Monday Make: Totoro Phone Case

So I recently purchased a new phone but the shop didn’t sell cases for them (seems a bit backwards right?…) and because I hate a scratched screen I decided to make a case for it myself. I mean sure, there are ones for it online but they’re just so darn ugly!

I went with felt as my material of choice; it’s easy to sew, it’s colourful and it’s soft but protective.

What I needed for this case;
– Needle
– Pins
– Thread
– Tweezers
– Ruler
-Sharp Scissors
– Felt Sheets
– Fabric Glue
– Something heavy (or a flower press)

I started out by pinning my phone in to the felt to create a pouch. I decided to do it this way, instead of measuring, to ensure it was going to be snug enough for it. I then removed my phone, drew a straight line along the pins and started sewing – it was handy to have the lines there as it meant I sewed a bit straighter than by eye. I chose to use a back stitch as it’s simple but secure and gives a neat finish.
(Top tip – reduced the amount of sewing you need to do by using a fold over of felt rather than two separate pieces.)

After sewing my pouch I trimmed off the excess felt from the edges and turned it inside out. Fortunately the phone still fitted and looked as snug as a bug in a rug!

It was now time for the fun part – decorating! Of course you could go for anything you wanted as there’s endless colours of felt, but I chose to go with Totoro since he’s an easy pattern to deconstruct in to pieces.

Once all the pieces were cut out I used felt glue to stick it all together. As you can see I added a little embroidery detail to Totoro’s leaf for extra interest. The fabric glue I have isn’t great; it’s more wet than tacky so can take ages to get things stuck together, especially thick felt. Therefore I try to press the pieces together under something heavy whilst they dry to make sure it all sticks, this time the pocket was small enough to be squashed in my flower press and it did the trick!

(Top Tip – Place a piece of paper in the pocket to prevent glue soaking through and sticking the pocket sides together.)

I gave it a good hour or so drying time in the press and ta-da one perfectly sized phone case, but Totoro was missing one final detail… Did you spot what it was, his whiskers!

This was a pretty simple and quick project, but also cheap! The felt squares were from Hobbycraft at 50p each, so in a way you are in control of how much or how little you need to spend, for my design I used 5 colours which totals to £2.50. I’m super happy with the results! Does anyone else hate how boring phone cases can be if you’ve not got an Iphone?

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Monday Make: Pumpkin Garland…

So it occurred to me, as I was changing my home accessories to match the new season, that I was really lacking in autumnal themed objects. I decided I wanted to try and make one before heading to TKMaxx and purchasing one, and I’m so glad I did because I think what I made turned out super cute!

I picked up five polystyrene pumpkins from Hobbycraft at 50p each, and I already owned the needles, felt and jute. So technically this project cost me £2.50 and about 5 hours of my time on a lazy Sunday. Not bad huh?

I started off by roughly felting wool on to the pumpkin to create a base, and then went back over it with a second layer to fill in any gaps. Once I had the orange down, it was time to focus in on the detailing by repeatedly needling in between the sections to give it a proper shape. I attached the stalk and then needled in some jute string to enable them to be hung up. At this point I didn’t know whether they were going to hang at different levels as a bunch or in a garland.

I chose to felt two of the pumpkins in a darker rusty brown with a light stem and three in the classical orange with a dark stem. This was just to add a little variety, meaning I used four wool shades but technically if you were on a tighter budget, you’d only need two shades. I used one full pack and a bit for the three orange pumpkins so if you were planning on using the same colour for all 5 I’d suggest buying three 10gram packets of orange and only one of the green.

I chose to make them in to a garland as hanging bunch just didn’t quite sit right – they looked more like a radioactive bunch of garlic actually… At first I used slip knots to figure out where I wanted them all before tying them in to place a little more securely. The garland still didn’t look quite finished to me though: the tied knots and little tails of string looked untidy.

I decided that felting little balls on top of the knots was a nice decorative way to hide them, and I was much more pleased to call this it’s final look!

I am so happy with how it turned out! I think it’s cute and fun, and it felt way more satisfying making it myself than going out and buying something new. If we’re costing it up properly;

Jute String £1
2 x Orange Roving £3
1 x Rusty Brown Roving £1.50
1 x Dark Green Roving £1.50
1 x Light Green Roving £1.50
Felting Needle Tool £7
5 x Pumpkins £2.50

Grand Total = £18

Do you think that’s an okay total for a craft project? I certainly do. You’d have the needle tool for future projects, and you’d have the extra wool to play with too. I no doubt could have picked up something cheaper at TKMaxx but sometimes when creating handmade things saving money’s not the point.

We’ve never felt like this before…

So at the weekend, my boyfriend and I had some spare time together (usually we have stuff to do, or have to go here there and everywhere) and I thought it would be nice to make some Christmas Decorations. As he’s never felted before, I talked him through making a robin using a polystyrene ball as a pre-form, I didn’t quite want to throw him in at the deep-end yet. Before we go any further, I want you to guess which is mine and which is his, mwahahaha.

The large one on the right is his! He decided it would be a better idea to use the larger ball for his seeing as it wouldn’t be so fiddly. I think he did a fantastic job, huh? He certainly has his own style of felting which is great, his is more fluffy where as I often felt too hard/tightly so you end up seeing my needle marks. I think his robin has a fantastic expression too, so cute and fun! Here’s a picture of them nestled in our winter woodland themed Christmas Tree!