




Trace your child's hands on a piece of paper and cut out them out to use as templates.
Print and cut out this turkey picture to use as a template for the turkey's body and beak.




Following the directions on the the Heat 'n Bond package, apply the Heat 'n Bond to all the fabric.
Using the templates, cut out the hands, the turkey's body, and it's beak.
Sorry I forgot to put the turkey's body and beak in this picture!




Make sure you use a lighter or fray check to seal both ends of the ribbon and Rick Rack.
Fold the piece of red ribbon to form the turkey's wattle, then glue it together using Liquid Stitch.
I put it on the turkey's body to get an idea of how it would look:




Arrange the hands on the shirt how you'd like them, and iron them down one by one.




Place the turkey's body in the middle, and use Liquid Stitch to glue the Rick Rack to the shirt underneath - those will be his legs.
Now iron down the turkey's body.

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Stitching little buttons to the tops of the "legs" would not only look cute, but ensure the legs stay attached when you wash the shirt!




Using the Liquid Stitch again, glue the turkey's wattle to his body.
Arrange the beak slightly over the wattle and iron it down.
Use Liquid Stitch to attach the googly eyes to the turkey.




All done!

Look how cute it looks on Serenity!

UPDATE:
11/15/11
Check out my Tiny Hand Turkey FELT Applique tutorial!


POST-IT-NOTE:
I ended up using the medium orange Rick Rack 'cause I think it looks better. I have no idea what I was thinking when I got that big jumbo yellow pack for this project.

TIP:

If some of the fingertips won't stay ironed down, just use a little Liquid Stitch to get 'em to stick.

Hand wash, or turn the shirt inside-out before washing in cold water on your machine's gentlest cycle.

Hang to dry.

I would totally recommend using homemade laundry soap or Charlie's soap too!

Total cost:
I bought a fat quarter in each color for a $1 a piece at Wal-Mart - I have plenty of fabric left.
The shirt was $4.99 at Target (Serenity's pants are from Target too - $6 in the store).
The Rick Rack was $1.14 for a 2 1/2 yard pack - I used 6 inches total.
The red ribbon is 24¢ a yard - I only used about 1 1/2 inches.
A pack of 50 googly eyes is 97¢ - I have 48 left.
I bought the Liquid Stitch about a week or so ago - so I didn't need to buy anymore.

All together, this project costs less than $6?
I don't know exactly since I'm horrible at Math - I just know it was pretty cheap!

POST-IT-NOTE 2:
Check out Brandy's version of the Tiny Hands Turkey applique - it's adorable!

She used some funky fabric, pretty pink ribbon, and buttons & rhinestones for the eyes.

Carole made a turkey for her little boy Leland on a onesie.

Go have a look-see on her blog Lee, Carole & Leland!

POST-IT-NOTE 3:
I would like give a HUGE thank you to Ucreate and Pocket Full of Posies for linking this post!


Have fun!