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A Fabric Guide: Felt Fabric

A Fabric Guide: Felt Fabric

by | Oct 26, 2018 | Fabric Guides, Fabric Information Guide, Fabric Warehouse, Felt, Product Guides

Why in the world would you need a guide on felt fabric? Well, chances are, you’ve had your hands on felt before—remember the magic of Fuzzy Felt? Those were the days, right? Creating scenes with Fuzzy Felt was practically a childhood rite of passage.

Felt isn’t just any fabric; it’s the cool kid on the block, coming in a mishmash of shapes, sizes, and qualities. So, let’s break it down: how to pick the right felt for your project and dish out 11 game-changing sewing tips for felt fabrics.

Felt is that laid-back friend who doesn’t need to be woven or knitted to hang together. It’s made from fibers chilling out together, getting tangled when needled, or just lounging in some heat.

True felt is like a cosmopolitan at a party, made from anything—wool, fur, mohair, cotton, rayon/viscose, or other synthetic fibers. Making felt is like crafting a fine cocktail: pound those fibers, compress them, shrink them, then add a splash of moisture, a dash of temperature change, pressure, and finally, rough them up a bit. Talk about a process!

Felt Fabric Guide Sample Project: What’s Felt Good For?

Depending on the felt, it can either be your go-to for crafty shenanigans or the MVP for sturdier projects.

Retail stores usually flaunt two types: acrylic (the life of the party for crafts, Christmas ornaments, appliqués) and wool felt (the durable one, perfect for soft toys that’ll see a lot of action, not to mention chic bags, hats, and sneaky garment details).

Fun Felt Facts (That Are Actually Fun)
  1. Felt is the Houdini of fabrics—it doesn’t unravel.
  2. Sewing with felt is as stable as your bestie.
  3. Don’t you dare dry clean felt; it’s more sensitive than your ex.
  4. Felt can get a bit clingy, bobbling and pilling with too much attention.
  5. Stretched felt is like a bad haircut; there’s no coming back.
  6. Steam? Felt can’t even.

Top Tips for Sewing with Felt (Because We’re All About That Life)

  1. Let felt do its thing in the sewing machine and feed naturally through; don’t be pushy.
  2. Dry cleaning felt is a no-go zone.
  3. Be cool when pressing & use little or no moisture when pressing. If you must, use a pressing cloth.
  4. Hand wash felt like it’s a delicate treasure in cold water & a mild soap, then let it air dry.
  5. DO NOT  wring or twist felt as it will misshapen.
  6. Cut with precision—rotary cutters for the win, and keep your fabric scissors safe.
  7. Thread choice? Polyester or cotton will have your back.
  8. Needle and stitch length? Start with an 80/12 and aim for 2.5mm – 3.0mm.
  9. Presser foot: Use a standard presser foot
  10. Press those seams open, no need to finish—felt doesn’t play by those rules.
  11. Always sew a test seam.

Real Talk on Felted Fabrics

Felted fabrics like boiled wool and melton? They’re the posers of the felt world. True felt is all about those raw fibers, while felted fabrics are just playing dress-up after a shrink and full session.

DIY: Be the Maker of Your Own Wool Felt Destiny

Can’t find 100% wool felt? Make your own. Raid your closet for old wool blankets or jumpers, then give them a spa day in hot water and a tumble dryer. Check out this tutorial for the nitty-gritty and then brag about it on social media.

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Easter Bunny Garland Tutorial

Easter Bunny Garland Tutorial

by | Jan 18, 2016 | My Makes, Project Ideas, Tutorials

Need a simple Easter decoration idea? This Easter Bunny Garland tutorial is a great a scrap-busting project which will add a touch of adorable to your Easter celebrations. 

Those bunny pom pom tails! For the love of cute!

This Easter garland is super simple to make and only needs a few supplies… Check out the tutorial and grab your free template below!

What You Will Need:

 

Click below to download the pattern!

DOWNLOAD Pattern

How to Make An Easter Bunny Decoration

 

Step 1: Trace around the bunny template on to the smooth side of the Bondaweb using a sharp pencil.

Step 2: Cut around the shape close to, but not on, your pencil line.

Step 3: Iron the Bondaweb bunny shape on to the reverse of your fabric. It should adhere quite strongly.

Step 4: Cut around your shape on the pencil line

Step 5: Score the Bondaweb paper with a pin and remove the backing paper.

Step 6: Cut 5cm of the 5mm ribbon and fold in half.

Step 7: Lay your cut out bunny shape on to the backing calico. Place the ribbon between the bunny’s ears and enclose the raw ends underneath your bunny shape. Leave at least 1cm of the folded ribbon exposed, this will form your hanging loop.

Step 8: Press to adhere the shape on to your calico, enclosing the ribbon loop.

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Step 9: Trim the calico to match the bunny shape taking care not to cut the ribbon hanging loop. Small scissors will help you be more precise around the curves.

Step 10: Using a zig zag stitch on your sewing machine sew around the edge of your shape with the outside of the zig zag right on the edge of the shape. Take care on the curves and sew slowly.

Step 11: To add the tail, thread a hand sewing needle and tie a knot in the end of thread and pass the needle though the centre of pom pom. Secure the tail on to the bunny shape with a few stitches.

You can use the template as a tail placement guide by lining up your shape with the template, putting the needle through the template, lifting the template and marking where the needle is with a fabric marker. This is your tail placement mark.

Step 13: Repeat for as many bunnies you’d like on your garland.

Step 14: Wrap some tape around the end of your jute ribbon to make it easier to thread and jute ribbon through the loops.

You’re done! Happy Easter!

Click below to download the pattern!

DOWNLOAD Pattern

Pin this to a board for easy reference!

Don’t forget to share your finished makes with us – tag us @PlushAddict as we LOVE seeing your projects!

A Plush Addict Guide To: Border Prints

A Plush Addict Guide To: Border Prints

by | Apr 15, 2015 | Fabric Guides, Fabric Information Guide, My Makes

I have been asked a few times recently to explain what a “border  print” fabric is. If you’re not up to speed on this particular fabric lingo read on, especially as we’ve had a couple of crackers arrive this week. If I’m teaching you to suck eggs then scroll down to the inspiration part to check out the pretty prints!

So what is a border print?

Most prints are printed so the pattern runs “up the bolt/ roll” where the direction of the print runs at 90 degrees to the selvedge, like the illustration to the right.

Some fabrics are designed so that the print runs in parallel to the
edge, like the illustrations below. These are the prints we refer to as “border prints” or they can also be known as “railroaded prints”

 

In a border print the design runs along one side of the selvedge.
A double border print has the design running along both selvedge edges.

Border and railroaded prints offer some exciting design opportunities. They work particularly well for items like dresses and skirts. These prints can also add extra interest to items like aprons, cot bumpers and bags, to name just a few ideas. You can find our border prints here.

Border Prints

 

We’ve got some gorgeous new Dashwood Studio prints!

 

 

SILK ROADS

 

With twirling dragons, roaming elephants & dancing camels, this collection will delight the kids, as well as the grown ups… 

 

A bright & summery colour palette makes this collection perfect for all your exotic sewing projects!

 

Check out the border print below.

Need Some Inspiration?

 

Need some inspiration to fuel your ideas about how best to use a Border Print?

 

Here’s one we made earlier:

This skirt was made using the Pamper border print (it’s a double border print too!). You can find the full tutorial here – it only takes 30 minutes!

 

You can find the full collection here, and the border print here.

 

We hope you found this guide helpful – let us know in the comments below if you have any suggestions for other guides you’d like to see!

Follow Plush Addict on social media and keep an eye out for more tutorials!

Cuddle Puzzle Quilt: Pieces By Polly

Cuddle Puzzle Quilt: Pieces By Polly

by | Mar 20, 2015 | Minky Fabric, My Makes, Tutorials

If you follow me on Instagram you’l know that I recently made this puzzle quilt from super soft plush fabric. The moment I saw Polly’s quilt shared by Shannon Fabrics I swooned and instantly fell in love. It’s a rainbow! It’s a jigsaw! It’s super soft and fluffy! These are all things that appeal greatly to Mrs Plush and I just had to give it a try.

It’s an absolutely ingenious design. Initially I thought it was beyond my capabilities – I mean how the hell do you sew those curves? Well the answer is – you don’t. They are appliquéd on. Awesome.

I followed Polly’s tutorial which she put together as part of Shannon’s Great Cuddle Cake Challenge.  It takes two packs of Shannon Cuddle Cakes and, in a nutshell, you cut out the “knobbies”, appliqué them on to adjacent squares and then stitch in to rows, then the rows together. It really is pretty simple. (Please note my mahoosive SuperBoard in the above photo which was invaluable in laying the squares on to, this board is super handy for dressmaking too, especially if you are rubbing off your own clothes to make patterns.)

Lots of Bondaweb knobbies

There’s not much to add to the original tutorial, I followed it pretty much to the letter except I didn’t use any wadding (batting) because I thought two layers of plush would be enough, and I really like the result. It’s a lovely, flexible and soft quilt.  I trimmed back the “knobbies” in the seams once the top was sewn as it was pretty bulky in places. I’ve never quilted two layers of plush before and I thought I’d be a good quilty girl and start from the centre of the quilt each time to help with any travelling. I can’t say that this worked that well for me and I did get a bit of bunching in a couple of places and it seemed to work better just quilting form edge to edge which is what I ended up doing for the lion’s share.

Appliqué of the “knobbies”

I thought it might be handy to have a list of the thread colours I used to match the Very Vibrant Cuddle Cake pack that I used as the thread is visible on the top

I used Gutermann Sew All Thread colours 372, 733, 156, 392, 350, 852, 336, 833, 197, 311.

I backed my quilt with Embossed Chevron Red Cuddle and I used Dark Lime Cuddle for my binding.

If you fancy having a go at this we’ve put together this bundle which contains two packs of cuddle cakes, 10 co-ordinating threads and a pack of Bondaweb which will save you £4.40 than if you bought everything separately PLUS we’re chucking in a free hessian bag. Don’t say we don’t look after you.

Fancy having a bash at Polly’s Cuddle Puzzle Quilt yourself?

We Won In The British Sewing Awards! Thanking You Muchly

We Won In The British Sewing Awards! Thanking You Muchly

by | Feb 12, 2015 | Fabric Warehouse, Get The Gossip

Well this past week has been a bit of a whirlwind of highs and lows at Plush Towers. The low is that our heating in the warehouse has broken and it’s been close to arctic. We’re still in hats, gloves and scarves and hoping that Mr British Gas is true to his word and gets us warmed up again TODAY (cross your fingers, or send us a blanket?) but I must say that icicles aside I’ve been riding high on the news that we came away with a  few gongs from the 2014 British Sewing Awards. (more…)