This book is so cute it makes my teeth hurt..! If you like felt stuffies/softies/whateveryacall'em I think you will love this book a lot. Especially if you like your whateveryacall'em to be as realistic as they can be when they are made from felt.
A few facts:
Big Little Felt Universe by Jeanette Lim is published by Lark Crafts
(they supplied us with a review copy, thank you!) There are 70+ projects in the book, most of them with 'life-size' patterns as it says on the cover. There are some 370 pages.
The ISBN is: 978-1-60059-675-9
There are lots of fun projects, and there's something for pretty much any taste: a cake with several kinds of fruits (picture above), vegetables (further down), a laptop, tool belt, handbag and much more!
I don't think there is a single kid in this world who wouldn't love a few of these whateveryacall'em to play with. And probably quite a few adults too.
I thought I'd have a go at making one of the projects in the book - I think that makes it easier to do a review of it. Right?
The cake is fab, I love all the different fruits! So I had to make that. Well, a slice anyway! But I decided to do it a bit differently and change the colours. Mine is more of a toffee/chocolate cake. Nice. Looks almost good enough to eat.
I really like that most of the pattern pieces are supplied in their actual size. Especially for something like this, because it is pretty fiddly. The.. engineering of the pieces/patterns is really great. Because how do you take something flat like felt and make into 3D almost real looking pieces?
Now. As much as I really, really like this book, there are a couple of things which puzzled me a little bit..
On the pattern pages, each template has a thin white outline outside the black outline. I was really confused by this, because where are you supposed to cut the template?
Some of the templates are large, almost the same size as the page, to make it life size, which is a good idea. But unfortunately, if the templates are as large as the one on the left hand there, it bends around the page, making it difficult to trace.
So here's a tip: if you get this book and decide to make the large projects, I would suggest tracing half the template and then drawing it on the fold when you cut it - most of the large templates are symmetrical.
I didn't always find the step by step photos helpful. They're a bit let down by a dark shadow right where the most important part of the photo is, making it difficult to figure out what to do at times.
I was also confused at times because the thread colour disappears into the background. I wish a contrasting thread had been used in the step by step photos to make it easier to see what is going on. In the example above, for the raspberry, it's not really clear how you're supposed to 'stitch around the edge', and it's difficult to tell from the photo. I think I would have understood it so much better if it had said 'like if you were to make a yo-yo.. Or maybe it's just me!
I really enjoyed making my slice of cake, but if you're looking for instant craft gratification, I don't think you will find it in this book. Ideally you should cut everything one by one. And everything is hand stitched, which takes time, even for someone who is a fairly quick stitcher. It probably took me some 7 hours to make that slice with all the fruits.
If you love hand stitching and felt whateveryacall'em, I think you will really enjoy this book. It's quite addictive, making these realistic objects. I'm already pondering which 'cake flavours' to try next! Although I am also tempted to make some of the vegetables. I think it would be especially fun to make some oversized red radishes or egg plants.
A few more pages from the book:
