Felt brooch fun ...

I like wearing brooches and have quite a few in my collection - some lovely gifts, family heirlooms, op-shop finds, retail bargains and also those I've crafted. 

During our Yowah trip in 2014, I made many owls.  The first of those were made when Erin and I joined the local ladies at their weekly craft group.  I continued to make owls once back home again (in Victoria at that time). A few sold and others were gifted or used on projects.  The last seven sold via Facebook, soon after arriving in QLD.  

Foxes were simpler creations, crafted around the same time as the owls.  I made several foxes as gifts and kept one girl for me.

I revisited felt-work in November, when Erin purchased this ice-block dress and we both agreed it needed something extra.  

I traced one of the ice-blocks from the dress and used that as a template .From memory, three layers of felt were used - and the (new) paddlepop stick was glued between layers, prior to finishing.

Based on the ice-block success, I crafted two felt Christmas brooches for myself.  One features an opal pendant I won on my 9th birthday, when we lived at Yowah!

We very recently had a family outing to a motor museum on the Gold Coast.  I had two lengths of fabric in my infamous stash.  One featured cars and the other, an opshop bargain remnant, had road sign motifs. 

I used the car material to make one a small, reversible handbag.  (I have back and neck issues, so prefer a smaller bag to avoid carrying too much weight).  The reverse bag side features dark grey denim, which I used on both sides of the strap.  There was a tiny red Herbie photo holder in the shed and Nick converted that to a small brooch, which I wore on the handbag strap.

I cut two signs from the t-shirt fabric and backed those with interfacing, to prevent stretching.  I cut two black pieces of felt for each sign - and again applied interfacing to each, for extra body.  I stitched a brooch back to the bottom felt piece, before sandwiching all three together and hand-sewing in place. You might just be able to see my tiny stitches. Once completed, it was possible to see a little of the white interfacing on the edges of the brooches, so I carefully coloured those using a black permanent marker.

This is how I looked on the day of the motor museum visit. (Nick was keen to include the luggage on the car behind me).  I really doubt anyone noticed my handbag and/or brooches but I was very happy to be wearing a themed outfit.

And yes, we all enjoyed the outing (in spite of the very wet weather).