Announcement: Feminist Felties is coming!

Feminist Felties: 21 Inspiring and Empowering Projects in Felt and Fabric is coming!

Available on Amazon.com in the U.S. starting September 11, 2018! (Pre-orders are available now!)

I'm very excited about this labor-of-love project and hope to be able to show some behind-the-scenes processes here on the blog. (Not every project dreamed up could make it into the book, for various reasons, and some went through some interesting iterations/transformations--for example.)

Projects include:
1. An Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Susan B. Anthony badge
2. A Marie Curie finger puppet.
3. Sojourner Truth bookmark.
4. Ada Lovelace egg cozy.
5. A Rosie the Riveter coin purse.
6. Firebrand bracelet.
7. A justice & equality needle case.
8. A set of feminist symbol coasters.
9. Right to write pencil case.
10. Suffragette purse.
11. The smell of revolution scent satchet.
12. Gaia goddess phone case.
13. Fiery females candle holder.
14. Dress for the revolution magnet dolls.
15. Uterus ornament.
16. Stick it to the man pin cushion.
17.  Venus fly trap felt pot.
18. Pink pussy coffee cozy.
19. Little flower tampon roll.
20. Labrys barettes.
21. #MeToo keychain.

Shirley Chisholm: Black History Month

I've made ornaments of Maxine Waters, Michelle Obama, Maya Angelou, Angela Davis, and more. My voice isn't the one that should be heard the loudest in celebrating these accomplished women. However, these are women that I admire and that deserve representation, recognition, and...maybe felt ornament portraits? I'm not even scratching the surface on who I'd like to make: Zora Neale Hurston, Josephine Baker, Sojourner Truth, Marian Anderson, Bessie Smith, Mae Jemison, and on and on and on.

This Shirley Chisholm quote was brought to my attention when, in her swearing-in, @tamayaforcincy brought a folding chair. Badass. 

"If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."

Go out and do your magnificent things.

With the sentencing of Larry Nassar to up to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting many, many young athletes, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina pronounced: "I've just signed your death warrant."

And I was really, really tempted to embroider that on a felt ornament. But alas. Instead I chose a slightly more uplifting quote; her statement to the victims: "Leave your pain here, and go out and do your magnificent things."

Shortened: "Go out and do your magnificent things."

I've been working on a book (yeah, of felt stuff! Feminist felt stuff, to be exact), so I haven't been doing much for myself--but I couldn't let that powerful quote slip by. So here is the honorable Rosemarie Aquilina herself, complete with burgundy highlights.

Star Trek Podcast Fandom

These ornaments/badges have very little popular appeal, I'd imagine. They're based on in-jokes from a podcast I love: The Greatest Generation. (A Star Trek podcast by two guys who are a little embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast.)

But sometimes I have to make stuff just for myself, or just to see if I can, or even just because I have an idea in my head that will keep percolating until I exorcize it appropriately. 

Thus: A 6-part ornament series...based on jokes that no one but me and a very niche audience will get. 

Worf's Loaves, Kevin Uxbridge's Real Dolls, a Natural Yeager, and the potted-plant-ness of the two lead female characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation (Deanna Troi and Beverly Crusher). 

Wesley Crusher also gets an ornament, featuring his coogi-style sweaters.

And Yar's Scarves. The currency of the future? Scarves. 

Well, they made me a little bit happy, and other fans seemed to like them. So I guess it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Buttons

Felt is still happening, but instructions have slowed down a bit. 

Why? 

Because I found my grandfather's old button maker. 

That, combined with my grandmother's old vintage 1960s magazines, has produced a new craft!

Behold. Buttons.

The challenge to myself is to use the vintage phrases/words from the magazines along with the pictures. It'd be easier--though not as fun--to create my own sayings to match the vintage imagery. 

Considering that my desire to do these far outstrips the space I have on any given piece of clothing/purse/whatever to display them, I think I'll put these in my etsy shop, eventually. 

Here is a sampling of some other buttons...under the cut. 

Sally Yates: "I said no."

Timeliness can be problematic. After Sally Yates eviscerated Ted Cruz and John Cornyn I had a friend pipe up: Hey, you should do a Sally Yates thing!

Which...yeah. I totally should. And fast. Because I doing these current event felt objects means that time is of the essence. 

So I designed and made a Sally Yates ornament:

With mistakes. 

First off, Sally doesn't really have many pithy (short) quotes to use. 

Secondly, it's really hard to accurately capture that head-looking-up regal pose without someone looking just plain crooked. So much of that chin definition in that pose relies on the natural shadows and 3D-ness of the human body. It's very difficult to subtly render anything in felt, and it requires subtlety. 

Because of this, the lettering looks crooked. Which bugs me a TON. 

I also got the layering on the pink shirt wrong. I guess I haven't done one of these in a while (I've been working on a Firefly Busy Book and some stitching samplers) and I'm out of practice. 

Oh well, you can't get them all right the first time. I might still use this example in a pattern, though, because I rarely love making the same thing twice. 

Monty Python Holy Grail Busy Book

All my felt crafting started with a busy book. It was a Star Trek TNG busy book, to be exact. I bought a pattern off Etsy, and made my first project. 

But, you see, I'm kind of a Star Trek superfan. I kept thinking of scenes and characters that I wanted to add to the book. So I designed my own pages and added to it. Eventually I had to split the busy books into TNG and TOS. But I digress. 

I also love other geeky things. So I designed and made a Monty Python Flying Circus busy book. Behold!

The cover page is pretty basic, so dive in after the jump!