Heartfelt Fortune Cookies

Felted fortune cookies

Next week I'm teaching a free Valentine's themed craft workshop at my local library. We'll be making these darling fortune cookies out of felted sweaters.

Shhh... don't tell, but I'm going to give you the inside scoop on how to make them, just in case you can't be there!

Martha has a similar tutorial, but I'm partial to my method because it provides almost instant gratification with no drying time. Seriously. These things take no more than five minutes to make, but they're oh so cute.

You can download my written tutorial here, or you can just check out this video. (You can view it larger by heading over to YouTube)



Once you're done making your cookies, don't forget to stop by your local Chinese restaurant for a take-out box to put them in. And if you do make your own, I'd love to hear about it, especially if you have a sweet fortune that you wrote yourself!

Felted calendar cover

Felted calendar cover
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

Even with the ongoing surge of technology, paper calendars remain the tried and true way of keeping track of what's going on in life. In this era of ever-increasing personalization, why not create a fun cover to protect your paper planner throughout the year? You can also use the same technique to cover journals or other favorite books.

What you need:

Wool sweater
Washing machine
Scissors
Felt scrap
Pins
Ruler
Needle
Thread
Ribbon

What to do:

1) Find a wool or wool-blend sweater and felt it by machine washing it with hot water and a small amount of detergent. Include an old pair of jeans or a towel to help the felting process. Let dry, either at room temperature or in a dryer set to medium or high.

2) Open the calendar and measure its width and height, and then cut an identically sized rectangle from the felt. Also cut two panels that are the same height as the calendar and 2 1/2 inches wide. These will create the flaps to hold the calendar's front and back covers.

3) Create an apple applique (say that ten times fast!) from a scrap of contrasting felt and sew this to the front cover, either by hand or with a machine. Next, pin the panels to the cover and sew in place on three sides with a scant 1/4" seam allowance.

4) Cut a length of ribbon to serve as a page holder and sew this to the top center of the cover's spine.

5) Now insert your calendar and get organized!

Would you like to have crafty updates coming straight to your inbox? Subscribe via the box on the side of this page.

This tutorial originally appeared in the February issue of The Satellite. At this point, it looks like it will be the last tutorial to appear in that publication, since it is no longer printing. I'm working on finding another print publication that can run my columns.

Winter Warm Fuzzies

Whew! It's been a busy month, for me and I'm sure for many of you. My apoogies for not posting sooner.

The three craft shows I did in December all went well. If you're interested, check out the photos from the Holiday Art Market, Handmade Holiday Bazaar, and Atomic Holiday Bazaar.

And now, on to a quick crafty project to keep you warm since it's now officially winter! I saw this cute set of Lucky Brand Jeans winter accessories on the Macy's site and thought they were darling. Of course, the first words out my sassy and crafty little mouth were, "I could make that!" In fact, you could too.

1. Start with a felted wool sweater (get tips on felting here).
2. For the scarf, just cut a few long strips. For the hat, cut about six pie-shaped pieces that taper down again at the "crust" edge.
3. Then whip-stitch the pieces together with a contrasting yarn and then add extra yarn as shown to make decorative tassels. How easy can that be? You don't even need a sewing machine!
4. Use the sleeves of the sweater to make arm warmers. Just hack the sleeves off at a good length, then add a small stitch about 1/2 inch from one edge of the cuff to separate the finger area from the thumb area. You can then add decorative whip stitching to make them even cuter.

Depending on how much your sweater shrinks during felting, you may not be able to make all of the accessories shown in the photo. But hey, even two of the three would look great and help keep you warm.

If you'd like additional inspiration on working with felted sweaters, check out Sweater Surgery by Stefanie Girard (which features a few of my projects) and of course, Warm Fuzzies by the darling Betz White.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Summer shrug

Summer shrug (front)
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

This fun summer shrug will be featured in the July issue of The Satellite and is a great way to chase away the chills when you're strolling through the frozen section of the grocery store or heading to the movies. It's made from an oversized, open-weave sweater that I scored at a thrift store.

If you'd like to make your own shrug, here's what to do.

1. Start by cutting the sleeves off of an old sweater. The trick is to cut outside the seamline so that the sleeves won't unravel.
2. Then take a contrasting yarn and whipstitch around the raw edge of each sleeve. I also added a gathered section of yarn that runs from my elbow to the cuff, because I wanted to have a three-quarter sleeve.
3. Finally, use a piece of yarn to lace the two sleeves together. You may have to put on the shrug a few times and adjust the tightness or looseness of the lacing in order to get it so that everything feels okay.

In this picture, you can tell that the lacing is still a little loose. In retrospect, I guess you could use elasticized cord for a more forgiving fit.

The shrug was inspired by two different projects from Stefanie Girard's new book Sweater Surgery. It's a fun book filled with great repurposing projects, including several by me. (Yes, that was a shameless plug. Sorry--I'm still so excited to be in a book!)

This just in! I'm in a book!

I'm so excited I can barely contain myself -- my projects are now featured in a book! 

Sweater Surgery by Stefanie Girard is hot off the presses and contains four of my purses. You can find it on Amazon, or you can call your local independent bookstore and ask them to order it for you.

Here's a rundown of the four purses that are featured:

• Cheerleader purse--Full pattern and directions (written by me) on pages 38-39. Also appears on pages 8 and 113.
  
• Erika purse--Named for my friend Erika, who I gave this purse to for her birthday but who was kind enough to lend it back to me to send to the publisher for photographing. Basic construction info listed on page 93. Also appears on pages 7 and 92.
  
• Cindy purse--Named after the woman who sold my first sweater purse through her store, Sun Center Bead Emporium (sadly, now closed). Featured on p. 94 and also appears on page 5.
  
• Joan purse--Named after my dearest mother, who was kind enough to sacrifice her Kenmore sewing machine to me back in the early 1980s. Described on page 95 and also appears on page 5.
  

You can click on the purse names above to link to photos of these purses in my Flickr photostream.