felt & valentines

Happy February! Today I’m re-posting the Valentines I shared at Clever Charlotte last year. If you’d like to learn how to make some mini felt Valentine envelopes, read on….

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Hello Clever Charlotte readers!

I’m Gail from probably actually, and I’m happy to be here to share a wool creation for the Winter Wolle series! I love to make things for my daughter, and a few of my favorite past projects have been made from wool or wool felt. There’s something so satisfying about working with wool, and I especially love felt – it has such a nice texture, and cutting and sewing with it is always such a pleasure. For me, felt and Valentines go hand in hand (I cut out loads of felt hearts for a garland last year), so I made tiny felt Valentine envelopes to house some mini Valentines.

My mom and sisters and I have a tradition of exchanging valentines, so these are for them (and one for Lila, of course).

The envelopes were cut using a Paper Source “baby” envelope template – the finished size is 2 1/8 by 3 1/2 inches (the size of a business card). Before sewing them together I added a little felt heart in the stamp corner and an “address label” that I rubber stamped on twill tape. If you crease the envelope flaps with a hot iron it leaves you with a nice rectangle on the front, making it easy to get these additions in the right place before the whole thing is assembled.

I secured everything with a running stitch using embroidery floss. Whenever I can get away with it I sew stuff by machine, but working with felt is the one time I actually prefer hand-stitching, and the embroidery floss can add a nice pop of color.

The envelopes close with two little buttons. After sewing the button to the top flap, I pulled the thread (I used embroidery floss here, too) to the inside and left it about six inches long – that remaining length of thread is used to secure the envelope shut with the bottom button, manila envelope style.

Tucked inside are little Valentines – just a felt heart stitched on by hand and a stamped message.

There you have it. Thanks so much for having me, and happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

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another installment of tiny: tea time

Lila’s little kitchen is pretty well stocked, but we’ve been lacking a tea pot for some time now. So for Valentine’s Day this year she’s getting her first tea set.

And I thought play tea bags would be fun, too.

The idea to make tea bags came from here, but once I got started, I went a little nutty with the details. Not that Lila will notice (or care) how closely they ended up resembling bona fide tea bags, but I get pretty excited about creating tiny versions of real things, so I went for it.

It was easy enough to do – I just deconstructed a real tea bag and made a mini version out of muslin and felt. A tea bag, as it turns out, is just a long tube with a seam down the center, pinched at the bottom, and folded in and over at the top.  I had some silver thread on hand (purchased for a Christmas craft that never materialized), so I used that to mimic the metal staples that close the bag and attach the string to the tag.  And since they’re for Valentine’s Day and all, I embroidered little heart tags in Valentine-y colors.

I hadn’t planned to fill the bags, but since I’d already destroyed two real tea bags in the process, I figured all that tea shouldn’t go to waste. Lila’s past the age where she puts things in her mouth, so it seemed safe enough. And it gives the bags a nice weight and smell. I sewed the bags up very securely by machine before adding the silver “staples” – that tea isn’t going anywhere.

At the last minute I decided to make some little felt sleeves for the tea bags (with the exact same labels as my Valentine envelopes) – no details on these, just two rectangles sewn together.

I think that about covers this installment of tiny. Here’s everything packaged up. I covered the top of one of those $1 Joann’s craft boxes with washi tape. Always looking for an excuse to use my washi tape.

Happy almost Valentine’s Day!

P.S. I’m going to sew some clothes soon, I promise.

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be mine

These are the tiny felt Valentine envelopes I made for the Winter Wolle series at Clever Charlotte. My first guest post! Lots more photos and details on the Clever Charlotte blog – I hope you’ll go check it out!

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