Easy St. Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial

Yes, I took a small detour from fleece today because I wanted to make a St Patty's Day wreath.  I probably could have used fleece to make this but I saw glitter and a cute ribbon and had to go that way.

Isn't it cute?  I just love it! I did have a little problem with not having enough ribbon but you'll see how I fixed that later.

Here's what you need:

Felt in greens
wreath form
foam clovers
green glitter ribbon
glue gun
scissors

Wrap the ribbon around the wreath form. I glued the down the beginning part so it won't unravel as I wrap.

Keep wrapping all the way around.  And as you can see, this is where my problem started.  I didn't have enough ribbon.  Well, I wasn't about to run out and drive 20 minutes out to get the same ribbon when all I needed was a small amount.  So I improvised.

I took one of my dark green felts and cut a strip the same size as the ribbon.

Glued it to the end of the ribbon.

Started wrapping again but it still wasn't long enough, so cut another strip.

Much better.  It wrapped all the way around.  Doesn't look too fancy but it will do. 

So I just covered it up with the foam clovers.

Here's the back.

Time to make the flowers.  Cut another strip of green felt.

Fold in half at one end and glue together.

Fold the glued end again, making a triangle shape (matching the top end to the bottom) and glue.

Now you are going to start rolling that glued end piece into the felt.

The beginning is a little tricky as it wants to unroll, so hold on to it tight.  Now start twisting the loose edge and roll it around the part you are holding.

Keep twisting and rolling.  Apply glue as between the rolls to hold it in place.  The tighter the twist the tighter the flower.  Loosen up a little on the twist and see how it has a fuller look to the flower. 

 

 

Finish off the edge by gluing the end to the back and now glue the flower onto the middle of one of the clovers.

Repeat the flowers using other green felt colors and glue onto the other 2 clovers.

 Ta-dah! What do you think?

But the back was still kind of ugly with that felt so I took some left over glitter foam and glued that over the exposed felt in the back. And hooray!  Prettier!

Better, right?

 Although it was already cute, I wanted to give it a little more "oomph" so I added some feathers randomly.  I totally love it even more!

 Hope you enjoyed it!  If you make one, please share it with me!  I'd gladly post it up here with a link back to you!

Peechee

Fleece Fringe Scarf with NFL Dallas Cowboy print

And heeeere's another fleece project.  Are you starting to believe me when I say I'm so into fleece now?  LOL!

This is one of those frilly fringe scarves that a lot of football women fans are wearing. I made this for another adorable niece of mine who loves the Dallas Cowboys.  Totally not my team ... I bleed purple!  Go Ravens!!!  My scissors jammed up a little while cutting the fringe on this scarf probably because it knew this wasn't a Raven's fabric.  LOL!

This is so simple to make and there's lots of tutorials out there on the web, so I didn't bother making a tutorial.  Just wanted to show what I made.  

Here's the scarf when all the fringes were all lined up.

I used 3 layers of fleece in complimentary colors to the Cowboys print.

Here it is all wiggled out.

Thought you might get a better look when it is hanging rather than laying on the ground.

If you have any questions or would like for me to make a tutorial, just leave a comment below.  I'll get back to you!

Hope you like it.

Peechee

Fleece No-Sew Blanket Tutorial

As promised, here's the fleece no-sew blanket tutorial!  It's a bit picture heavy so hang on if your computer takes a bit to load.

This blanket, as I said before, was for my little niece's birthday. *Isn't she adorable?* I wanted something cutesy for a little girl and Hello Kitty was perfect! I was lucky to find both fleeces in the remnant section because Hello Kitty prints are pretty pricey.  So yay!
 Here's what I used:

1 yard Hello Kitty Fleece
1 yard Blizzard Fleece -  I used a dark pink color
Ruler
Scissors
Low Tac Painter's Tape

Take your 2 fabrics and and line them up wrong sides together. Spread them out on the floor and make sure everything lays flat.  At this point, if your fabric is not even, cut the edges so they are fairly straight and the 2 fleeces are the same size.

With your ruler, measure 3" in from the edge and mark it using your painter's tape.  Do this on all 4 sides.

Once you have marked off 3" all around, at each corner where the tape meets and makes a square, you will want to cut off the fleece squares.

 

Starting at the edge of one of the cut of corner squares, line up your ruler at the edge of the painter's tape and start cutting strips that are 1.5" wide.  So cut at 1.5", 3", 4.5", 6" and so on.  Cut up only to the painter's tape.  Don't go past it.  You are trying to make even strips to tie.

Keep cutting the strips across but pay attention when you get near the other end that your last strip cut will be 1.5" wide.  You'll know by your ruler if the edge lines up to one of the numbers that would be a 1.5" calculation.  In my picture below, you'll see my edge ends at 12, so it's perfect.  IF yours doesn't end at a correct number making your strip either too big or too small, you can "fudge" your ruler a little each time you cut your strip by SLIGHTLY moving it either inward or outward at each cut so the ruler moves each time until you get to a correct measurement.  Understand?

Once you have cut all your strips, now it's time to go back to each one and cut a vertical slit in the middle of each strip.  The next couple of steps is the time consuming part.  Most people just tie a knot on each strip but I think it looks so much more cleaner and professional the way I "tie" my strips together.

So take the top fleece strip and slightly fold it up towards the painter's tape (as shown below) and then cut a small vertical cut in the middle of the strip.

Flip that strip up so it is out of your way.  See the slit?

Now gently put a small fold on the bottom fleece strip (as shown below) and cut a small vertical slit into it.  Try to make it so that the vertical cuts are in about the same location in the middle of the the strip.

Mine looks about right.  If it's not, that's ok but if you can keep them close to the same proximity.

Place the top fleece over the bottom fleece again.

Now take a hold of both fleece and take a corner and insert it into the slits.

Pull the edge of both fleece through that slit, pulling it all the way through.

Don't worry!  The fleece won't rip regardless of how small your hole is.  You don't want a big hole/slit because the "knots" could slip out easily.  Better it is a smaller slit to really hold it.  So pull that fabric through.

Pull it all the way out and look how it "knots" itself!  Isn't it pretty?  The color just pops and will give it a nice border.

Continue the slit cutting and knotting all the way on the one edge.  Then repeat the strip cutting, slit cutting, and knotting around the other edges until you have done all 4 edges.

Once you have "knotted" all the strips, remove the painter's tape and tah-dah!  Your blanket is done!  And remember those big square empty corners?  Where are they now?  All tied-up and evened out.  You can't event tell there were 3" squares cut off from each corner.  Cool, huh?

Here's the complimentary back side.  See the nice dark pink border?  Awesome! I totally love this project!

Hope this helped you.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.  Feel free to share and spread the love.

Peechee

Fleece No-Sew Lap Throw

Didn't I tell you I'm into fleece right now?  Here's another fleece project I took on. A Fleece No-Sew Blanket... Well, in this case it is more like a lap throw because it is tiny but I am so loving this!! It's so easy but can be time consuming the bigger the throw/blanket, but so worth it! I am planning on making a few more for me to keep in the car.  It's pretty cold right now in the morning when I take the kiddies to school and this little lap throw will be perfect on my lap.

This lap throw I made is for one of my besties! She is my sister at heart. Cute, huh? I picked this wine glasses print because she loves to drink wine.  Just a little throw to put on her lap when she's sipping her wine on those chilly nights in her screened-in back-porch.

I have a tutorial coming up in the next post.  I couldn't share that first for fear that my niece will see what print she is getting for her birthday.  So stay tuned ...

Peechee

Fleece Cape or Poncho - Easy and Cute!

I recently have developed a love for fleece ever since I started working at Jo-Ann's. I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that there are so many glorious fleece prints that I get to see every day, and the fact that they are normally on sale, and that I get an employee discount on top of that sale.  No! No! It has nothing to do with that at all.  LOL!

Anyway, I have been collecting a lot of fleece, especially those that become remnants - oh heaven! Nothing better than getting a 50% discount on top of a sale price.  Woo-ho! I digress ... So I've been searching for projects to make with fleece.  I found a cape/poncho on a blog which I thought was so adorable.  So I tried it and here is what it looks like finished ...

But let me tell you it didn't start out that way.  The blog which I found it at said I needed 1.75 yard of fleece.  Well, here's what 1.75 looks like - and this is folded it half ...

I thought it's kind of big and maybe I needed to fold it the other way (selvage to selvage) because right now, this is a darn blanket.

Nope!  Still a darn blanket.  And it's supposed to look something like this?  Really?

So, I decided to fold the long piece in half and look!

Now that's about right. Now I can wear that size like a cape/poncho. So on with how I did it. But first, look who was hiding behind me as I took my pictures ~

OK.  On with my tutorial .... Obviously, first I cut that 1.75 yards of fabric in half.

Now you have 2 pieces so you could technically make 2 capes/ponchos.  Put 1 piece aside for another project.  With the piece you will be working on, cut off the selvages from the fleece.

Your fleece should still be folded in half. Make sure you have your fleece are right sides together. To know which is the wrong side, pull on the stretchy edge of the fleece. You'll see the fleece roll.  Whichever way it rolls IN, is the wrong side of the fleece.

 

Turn your fleece so it is now facing you at an angle with the fold.

Starting at the fold, measure 11" out and put a pin to mark it.  The pin is going to be your starting point when you sew the fleece together.

 Pin it all the way down to hold the open edges in place.

Take it to the sewing machine and sew a straight stitch starting at the start pin and all the way to the end.  NOTE: I am not a sewer so I don't know all the terminology but I stitched the size of the presser foot.  Basically, I just matched the end of the fabric to the edge of the presser foot.  Does that help?

 Once I sewed the one side, I went back up to my starting stitch and stitched a very short vertical stitch to secure the starting point stitch since this is one side of the head opening. I was scared it may rip open when I put it on, so it's like a safety stitch to make it hold better.

Go back to the top corner and now you will repeat on the folded edge.  Measure 11" down, pin your starting point, and pin all the way down the one side to hold the fabric during stitching. 

 Before I took it to the sewing machine though, I decided to cut the folded edge up to the 11" mark.  That's the other opening side for the head.

Stitch it straight down then the vertical safety stitch, just like before.

Here it is stitched on both sides.

Here it is with one part of the corner pulled down - this is the opening for the head.

Turn the fleece inside out and put it on!  TAH-DAH!

It's so warm, like a blanket over me, but not as long as earlier.  LOL!  I like it but I think I want to do some embellishment on it.  Maybe some stitching or applique.  I'll try it on the other piece. So what do you think?

Thanks for looking!

Peechee