A few months ago, my husband asked me to make him a felted sleeve for his new laptop.   So, of course, I started peppering him with questions like ‘what color?’, ‘knit?’, ‘crochet?’, ‘recycled?’, ’size?’.  Half jokingly, he said he didn’t care, but it just needed to have flames going down the side of it.  I had just bought a bunch of second hand wool sweaters to use for felting projects, and I found a dark olive one that would be perfect for a laptop cover.   Lucky for me, I also had a bright red sweater that just screamed ‘flames!’.   Thus, was born the “Greased Lightning” Laptop Sleeve!   He’s gotten a number of compliments on it (or so he told me — maybe he was just trying to make me feel good), so I thought I would post some instructions on how to make your own.

Tongues of Flame Fingerless Gloves

I also used the leftover pieces from the sweater sleeves to make a cool pair of fingerless gloves.  You can see more pictures of the gloves at my Etsy Shop.

I’m not a Photoshop genius, so please be kind with my diagrams!  Here goes — First step, select a sweater to use as the base of the bag.  In order to felt properly, it should be 100% wool.   If you are going to add an applique, select a sweater in a contrasting color.  The sweater used for the applique should also be 100% wool, but should be thinner than the sweater used for the base of the bag.  Felt both sweaters by putting them through at least one cycle in the washing machine (hot wash/cold rinse); dry in the dryer.  Using the diagram below, cut out the central piece of the laptop bag.

Template - How to Cut Sweater for Laptop Bag

If you are adding an applique, cut out the applique and sew it to the outside of the bag using whip stitch or ladder stitch. (you do not need to hem or turn under the edges of the applique; the felting process will keep it from unraveling) The sides of the bag will be partially open (where you remove the sleeves).  Sew the open part of the sides shut.  The bottom edge of the sweater (will probably have some ribbing) will be the top of the bag.   Attach a zipper.  You can also add buttons, if you prefer.  The last step is to turn the bag inside out and stitch the bottom shut.  Although I added the tongues of flame by hand, I did all the other stitching by machine.

Template - Sewing the Laptop Bag

You can use the sleeves to make a pair of fingerless gloves.  Cut according to the diagram above.  The cuff edge of sleeve will be the wrist side of the glove; the raw edge will be the finger side of the glove. Turn the glove inside out and mark where the thumb opening should be.  Machine stitch as indicated in diagram.  Snip the ‘triangle’ that is created with the stitching.  Turn the glove right-side out.  You can now stitch on an applique, embroider flowers, or embellish however you like!

Template - Stitching for Gloves

Before I say anything, I need to credit my husband Jon with this recycling idea.  He had a vision, whereas, I had my eye on the trash can.

Teddy and Zelda

Anyway, about a week ago, Jon presented me with a pair of old twill pants with frayed cuffs and rips across the knees.  They were too far gone for even the best mending efforts.  As he tossed them to me, he said “maybe you can use them for some type of craft with the kids; I don’t know, maybe you can make a teddy bear and use the pocket buttons for eyes or something”.  The pants sat on my desk for a few days, and then I suggested to the kids that we try to make a teddy bear for my son out of Daddy’s old pants.  My daughter was the benefactress of my last project, so I thought it would be nice to make something for my son this time.  Well, he was fairly indifferent to the idea, but my daughter thought it would be really cool to make a doll.  So, off we went to create a cute rag doll out of an old, ripped pair of pants.

We used most of the usable fabric on the doll pictured above, but we did have just enough material left to make her cute little teddy bear companion.

More Teddy and Zelda

And, yes, we used the pocket button for Teddy’s eyes and nose.  I didn’t use a pattern for this doll.   I drew the pieces freehand directly onto the pant legs.  The dolls head and torso are one section, and each arm and leg are a separate piece so that her limbs have some movement.  Zelda, as I named her, is wearing a dress that I made using leftover cotton fabric from a baby quilt I made a few years ago.  Her hair is just basic craft felt.   I wanted to use acrylic paints to give her a more vibrant face, but my daughter insisted that we didn’t have that kind of time — dolly needs a face NOW, so I used a tube of purple puffy fabric paint to draw on a quick face (and belly button!).  Teddy’s scarf is made from scraps of a felted sweater blanket.

For those of you do a lot of sewing, I think making a rag doll without a pattern is a really fun way to go, especially when working with a very finite amount of fabric.  However, if you would like to try it with a pattern, here are some site with cute rag doll patterns from Make Cute Baby Stuff, Fluffy Land, Martha Stewart’s Bunny, and Martha Stewart’s Dolls, and  I also found the twill pant material was pretty easy to work with and lent itself well to a rag doll project.  Teddy probably would have liked a softer material to help give more curve to his ears.  They seemed to come out a little jagged.   My biggest piece of advice for you — if you decide to make your doll without a pattern, cut your pieces much wider than you want the finished item to be. For example, the unsewn arms and legs were almost twice as wide as they appear on the finished doll.  Between the seam allowance, turning, and stuffing, it is amazing how much the pieces ’shrink up’.

Hanging Out

All Together

I really like how these upcycled toys came out and love having another fun use for old clothes!  I will definitely stash away any old pants that we have for our next rag doll project.

Don’t you love having fans?  My biggest fan is my 4 year old daughter.

Kid's Fingerless Mitts

Every time she sees me making something or working on a new project, regardless of what it is, she exclaims with genuine enthusiasm “Oh, that’s so pretty! I love that! Is it for me?”  There’s always a brief moment of disappointment if I have to explain that no, its for someone else or for sale.  More often than not, I end up making a smaller, child’s version of whatever it is I’m making.  In fact, her only criticism of my work is that I don’t make nearly enough things in pink.  In her eyes, the pinker, the better!

Last week, she caught me working on a pair of Happy Hands fingerless mittens.

Making Pancakes in Her New Mitts!

She liked them so much, I ended up chasing her around the house to get my prototype pair back. So, of course, I ended up making a pair for her, too.  She couldn’t decide if she wanted hearts or flowers on them, so we went for one of each.  I think they turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

The mitts are actually pretty fun to make.  I bought a bunch of second hand wool sweaters for another felting project I’m working on (another post on that, another time!) and realized the bottom part of the sleeve would fit perfectly as a fingerless mitten.  I sewed an opening for a thumb and used wool yarn to embroider around the raw edges and then added an applique from a another wool sweater in a contrasting color.  Voila!  Thick, warm, felted mitts!  If you like the kids version, check out my adult version in my Etsy shop.

These cute toys are fun to make, fun to play with and require a minimal amount of skill.

Felt Paper Dolls

Basically, the dolls are cardboard cutouts covered with felt. The best part is that since felt tends to stick to itself, you don’t need tape, tabs or glue to make the clothes stay on, so its easy for the kids to change outfits on their dolls.

To make them, you will need the following materials:

1. Cardboard (we used a recycled diaper box)

2. Different colored felt

3. Glue

4. Scissors

5. Googly eyes (optional)

6. Marker

Start by drawing a body shaped outline on your cardboard.  I did mine freehand, but you can also use a gingerbread man cookie cutter for a pattern.  Choose a piece of felt for your skin tone.  Trace and cut out the body shape from the skin tone felt.

Felt Doll Body

Felt Doll Template

Let the kids glue the “skin” onto the cardboard template.

Cut out hair for your doll.  Let the kids glue on the hair, googly eyes and draw a mouth on their doll.  Finally, cut out clothes out of different colored felts.  The kids can use markers to add details to the clothing.

Its super easy to accessorize these dolls.  We made hair bows, belts, shoes and jewelry.  The clothes should stay on the felt body kind of like velcro.  Cute, aren’t they?

Eggy Babies

What is an eggy baby?  An eggy baby is a simple felted doll that I made with my kids, (Deirdre – 4, Jonah – 2). Basically, we felted one of Jon’s old wool sweaters, cut it into ovals and made it into dolls.  I did the sewing and the cutting, and the kids drew on faces with markers and stuffed them full of cotton batting.  I figured, if Build-a-Bear can build an empire on letting kids stuff their own toys, why can’t we have some of that fun at home?  The kids enjoyed it so much, they made extras to give to some of their friends at school.  I hear that one of Deirdre’s friends loved his eggy baby so much, he sleeps with it at night!

Eggy Baby Template

If you’d like to make your own, here is the template and basic instructions.  You can do the sewing by hand or machine — we did both.

• Felt a wool sweater by putting it through a hot water wash cycle
• Draw your pattern — a basic egg shape 6 1/2 by 5 inches
• Cut out 2 pattern templates.  On one of the templates, draw a head and cut it out so that you now have 3 pattern pieces
• Cut out the 2 larger pieces from your felted sweater
• Cut out the smallest piece from linen, muslin or whatever you want to use for the face
• Pin right sides together of face and body front.  Stitch together
• If you want to add a decorations (we used felt hearts and bows), sew it on at this point
• Pin right sides of front and back together.  Stitch around the outside, leaving a 1″ opening at the bottom
• Turn rightside out
• Let the kids draw on a face and stuff their eggy baby with stuffing
• Whip stitch closed the opening at the bottom
  

If you are using felted sweaters for another project save the scraps and use for eggy babies.  You can use different colors for the front and back.  I think we will try to add hair for our next batch.  Have fun!