How To: Sew A Felt Needle Book

Felt Needle Book Finished

It is a fact, I love to sew. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the machine or by hand. I also enjoy embroidery and have a couple dozen projects in progress. Since summer is soon approaching that means I’ll be traveling again. When I travel I like to pack my sewing and embroidery gear with me. So, I created this felt needle book to keep my pins and needles in place while on the road. The felt keeps them secure. If I have a needle already threaded it can easily be tucked away for a quick repair anytime and anywhere!

Family Fabric Crafts: The Felt Storyboard

J&O Fabric Storyboard: Image Source: http://amuslimchildisborn.blogspot.com/2010/05/felt-story-board-camping.htmlCrayons, markers, and even Playdough can get a little messy when little ones are creating their masterpieces. That is why we encourage the use of craft felt fabric for all of our young ones artistic endeavors. Not only can they easily change any detail they want, once the pieces are created you can use them over and over to make new scenes. When pieces are interchangeable there is no end to the potential stories that can be created. That equates to endless hours of fun and ample room for imaginations to leap and bound.

J&O Fabrics: 3rd Annual Most Creative Handcrafted Halloween Costume Contest

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If there is one thing that being in the fabric industry for over 45 years has shown us, it’s that despite the change of seasons and passing of generations, Halloween is one of those celebrated holidays that continues to beckon the creative imagination and stirring a parade of popular tv and movie characters, ghoulish monsters, funny faces and exotic personalities hidden behind extravagant costumes to take to the streets each time Oct 31st comes around. With this little known fact in mind, we at J&O fabric store vow to continue to play our part in conjuring the creativity of our customers with  not only awesome fabric, but the opportunity to get it for free just in time for the festive parties! From scary looking Halloween themed novelty prints and fancy dress fabrics, to versatile felts and funky retro’s, bringing the bizarre into existence is just a click away! And what better way to showcase them than thru our 3rd Annual Most Creative Handcrafted Halloween Costume Contest!

Halloween Is Going To The Dogs

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Pets are much more than the fuzzy things that keep our feet warm in bed at night, they are members of the family! As such, they should be able to participate in one of most exciting days of the year: Halloween. Here are some pictures of fantastic home made dog costumes to inspire those of you who are so inclined to dress up your pooches for the holiday. Our favorite costume (paws down) is the Raggedy Ann Dog. The hand-made jumper made with flower novelty fabric is beautifully done!

Raggedy Ann Dog

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Pug-Cake

Ghoulish Gals

When compiling our favorite costume ideas for women this year, we tried to tap into what is popular right now in the media. For example, our favorite costume idea for women this year is the Black or White swan from best picture nominee Black Swan. Now, we aren’t expecting ladies to run out and get replicas of couture designer Rodarte’s unreal tutus, but there are certainly ways that you can pull this look together yourself using some well placed thick feather boas.

 

#1: Black/ White Swan

Inspired By: Black Swan

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Scare Up A Costume For Less

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The only thing scarier than the witches and goblins that appear on the streets during the Halloween season is how fast October 31st is approaching! Between getting kids settled at school and everyone returning from summer vacations to buckle down at work, this month promises to be a hectic one. In order to create an adorable costume in no time (and with minimal cash), we collected these down and dirty ideas that require nothing but colorful felt, a headband, a glue gun, and clothes that you already own.

Black Cat

PeekaBOO!

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You don’t need to go out and buy big expensive decorations to cast an ominous tone during the Halloween season. The votives are an easy, inexpensive way to set off a Halloween scene.

What you will need:

  • Fabric glue
  • Felt (we used black to make the finished product more ominous)
  • Something to mark your fabric
  • Glass votives
  • Fabric scissors
  • Candles

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Step 1: Measure your votive’s height.

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Step 2: Mark the height on the felt.

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Step 3: Measure  your votive’s width.

Let The Black Cat Out Of The Bag

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Anyone can buy the black plastic goodie bags from the supermarket to give out candy. Creating these little bags is not only fast and easy, it is a simple way to give people a way to remember your amazing Halloween party!

What you will need:

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Step 1: On your decorative fabric, mark the length and height that you want your bag to be.

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Pretty Little Pumpkins

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We at J&O love the fall. Cooler weather, the trees change to new and vibrant colors, and pumpkin pie is regularly on the dinner menu; honestly though, whats not to love? To celebrate the changing of the seasons, we created these adorable little pumpkins.

 

What you will need:

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Step 1: Fold a piece of orange felt, and trace the outline of a pumpkin onto the top layer. I sized mine around how much scrap fabric I had to stuff the finished pumpkin with. Also, to prepare to cut the fabric and make sure that it does not slide, I pinned the two layers together.

J&O Fabric Store “Top 7 Tips for Pattern Reuse.”

When I was learning how to sew, I would buy the easiest patterns from McCalls or Simplicity. You know, the 12 outfits in one patterns. I was young, on a budget, and couldn’t see myself spending a bunch of money on a bunch of different patterns when I could get one or two to make three or four.  I would unfold the neatly packaged beige colored tissue paper and carefully pin to my fabric with the hopes of not accidentally ripping important instructions or seam indicators. Once done with, I would struggle to reinsert my fragile blueprints back into their respective envelopes, now seemingly three sizes too small, for use another day. Twenty years and many tattered patterns later, I discovered a much easier and more preserving way to store them that has them looking as good as new, use after use. My trick, transferring the flimsy tissue weight patterns along with necessary blueprints onto heavyweight craft paper, grabbing a few plastic pant hangers, and hanging them up in my storage closet for reuse. Now wrinkle and rip free, I pin without caution to my beautiful dress fabrics as if the patterns were as new as the material they were laying on.