Modern and Traditional Embroidery Dress

I have had Kathy Sheldon & Amanda Carestio's book, Heart-Felt Holidays: 40 Festive Felt Projects to Celebrate the Seasons on my wish list for quite some time. When I finally had the opportunity to check it out and try out some of the patterns, I found that it was well worth the wait.

Our friends at Lark Books were generous enough to share a copy with Feeling Stitchy for review. Instead of Tuesday's Tutorial, I am excited to share my new favorite book with you.
The book has 40 adorable projects and patterns, organized in a chronological format, with designs to celebrate the holidays and special occasions of each month. Beginning with New Year's Day and ending with Hanukkah and Christmas, the projects in between range from Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Groundhog Day to Earth Day and Teacher Appreciation Day. There are also birthday and baby shower gift and decoration ideas that are darling, and can be used throughout the year. Some projects require the use of a sewing machine, while some are completely hand-stitched.

One of my favorite elements about Heart-Felt Holidays is that the entire book is based on using felt, which is one of my preferred fabrics to work with. Felt doesn't fray and can be cut very easily, it's also inexpensive, which is always a major plus. I tend to keep felt in my fabric stash at all times, and while I didn't have the same colors that are listed for the projects in the book, the patterns looked just as great and had more of a personal touch when I used what I had available.



The patterns for each project are on the last pages of the book. I had to go to a print shop to enlarge some of the patterns, and I have to admit that I might have enlarged them more than the directions called for, but the projects still came out great. Very quickly, Heart-Felt Holidays has become a solid favorite. I can't wait to try out their projects for this Spring!

Compass embroidery by Joanna aka Thingshandmade

I am a left-handed stitcher. And I assume that I'm not the only 'southpaw' that learns new stitches only  from books and the internet. Many of the books and video tutorials show how to perform stitches for right handed stitchers. For some stitches I'm able to 'translate' the diagrams to my own left-handed version but it's not always easy. So I'm always delighted when I find publications especially for left-handed stitchers.

Last year Yvette Stanton released the Left-Handed Embroiderer's Companion. An extensive stitch dictionary with a lot of stitches and photos of how to perform them.  On the Sublime Stitching site you can find  how-to's for lefties of a couple of the most basic stitches. And Feeling Stitchy's own Carina has not forgotten about us sinister handed stitchers either. Find her e-books for lefties here. If you already have a book with right-handed diagrams that you want to use, you can make your own left-handed version by scanning the image and flipping it horizontally in an image editing program (tip found here).

I hope this post has been helpful for some of my fellow left-handed stitchers. If you have more tips for left-handed stitching please share them in the comments!

The portability factor is indicated with each project and varies a lot. Obviously most people will be unlikely to tag along some huge curtains to a cafe but the cute thermal packs could be sewn up quite easily when you are on the go.


In previous work Susan Wasinger has been keen to recycle and re purpose stuff so it's no surprise that Sewn by Hand has a couple of  projects where recycled materials are being used.  There is a nice project (see photo above) using old men's shirts (that is not shirts from old men but...oh you know what I mean!) to make an apron. Personally I would be very much inclined to get my iron out to make neat seams and run the panels quickly through my sewing machine. Maybe because I already spend much time on other 'slow crafts' like embroidery and quilting... In other projects,  the hand sewing is part of the charm or decoration of the items made. Many of the projects, and indeed the whole layout of the book, have a nostalgic, timeless feel to it which fits the 'strictly Hand sewn' theme perfectly.

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.

Me too! But sometimes I forget how much fun it is to read. I probably should stitch this pattern and hang it on the wall as a gentle reminder to spend less time with my computer and  more time reading! Pattern is from a rather wonderful and just released pattern set called 'Booksmart' by Corinne of  Septemberhouse.