I "Felt" Like Crafting



When your husband is out of town there are a few things a girl likes to indulge; pajama pants, a chick flick, a bottle of wine, and a glue gun.  That's right I had a craft night!

 

Monday I headed into the Munich city center to check out a felt store Husband and I had passed a few weeks ago.  The store was teeny tiny about the size of a nice master bedroom closet back home.  All the felt is behind a counter where the store clerk attends to your pickings while you basically stand just a foot in from the doorway.  From the floor to the ceiling there are shelves filled with all different types of felt in the most beautiful colors of the rainbow. 

 

I told the clerk in German I do not speak good Deutsch and she told me in English she does not speak good English. We settled for the method of me pointing at what I wanted and she would pull it off the shelf.  The first piece she pulled was about 8"x11" made of wool and about 2,30Euros.  I guess my face gave away that the price was too much.  The clerk asked me what I needed felt for and I told her a wreath.  Neither she nor the other employee knew what a "wreath" was and both had puzzled looks on their faces like I was strange.  The next piece of felt she pulled out was for kinder projects at 60 cents.  This was definitely more like the price range I was looking for.  Ignoring their smirks as if to make fun of my children's felt I quickly made my purchase of 13 pieces.

 

On my way out of the store I asked if I could take a picture of the felt and the clerk told me no. I was crushed that in a store so colorful their attitudes could be so cold. I decided not to let this harshness stampede on my bright cheery field of daisies. "After all, tonight is craft night!" I thought as I headed home and to take pictures of my own felt. 

Yarn Wreath with Felt Flowers

 

Materials:

• Styrofoam wreath
• Yarn
• Felt
• Floral Flare
• Scissors
• Glue gun

 

 

 Since we are moving into a small apartment I am going to use the same colors throughout to keep with the flow.  The colors we are incorporating are greens and taupes with accents in red, orange, and marigold.  This wreath is going to hang in a collage of picture frames in the entryway.

 

Here is my inspiration for the wreath:

Our "Marigold" chairs from Target

 Directions:

First, wrap the styrofoam wreath in the yarn.  Make sure you are consistent with the firmness you use throughout the wrapping.  My very first wreath I made a few weeks ago had a "sagging" section because I wasn't pulling the yarn as tight. 

 

The yarn wrapping is complete!

 

Secondly, choose which colors you want to use for the felt flowers.  I decided on red, orange, and yellow.

 

To make the felt rosette flowers I cut each felt sheet in half.  Then I took the half sheet and cut a large oval. 

 
Like a coiled snake, I cut a spiral through the whole oval.  I started out with a small width and then gradually cut the width larger as I went.  *I wish I had taken picture of this next part but my hands were full!  Then you want to pick up the small end and start rolling the felt between your fingers keeping the edges of one side of the roll in line.  This part will be the bottom of the flower and the other side will be the flower petals. When I was done rolling the felt I glued down the loose end.

 
After I had made a few rosettes I decided to try a different flower, one with loop petals.  I took half a piece of felt and folded in long ways, hot dog style, horizontally whichever way you prefer to call it.  I glued each corner where the ends met but not on the fold.  Then using scissors I cut big, small, big, small strands up the fold about 1 cm. away for the end. *Again, I wish I had pictures to show but my hands were full!  Finally I took one end of the strip and started rolling all the way down the piece keeping the edges lined up to form the flat bottom of the flower.

 

Once you have a good selection of rosettes and loopy flowers start trying out different placements on the wreath until you find one that you like.  I added some extra flowers I found on clearance at my local craft store.  I also painted two wooden flower cut outs to add a different texture to the mix. 

 

Finally, I glued down the flowers.  In some areas that looked bare I added some felt leaves cut into different shapes. 



 The final product!

 

 
  Do you think it matches my inspiration chair?

 

A cheerful wreath for a happy home.