Felt fox softie - a tutorial

I posted some pictures of my foxes on Facebook, and a friend asked where I got the pattern. I made it myself, so I promised her to share it. Then I thought I might just as well share it here on the blog with everyone.

Here is the pattern. This is half an A4 page (A5, I think). As you can see on the measuring tape that I put next to it, the fox is about 9 cm (3,5") big. I am sorry I cannot help with how you should print it out to have the right size, I don't have a printer at home so I cannot try it. But if someone can figure it out, please let me - and the other readers - know. On the other hand, it does not matter too much if the final size is a bit bigger or smaller.

If you are planning to make more than one, it is better to copy the pattern on a piece of cardboard, otherwise just normal printing paper works. I usually pin the pattern to the felt, and cut next to it, to avoid having to draw on the felt itself.

Cut the fox shape out of orange felt, you will need 2 pieces. Then cut the small details from white felt: two pieces for the face, one for the tummy and two for the tail.


I usually sew the face and the tail on with white thread, and very small running stitch. The tummy I often decorate with a tiny embroidery, then sew on with blanket stitch. On these examples I used orange thread, but sometimes I just use all kinds of colours. I often use small left-over thread pieces for these projects.

You don't need to sew the details all around, only those sides that will not be sewn with the final blanket stitch. Like this:

Finish the face: use black thread to embroider the eyes and the nose.

The back side of the fox only gets one detail: the tail.

Then sew the front and back together with small blanket stitch. It is good to start in the curve between the tail and the body, and sew the tail first, and stuff it as you go. It will be difficult to stuff it later. I usually stuff the tail really hard, otherwise it does not look very nice. I also add a cord on the top of the head, but that is optional.

Here is a picture of how I make them in an assembly-line.

I hope you like this tutorial. Let me know if something is not clear.

Happy stitching.

Christmas stitching 1

Perhaps you could guess from the pictures in my previous post: I was again selling some of my things at the Christmas market. I went to Vattholma julmarknad, this is near where we live, about 20 km from Uppsala, and also to Hågaby - this is in town. They went OK, not too good but better than lat year. I had to realise, again, that you cannot really make profit on needlework. At least I got back the cost of the material.

After the two big markets, I also did small ones in the staff room of my school, and at my boyfriend´s workplace. All the money from those I sent to a charity, and that felt really good.


So here are some of the things I made.

You may remember from the last two years that I love making small embroidered felt ornaments.

I made the usual read and white ones. Forgot to take a good picture of them, and now only have a few left, not the most beautiful ones. They looked like these, but there were different shapes, hearts and stars, decorated with applique, embroidery and beads.

Here is a detail from the above picture on the market, not a really good one but perhaps you can see the variety.

But my favourites were these white ornaments, embroidered with gold metallic thread. Unfortunately they were not as popular a the red-white combination. (Swedish people are quite traditional when it comes to their Christmas decorations.)

This time I also tried making some cross stitched ornaments. It was simply that I missed cross stitch, I didn´t stitch so much lately with all the university assignments. It was fun to stitch them - but did not sell many. I still have a lot of them left.

The ones with the red felt around them were not so easy to make: the felt stretched out of shape a little. Perhaps I should have starched it a bit before cutting.

I also made some felted ball ornaments. They are actually recycling: we make them at school, during the felting unit, and kids often leave them behind if they do not turn out as they expected. So I collected them, worked on them a bit more to make them fully felted, then dyed them in kool-aid. :) Then added some embroidery and beads.

And this year again I made the little walnut-babies. I love them, they have such a great feeling to them, old-fashioned, natural, cute... They speak of Christmas to me.

I wrote about how to make them here. This time I embroidered the star in the middle instead of glueing.



And finally, a few pictures about my embroideries that I made in the summer with flowers and grass. In case you have been wondering how they turned out after 5 months.
They still look quite good. The two flower-pieces haven´t changed at all, the grass has dried but still looks OK. They hang here above my sewing machine, I love looking at them.

Next time I will be coming back with describing my recycling Christmas projects. Watch this place.

Until then, happy stitching.

Agi

Felt embroidery

As promised, I would like to show you my latest felt embroidery.

I have made some lovely key-rings and telephone holders.

A closer picture of the one with cross stitch insert.

This is how they look when opened.

They are in the shop now, together with some older works - there is a small gift shop at a nearby farm where they have a cafe and horse-riding, animal-patting etc. on Sunday afternoons. If you want to buy my things, come to Edeby Gård. :D
This is "my corner" in the shop:

And here are the ones I didn´t make for sale but for my own pleasure.

The following pieces were all made without any pattern. When I started them, I wasn´t sure how they would turn out. Somehow it makes me feel so good when I do this: no limitations, no need to do it "right", I can just do whatever I want - and I really love the way they look. Not sure what I will do with them. All, except Kitty, are very small. Perhaps I will sew them together on a bigger piece and frame them.

Oh, and what is even better: all of them are made using scrap pieces of felt, and I also used the leftover short pieces of thread from other project.

Blue Flower

Golden Flower

Portrait

Kitty