Christmas In July? [Part 1 of My 25 Part, Felt Ornament Sew-Along]

Last Christmas was my first Christmas since I discovered Pinterest. Of all the unrealistic holiday crafting ideas that entered my head THIS was the king. 

Oh, yes, a harmless felt advent calendar. I think it was October when I decided to take this on. I made the tree, equipped with super strong magnets to hold my (non-existant) 25 intricately stitched ornaments, in about an hour. That is all I accomplished last year. Naked tree. 

This poor thing has been hanging around my craft area for 8 months. Last week, I made a giant leap forward and stitched around my circles. I decided that it was time to start thinking about maybe working on this again.... soon. "I'll just make an ornament a week!" No pressure, I can totally manage this. Well, I took a looksie at the calendar... I don't just need this to be done by Christmas, It needs to e done before 1 December... That leaves me with 20 1/2 weeks. Yes, friends, That's all there is between now and December. Better get my butt in gear! 

I decided this is a good way to keep me on track, and it's fun for all! Felt ornament sew-along! I'm doing all of mine with magnets, but a string or velcro can be used just as easily. This week I did an in depth, step-by-step, but the techniques will be the same, just different shapes from here on out. 

Here is a wonderful resource for embroidery stitches:

Embroidery Stitches

AND

A refresher on the joys of working with Eco-Felt:

Working with Eco-Felt

Cupcake Pattern

^First, Print out your pattern^

You will need:

Felt

embroidery floss

 fusible interfacing

needle

magnet/velcro/thread loop hanger/buttons/whatever

Now gather your felt...

...Yes, I have a problem.

I cut out my pattern, but it would be a lot smarter to just trace the pattern onto your fusible interfacing. Brain fart, I guess. You only need one of each piece cut out of the interfacing.Adorable face is optional •_•

Iron the fusible interfacing to your felt. Parchment paper is a good idea here. Use some pressure, and only keep the iron over the piece for a few seconds at a time until the interfacing appears to be stuck. 

See, stuck. 

Double your felt piece and cut. This way you'll have perfect matches (pattern is asymmetrical), and it saves some time. Leave about a millimeter of felt around the edge of the interfacing. 

Repeat the process with the frosting. Now you can decorate your frosting piece (stitch on the side with interfacing,it has more stability and if you're using a light color of felt the thread will not show through) however you like. I decided on Christmas-y French Knot sprinkles. 

Use any stitch you like to attach the front and back pieces together. For the cake, I used a running stitch, then just added a few big lines for decoration. When starting to stitch the frosting, lay the cake piece over the top to get an idea where you will need to start and stop stitching. 

I used a blanket stitch along the top of the frosting, now I have gotten to the point where I need to stuff (i Just chop up some of the scrap felt) and insert the magnet and cake piece. 

Once everything is in place, continue stitching, but rather than going all the way through the layers, only pick up the front layer of the cake and frosting...

...Like so. Then continue this process around to the back. 

Tie off your thread, and you're done! 

Woo! One down,  24 to go!

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My First Love

Of all the memories that managed to stick around from when I was a wee tiny child, pasta was definitely my first love. Coffee is a close second. My parents would have friends over, we would roll out crazy long sheets of pasta dough, and everyone would enjoy their dinner a little bit more due to the satisfaction of making it with their own two hands. 

When I got married and moved away, my Mom and Dad got me the two most important kitchen accessories: A Kitchen Aid mixer, and a pasta machine. 

I use it as often as I can, and homemade fettuccine is my go-to impress the neighbors meal. It's easy, but a tiny bit time consuming. In the words of the great Alton Brown, "Your patience will be rewarded."

This is a pretty basic pasta dough recipe, I had a photocopy from the book that came with my Mom's pasta machine, so original credit goes to Mercado, I believe. 

You start with a bowl, dump in your flour and salt, then dig a little swimming pool in the middle for your wet ingredients to play in. I add a few teaspoons of dried herbs to the wet ingredients to make my pasta look pretty. :) 

Stir with a fork, just like you're making scrambled eggs, scraping a little of the flour wall in at a time. GO SLOWLY, if the flour gets added too quickly, you will get a big crumbly mess. Trust me. 

You will get to a point where the fork will no longer cut it. That's when you get your hands involved. Knead the remaining flour into the dough until it is all combined, and your dough ball is tough, and not sticky. Sort of Play-dough consistency. 

Roll it into a nice, happy ball, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let it rest for at least 15 minutes. 

Cut the ball in quarters, and flatten and cut it with your machine, if you have one. If you do not, don't despair! You can roll your pasta out with a rolling pin and make ravioli, tortellini, or just cut strips with a pizza cutter! (this part is fun for the kids)

Then hang your pasta to dry! Before I got this fancy pasta rack, I used 1/4" dowels hanging from my cabinets with rubber bands. Classy, I know, but it worked really well! 

When you are ready to eat, boil a BIG pot of SALTED water (DO NOT skip the salt, it makes all the difference in the world with ANY pasta... I can go on a very long tirade about not salting pasta water, but I will spare you today. ) Your water should taste like the ocean. Don't add a teaspoon to a gallon of water and call it salted! Ok ok ok, I'm calming down. 

Depending on the thickness and level of dryness, your pasta should cook in 5-10 minutes. Just keep sampling until it feels good. 

... I promise you, it will be oh, so good! 

-CJ

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Felt Bow Tie Pasta

My child finds mysterious ways to inspire me. Example: One of my friends needed their daughter's Halloween costume shortened, in the midst of measuring and pinning and whatnot, she left her plastic pearl necklace here. Dom found it, and has been trying to feed it to me as Spaghetti for the past few days. 

So I was thinking

I need to make more stuff with many small parts so I can go crazy trying to round them all up constantly! This kid needs play pasta! 

It's an easy one, trust me. It's exactly like making real pasta shapes, except felt is less floppy and tear-able...So it's way less frustrating.  

You will need:

1 sheet of felt (mine's antique white)

Floss or thread to match

Pinking shears (zig zag edge scissors)

First, cut 2" wide strips with pinking shears. 

Cut the strips into 2x2" squares with regular straight scissors. 

Take one square and accordion fold it, so it looks like a "W" ... or "M" depending on where you're standing.   

If you get confused, you can just check out a piece of bow tie pasta, but here's what you should be looking at. 

Thread up your needle with 1/2 thickness of the floss (3 strands) Start in the middle crease...

... thread to the outside, then back all the way through to the other side...

...and through to the middle again. 

Like this. 

Knot the two ends together, pull tight and double knot. 

Taadaa!

One sheet of felt will make 20 pieces. Which is the perfect amount for a bowl of pasta. 

--CJ

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