Oopsey Daisy: Wednesday's Wowzers: 3 dozen (plus four) flower tutorials. With thanks for including my felt dahlias!

Craftzine.com blog : Natural Dye for Homemade Playdough.

Jordan Ferney | Oh Happy Day!: Balloon Invitations. So sweet.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Make a Pretty Twist Tie.

all buttoned up.: The Buying and the Storing. With good guides to how much to buy, overbuying is something I'm guilty of.

annekata: Make Your Own Summer Sandals. Oh, cool, an answer to my I-Can't-Wear-Flip-Flops problem. She modifies flip flops and uses strips of t-shirt jersey as ties. Thanks to Kelly for sending this link to me!

Design*Sponge » diy project: mailing tube wine rack.

balloon cupcake favor | Hip Hip Hooray!. So sweet.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Lovely Fabric Flowers.

Crafts With Kendra: Simple Picnic Caddy - Holidash. This caddy is charming. Quick, make one before summer goes away!

Victoria and Albert Museum - Patchwork: Pattern Maker. You can upload a picture and it will translate it into a quilt, neat. Thanks to Carrie for pointing me towards this!

Bag making for newbies: part 3 - Machine Needle know-how - U-handblog. Really helpful walk through on how to pick machine needles, via Craftzine.

Paper Gift Topper « The Crafts Dept. I love how joyful this is.

Yes Paste - The Crafts Dept. Something to seek out.

I was so happy to be asked to contribute an easy summer project as part of a series over at Make, Grow, Gather. I made some decorated paper lanterns using ones that we had left over from our wedding reception last summer. Remember that childrens craft that involves twisting small squares of tissue paper around the eraser end of a pencil, dipping that in glue and then using them to decorate something, usually a paper plate? I did the same thing, only larger. They turned out looking like flower pomanders, as well as looking a bit more festive. Here is a before and after:

I'm getting my first sewing machine. What sewing machine should I buy? | Ask MetaFilter.

Craftzine.com blog : Sewing 101: Hems.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Sew a Tissue Paper Garland.

Molly's Sketchbook: New Year's Garland - the purl bee - the purl bee.

My latest project is up over at Holidash! This time for Father's Day, it's a car kit full of useful things for your dad (or your favorite father) to keep in his glovebox. I've included things like a flashlight, pen, sunscreen, digital tire gauge, tissues, bandages, and disinfecting wipes. All stuff that will make dad into a well prepared superhero for any situation. I have full instructions on how to create the easy organizer with ideas on how to personalize it. I even provide the super dad logo if you'd like to use it.

MaryJanes and Galoshes: Scarf Tutorials. Via How About Orange. See also: Gathered Flannel Scarf at Make It, Love It.

V and Co.: tutorial: flower corsage for celebrating mom. This is lovely, and uses satin ribbons to form the flower.

Cocktail Party! « The Crafts Dept.. I really like this clever cocktail party invitation.

Prudent Baby: How to Make Bias Tape. Via Craftzine.

12 free bag and purse tutorials | How About Orange.

Sewn Stash Baskets - the purl bee.

Design*Sponge » diy project: brittni’s cork containers.

You Tell Us - Banpresto Bath Bomb Maker.

d.Sharp Journal: Bestow. More flowers! This one crepe paper, and lovely.

Remember the Mother's Day Felt Dahlia Corsage I created for Holidash? I made a bunch more to send out as Mother's Day gifts and wanted to write down a few notes on what I learned.

note on forming the petals

Making a whole stack of these, I quickly discovered that clothespins work really well to hold petals as the glue sets, shown above. Admittedly I went out and bought these for this purpose ($2 for 50 or so at Target, laundry basket aisle), but I'm finding all sorts of potential uses. Including, uh, actually hanging laundry. If you're going to make more than three dahlia pins I highly recommend seeking out some clothespins.

notes on giving them

I used matching thread for the backs. (I apparently have so much thread now I can match almost anything, yay? or too much?) I also included a little one-fold card with a message, and a rounded tab that says "pull me" so that it wouldn't be overlooked.

Then I wrapped them up all mysterious like.

notes on various weights of felt

Here are three flowers I made from different felts. The one on the bottom is a test flower, made using polyester felt. From this I learned I wanted lots more petals, and a more rounded shape to them. The top-left is made from nice, thick wool felt and is one of the ones I used for the pictures in the tutorial for Holidash. The top-right is made from slightly thinner wool felt and I cut the petals much rounder. The thinner felt was easier to form and glue, but in the hand the thicker felt feels better, more substantial.

notes on where to find felt

For those living in Seattle here is what I learned about buying felt locally, with huge thanks to @dancingsheepnw and @raintea for the source tips on Twitter. The sturdiest felt with the most saturated colors was found at Clover Toys in Ballard. It comes in sheets and it was $2.50. (But I seem to have bought all the bright and dark reds, sorry about that.) Nancy's Sewing Basket has wool felt in sheets and yardage. It was a bit thinner but the colors were still pleasing, I think it was $1.75 per sheet. Both Stitches and Pacific Fabrics have polyester felt for around $.75 per sheet. This was much thinner, but in the reds didn't have the shiny/fake quality that polyester felts in the green range seem to. With the polyester felt the petals didn't have as much structure, but still make really nice flowers.

Online I have two felt sources to recommend (I have not purchased from either, but they come recommended from multiple sources): Filzfelt and Joggles.

notes on adhesives, needle felting and tacking the petals down

For my dahlia flowers I used Fabri-tac glue, but I had considered a few different options. Needle felting and hot glue guns were passed over due to the potential to stab or burn one's fingers, and because of the extra supplies needed. Sewing each petal down individually sounded like an awful lot of work, and I was afraid that the petals would shift around too much on the soft base before it was attached to a stiff backing, making it a frustrating process. I initially used fast grab Tacky Glue, but found it wasn't strong enough to give a good hold on the thicker wool felt (I had a big tragedy moment finding this out) so I switched to Fabri-tac (it's more expensive and therefore wasn't the first adhesive I tried) for the final project.

All that said, each of the above options were used by other people, thrilling! Ansley of Bleu Arts made this one in blue using the quick grab Tacky Glue. Kristin at Briney Deep needle felted the whole flower and attached it to a headband, she includes notes for needle felting. Laura from Bugs and Fishes tacked everything down with thread and the petals turned out with a less rigid arrangement, I think utterly charming. And in the comments from my initial mention of these Megan (no relation) reports that hot glue worked just great and didn't weigh down the flower.

Two more dahlia corsages I've found are at Fries In A Cone, a lovely snowy white, and Urban Comfort in a range of pinks.

if you've made one I want to see!

Did you make a dahlia corsage? If so I'd love to see it, and I'll add a link to this entry if you've posted it online (Flickr, Twitter, your blog). Let me know!

Craftzine.com blog : Web Site Dedicated to Knitting Authentic Dr. Who Scarf. AT Craftzine.

inchmark - inchmark journal - a party for bee. I love this pinata. Via Oh Happy Day!.

Sew to Speak: How To: Attach Bias Tape (with mitered corners). Via Craftzine.

Lovely Fabric Flowers Roundup | giverslog.com.

Flint Knits » supersad news generates supercute pattern: Willie!. Like she mentions, this would be a great first project to introduce yourself to intarsia knitting. It was created to help with some vet bills for this adorable puppy who broke his leg, poor guy. And there is a Juniper Moon Fiber Farm CSA giveaway for those who buy the pattern by May 3rd.

Wool felt sample packs | How About Orange. This is the second time in a week that Joggles.com has come across my radar.

Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » biz ladies: how to design the perfect packaging.

Holidash asked me to create something for Mother's Day and I came up with this felt dahlia flower brooch. It's got a secret on the back, you'll have to go see to find out what it is, and how to make one (or many) for your favorite mom.

update: I have put together a few notes on what I learned after making about a dozen of these and how flowers made by others turned out (wonderfully!).