Design by Nine

Get Puffy!



Part two of Fun with Felt

When I first tried sewing with felt, I kept trying sewing and then turning "right side out"and stuffing and sewing the opening by hand. That didn't really work for me. When I was working with small pieces, it just never seemed to turn out as well as I had hoped. All lumpy and not so round edges. So, I borrowed a technique from the quilters section. Trapunto.

Trapunto: Quilting in which the design is outlined with two or more rows of running stitches and then padded from the underside to achieve a raised effect.

The key word here is UNDERSIDE. This will only work if you display the "pretty" side. The under/back side is going to look like Dr. Frankenstein was sewing it. Apropos for the season.

Gather your suppies:
line drawings
Felt~
orange
green
brown~ for this project
Poly stuffing
thread
scissors
needle
pins
Sewing machine

Follow the same steps as we did for the leaves:

Two layers of felt, with the line drawing pinned on the felt. Sew right on top of the lines throught the paper. ( Do not forget to zero the presure or drop/ cover your feed dogs.) I added a small piece of brown felt underneath the two layers of orange and sewed the 3 layers together under the drawing lines of the stem.


added brown felt for the stem



Tear away the paper from the felt. You won't need to worry too much about the little left behind pieces of paper, because this is now the back/underside/wrongside.
Next cut out your pumpkin. Just as with the leaves, close but not too close. I cut all around the stitching of the brown stem.




Now comes the trapunto part. On the backside, the one without the brown felt you need to cut small slits into each section of the pumpkin. ( I did not do the stem)


Be sure to cut through only ONE layer.



Not too big... It will stretch.

Now we need something(s) to poke the poly stuffing into the really small spots. Nothing sharp because it will poke right through the felt or pointed because it will not move the poly stuffing.



Think "end of crochet hook, pen with a tight cap, bodkin". Or all three. Whatever works that will not poke through or leave marks.

Start stuffing



Little bits of stuffing at a time work better.

Stuff each section.


Now Dr. it's time to sew up the project.



Next I cut simple leaves and tendrels out of the green felt. I used embroidery floss to sew the leaf vein also to attatch the leaves and tendrel to the pumpkin body.