I've got a fun little treat for you today. How cute is this little spider?
Most people that know me in real life also know that I have an extremely talented mother. She can sew as well as any professional seamstress. I, on the other hand, did not gain her talent with thread and fabric. I can do basic to intermediate projects, but I still have a long way to go.
This project is great for a beginner sewer. My mom started at age 5, but I think 7 or 8 is a more common age to start these days.
You'll need: 1 sheet of felt, ribbon, needle, thread, stuffing, scissors tacky glue, and googly eyes. Optional extras include pom poms and additional colors of felt. Assuming you have the scissors already, this project should cost less than $10 and will have extra of most items for future projects.
To start: fold the sheet of felt over and cut out and oval. This will give you two ovals.
Cut 8 equal pieces of ribbon.
Fold the ribbon in half and secure together with tacky glue. While you're at it, space out the legs to your liking then flip them so the folded side is pointed toward the center. Secure with a small dot of glue if necessary.
Place the second piece of felt on top to sandwich the ribbon and sew around the edges, leaving a gap in the stitching to turn it right side out and stuff it. You can use any type of stitch you want.
Turn the spider right side out and stuff with stuffing to desired plushness.
Use a whip or ladder stitch to close the the hole in the stuffing and you're ready to decorate. For a video tutorial of a ladder stitch,
click here. And for the whip stitch,
click here.
Have fun decorating. Add eyes, fangs, spots, and/or stripes. Tacky glue will easily attach just about anything to your spider.
This craft is part of a bigger party put together by
Felt With Love Designs, so please feel free to check out the others:
Dinner:
Last week was a sad week on our little homestead. We had a lot of wind early in the week and a board fell over on one of the chickens. It didn't make it. That night, we forgot to close the door to the coop and a cat or two attacked the flock. I heard the noise a little after 3 am and went running.
You may remember that we had a lot more chickens earlier this summer, but we had our share of problems and learning experiences. We learned that a straight run of chickens is likely to have a lot more boys in it and if you don't want a bunch of boys, spend the extra for just girls. We also learned that there are some preventative treatments you should give chickens that we were never told about. I read a book and talked to lots of people, but no one ever mentioned the need to deworm at regular intervals when they are young. Lesson learned and between those two learning experiences we were down to 8 chickens before the wind blew and the cats attacked.
After a short grieving period we decided to look for some new friends to join the flock. (Craigslist is great for this sort of thing) We found a farm about 15 minutes from our house that has all purebred Buff Orpingtons and they were selling some of their birds. Even though I suggested three to five new hens, David came home with eight. Sigh. The good news is that they are already laying, but are still in their first year of life, so we should get at least a couple good years with them. I've been so excited to check on everyone each day and gather the new eggs. If you follow me on instagram, you've probably seen several egg posts and those have all been from the new ladies. I am excitedly waiting for our sex-link Allison to start laying. Seriously, it could be any day now!
