felties

book: fanciful felties

by kath_red on November 20, 2010

in Books

fanciful felties from mummysam: Sew People to Meet, Places to Go & Things to Do (Stash Books) by Samantha Cotterill. C&T Publishing – Stash books (October 16, 2010)

Oh my! the cuteness is killing me. Samantha [aka mummysam] has turned her quirky and clever drawings into the dearest of little felt playthings / art objects. I am not sure if they are to play with or to be displayed but could easily go either way.

The basic shapes of these wee felties are simple – its the addition of stitching, clothing, accessories and facial features that is the genius. With a combination of machine stitching and hand stitching, gorgeous fabrics mixed with felt, – I can see these being very addictive to make. The school boy has a little scarf and school satchel made from felt and the cutest striped school tie! Then there is Colin the nerdy bookworm – sporting a huge moustache, and there is the opera going Marge, complete with a yoyo hat. Along with all the colour and texture, Samantha adds her unique sketch pad touches – with faces and other details like window sashings often ‘drawn’ on white in black thread – and to complete the book are her wonderful hand drawn how-to illustrations and templates – am I gushing too much?

From groovy cars, to chic ladies about town, school boys and bunny rabbits and village houses – you have all the ingredients for lots of afternoons of imaginary play.

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book: Felties

by kath_red on November 18, 2009

in Books, Features

Felties: How to Make 18 Cute and Fuzzy Friends by Nelly Pailloux. Andrews McMeel Publishing (October 20, 2009)

Here are some tiny little felt characters sure to win your hearts, with their engaging personalities and almost manga aesthetic, with their big heads and eyes and funny simple style.

Felties is well served by glossy gridded pages, and to-scale illustrations and templates, and the book’s modest scale still allows each character a dedicated page spread with easy to understand instructions. There is a very brief intro/techniques section at the front – but as each project is quite simple I can handle this briefness, although I would have liked a bit more background about the designer/maker as this personalises a book for me – but I know others like to get stuck straight into the projects.

The little guys are cheek-squeezing cute – with oversized heads and eyes and tiny bodies – I love the sun loving rat best, and the retro alien and little bears, puppies and pandas all won our hearts + the projects are so quick that you can easily make up a whole set to make some kids very happy.

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