Tutorial Tuesday: Felt Pom Flower and Cashmere Headband

yes.. same picture as Friday.. but with a tutorial after...

First the tutorial for the flower. I made a few into a cute garland.. because I love them.




These are fast fun and easy. I think they are cute as an ornament as well.

Cut a strip of felt.. Mine are about 3.5 x 12. I like a light bodied felt for this project.

Then cut into the felt like you are making a fringe, Make each cut 1.5 inches deep and about a quarter to half an inch wide.




Do this the whole 12 inch length of the strip, then turn it and do the same on the other side..
( if your scissors are nice and sharp, you can fold it in half and the process goes even faster.)

Now lay it out flat and roll it up length wise.




Tie around the center with thread or embroidery floss. Wrap it a few times and tie a nice hard knot.




Fluff it up. Use a 'pull and twist' motion if you get petal clumps.

Use your scissors to shape the ball. Cut deeper into the center to free up some of the 'petals' if you need to and trim the off any shaggy looking ends.



There you go.

Cashmere Headband:

The first one I made was from the turtleneck part which made it super simple.

I just cut it twice as wide as I wanted my finished head band.

Then I folded it so that the seam would run on the inside of the head band with the edges just over lapping. I sewed it together with a slip stitch... like you would use for a hem.



Make sure you don't pull your threads too tight. You need the headband to be stretchy.

I made another from the body of the sweater.

The process was a bit different. I cut a strip from the sweater; again I made it a bit wider than twice as wide as I wanted the headband to be.
I folded it in half with the right sides facing and I sewed a seam down the edges, pulling on the sweater so it was stretched and using the stretch stitch setting on my machine.

I then turned the tube inside out




and hand stitched the ends together starting from the inside to hide the stitches better, keeping the long seam on the inside of the headband.




Try it on and place the decoration where you like it in the mirror, then hand stitch in place. I stitched the fulled sweater leaves in place with a center seam only to give them a 3-D look.



it is so fast and simple..

Happy crafting.

PS: In case you never saw it there is a tutorial from last holiday season in keeping with my passion for pom poms.