wedding banner: Andrew & Mary

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I made this wedding banner for my son Peter to give to his good college friend Andrew, who was married last Saturday. The wedding was in Biddeford Pool, Maine and since the couple met sailing there, I gave the banner a nautical/seaside flavor.

I wrote out their names in doubled up 32 gauge florist wire, since I ran out of thicker stuff. Then I picked out some variegated embroidery floss to wrap the letters.

I added 2 purchased red ribbon roses and then stitched some leaves around them.

The had a whole bunch of shells with holes that came from a necklace my grandmother got in Hawaii about 50 years ago. The blue piece of felt is edged with metalic thread, which is nasty to sew with, but the sparkle looks good.

The felt banner is hung from a piece of driftwood, which was probably part of an old wooden lobster pot.

I found some anchor buttons and a fish in my stash to add and some more shells to hang from the scalloped edged bottom. Best wishes to Andrew and Mary!

See posts about making other wedding banners here.

Berry Family dolls

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I brought the Berry Family outside for an airing. They’re a bit moth-eaten–a downside to working with wool. For the last couple of winters, I’ve gotten into the habit of bringing all of my felt and felt clothed dolls outside when the temperature dips below freezing, hoping to kill any moths.

I made the mother, father (4″ tall) and baby members of the Berry Family in 2005, as a Ltd. edition of 25. They are based on the patterns from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. All of my Ltd. edition dolls are currently sold out and I won’t be makning any more.

The Berry Family, Ltd. edition 2005

uncommon scent dolls

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Salley Mavor

Almost 30 years ago, I made and sold a slew of these sachets, of which I have only one left. The Uncommon Scent Dolls were about 4 inches tall and filled with pleasant smelling spices, leaves and petals. The pattern is the same as the Nativity dolls I showed in an earlier post here.

Uncommon Scent doll, 1982

I remember picking out different woven fabrics and using the selvage edge as much as possible. This was back in the days when I used the zigzag feature on my sewing machine for the appliqued parts.

I also made these Matruska doll sachets, modeled after the Russian wooden nesting dolls.

doll sachets, 1985

Chin up bibs

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Salley Mavor

30 years ago, a few years before I had babies of my own, I designed, sewed and sold CHIN UP BIBS. I found a box filled with left over seersucker bias strips, a stack of tags and one tuxedo bib–all that remains of my enterprise.

For a few years, I sewed hundreds of bibs of different styles, including tuxedos, shirt and tie, dress with pearls, clown, overalls, etc. They were backed with terry cloth and had liners cut out of shower curtains. A unifying feature was the bias edging, which I’ve since used for pot holders (see tutorial here).

In 1982, I asked the mothers of two Woods Hole babies to model the bibs for an advertisement. My art school friend, Carmine Fantasia took these wonderful B&W photographs of Ben and Hannah wearing the bibs.

I later stopped adding bead necklaces to the girl’s style bib, because of the potential choking hazard.

Ben and Hannah, who both turn 30 this year and are still friends, are delightful adults. Here’s a recent picture of Hannah at her sister’s wedding.

This is as close as Ben got to wearing a tie back in ’82.

And here he is, when he got all dressed up last month, in suit and tie, for the Woods Hole “mock” formal at the Capt. Kidd Restaurant.

The bibs were later in Better Homes and Gardens.

I also found some pattern pieces for the bibs in my file cabinet.

Thank you Ben and Hannah, for letting us dress you up and take your picture one morning in 1982!

little standing animals

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I made this group of animals about 10 years ago, when I was gathering ideas for my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. They didn’t make the book’s cast, so the little critters have been waiting behind the curtain ever since. I’ve pretty much decided not to write another instructional book (read ahead for more on that), so they can come out on stage, now.

They are made with wooden forms that have a simple dowel on the bottom, with a turned ball on the top. You can find the wood shapes here. At about 2 inches tall and similar to finger puppets, these can stand up by themselves. The small wooden bead “paws” are a choking hazard, so they shouldn’t be added if a young child plays with them.

They look a bit like Halloween trick or treaters in felt costumes, with their hoods and painted faces.

It’s so wonderful to hear from readers who have enjoyed making the dolls and other projects in Felt Wee Folk and many have urged me to write another instructional book. The publisher is willing, too. So why can’t I say yes? I am clearly ambivalent, because I had a great experience working with C&T Publishing. It’s just that I’ve moved on to other things and don’t feel the same push to get it out of my system, like I did 10 years ago. It’s not that I don’t have any ideas for new projects, they’re just more complicated and personal. I’m resisting the pull to work on another book because I want to spend time exploring new ways of working, to experiment and grow as an artist. Just the process of formulating my thoughts for this post has helped me understand why I’ve been dragging my feet.

The trouble is, I know what it takes to produce an instructional book and I also know that I’m not up to it. It’s writing out those pesky directions that has me stumped. When I approached C&T with my proposal for Felt Wee Folk. I had a strong desire to share my ideas, enough to force myself through the quagmire of analysis and explanation. I’ve always had a problem with describing how to make what I do, even back in the days when I designed projects for Better Homes and Gardens. I know that I can do it, but I can’t bring myself to jump down that rabbit hole. I want to give myself over to the mysterious process of creating something without later having to give a detailed description of how I made it.

So, I’ll be sharing projects and ideas from time to time, but without patterns and instructions. Hopefully, my readers will feel inspired enough to want to try a hand at figuring out how to make something of their own!

Iris Fairy

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Salley Mavor

I’ve finished another limited edition of 25 fairies, just in time for the holidays. Iris has auburn braids and a purple petal skirt and wings.

Iris Fairy

Update: All of the Iris fairy dolls have sold.

Iris Fairy

I’ve found that I can usually find enough matching flower petals and wings to make a group (or swarm) of 25 fairies.

a swarm of fairies?

It’s a manageable number to make at one time and then I feel free to move on to other projects.

fairy legs

Instructions and patterns for making fairies like this are in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects.

embroidered fairy tunics

Here are the petal petticoats, all stacked and ready to dress the fairies.

petal fairy petticoats

Now they’re waiting for their turn in the braiding salon.

before going to the braiding salon

Wee Folk: Blue Blossom Fairy

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Blue Blossom Fairy has been cooped up inside for a few years, so I took her for an outing. We first went to visit an old beech tree.

And then flew over to my patch of zinnias, which were perfect little cushion covered stools.

She’s average height for a fairy, about 3″ tall.

Wee Folk: July Fairies

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Here are some fairies that were caught on film during the month of July a few years ago. They were all sighted within a 1/4 mile of my house.

Also, take a look at my interview with the Empty Easel, an online art magazine which features practical advice, tips, and tutorials for creating and selling art.

Wedding Banner (Leigh & Brendan)

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Salley Mavor

The 2nd summer wedding is coming up soon, so I’m making another felt banner for Leigh and Brendan (see Karen & Graham’s on an earlier post here). I get the impression that the bride and groom are kind of traditional, so I’m resisting the temptation to go wild with color and add too many funky embellishments.

I started by bending 32 gauge cloth-covered wire to form the names and wedding date. I’m really having fun bringing language into my artwork this way. I started figuring out this technique a few years ago when I was working on Pocketful of Posies, and have no idea if the same kind of thing has been done before. Once you get into the rhythm, the wrapping goes quite fast. After all those years wrapping fuzzy pipe cleaners with embroidery floss for fairy limbs, this seems easy.

I had to put in some color, though and wrapped the wire names in bright pink variegated embroidery floss. The couple’s invitation had a seaside motif, so I added a metal shell charm and got out a dried star fish from my collection of found objects. The dark blue and had too much weight compared to the names, so I lightened it by winding around a single strand of pink floss.

After bending and wrapping the characters for the date, I cut out a piece of yellow felt to mount them on. I don’t make patterns and plan everything out ahead of time, but construct as I go. I always start with the lettering and then figure out later how much room they’re going to need.

Then, I had to figure out how to place everything on the purple blue felt background. At this point, I realized that the star fish didn’t have anything to offer and would have to go. I go through this editing process often, latching onto some interesting found object and then seeing that it has served its purpose of moving the design along and is no longer needed. A writer friend describes the revision process the same way. She said, “You have to be willing to let go of favorite words and phrases.”

I decided to incorporate a more conventional floral decoration and added some of Mimi’s Kirchner’s felt roses and some glass leaf beads. If you haven’t learned how to make them yet, go to her tutorial on her blog here. I also got out the dreaded glue because that was the only way to attach some shells around the date. The yellow felt piece called out for some embellishment, so I added a chain-stitched loopy line around it.

Then, I cut out a banner of blue felt, with scallops on the bottom and blanket stitched all around with variegated pima cotton from the Caron Collection. I found an old shell necklace, the souvenir kind from Hawaii, and sewed some shells to the scalloped bottom edge. I was glad that they already had holes.

I sewed a casing for a drift wood stick at the top, then tied and braided a pima cotton strap.

Here’s the finished banner, ready to wrap up and bring to the wedding.

Wedding Banner (Karen & Graham)

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Update: See other banners with wrapped wire lettering here. Visit my Etsy Shop.

This summer I’ve been invited to two weddings, with the first being held on June 25th on Cape Cod. Both the bride and groom are designers and I thought they would like something artsy and personal for a wedding gift.

I started by writing out Karen & Graham in a flowing script and then enlarging it to a lower case height of about 1/2″ . Then, using long-nosed pliers, I bent some 32 gauge cloth wrapped wire, using the hand written lettering as a guide.

This is a technique that I figured out while sewing the book cover design for my up-coming children’s book, Pocketful of Posies, which you can see here. I wanted letters that were raised enough to create shadows. And because the wire was a separate flexible piece, it was easy to move the words around for proper positioning on the artwork.

After determining the size of the names and their placement, I cut out a square of orange wool felt and added my customary wavy edge and some cut out holes. I then wrapped the wire with 2-ply variegated embroidery floss, hiding the knots in the back.

This is where I do most of my work, on an old ironing board.

The light green floss wrapped wire didn’t provide enough contrast with the background, so I wrapped a single strand of dark green floss around the wire, candy cane style.

The banner was cut out of a light teal colored wool felt that matched Karen & Graham’s invitation. Then I blanket stitched around the orange felt edges with pink variegated embroidery floss. I chose some fish beads and a heart made of bone to decorate around the wedding date.

Then I made some tiny 1/4″ roses following Mimi Kirchner’s great instructions from her easy felt rose tutorial. Some silk ribbon leaves were added, too.

After I figured out how much space to leave for the date and beads, I cut out the scalloped bottom edge of the banner. The outside edge was blanket stitched with some variegated pima cotton (Caron Collection). From my collection of stuff, I picked out some more beads and some beach stone pendants with holes drilled in them to hang from the scallops.

I then stitched the floss wrapped wire words and numbers in place and sewed the beads and stone pendants to the banner. It needed some color on the bottom to balance the orange square on top, so I added another clump of felt roses and silk ribbon leaves.

I made a sleeve of felt at the top and slipped a piece of driftwood through. After drilling 2 holes in the driftwood, I threaded some pima cotton through and braided a strap for hanging the banner.