Felt the felt

I decided to do some felt applique t-shirts for xmas, so I ordered some felt from ebay, 70% synthetic, 30% wool.  My postie brought it yesterday and I couldn't wait to get started, but the felt seemed very thin and I was worried about it shrinking once I'd sewn the designs onto the clothing and ending up as a big mess rather than a lovely picture.  I decided that to be on the safe side I should give it some abuse to see if it shrinks, as I'd rather have it shrink in a controlled fashion by me than shrink later when the gift recipients wash their t-shirts.  What a good job I did!  The felt shrank massively!  And at all different rates.

The black felt and the ones behind it haven't yet been felted, the orange, red and purple have.  There's a huge difference.  Hopefully they should be safe enough to use on clothing now though.
I also have some beigey coloured sheets that I'll be using to make some felt pasta for The Boy, for xmas, not bothering to felt those though.


I've also started a secret project this week, for the DIY Secret Santa over on Cloth Nappy Tree.  I tried 3 different patterns but each one was wrong, so in the end I just decided to make it up as I went along.  Hope it turns out ok, I think it should though.

Finally, I managed to unravel the tail of The Boy's toy snake that I made, to add a rattle.  I couldn't find ANYWHERE online to buy rattle beads that supplies Europe, so I had to improvise, I used the plastic egg from a Kinder Egg and popped some rice inside.  It sounds perfect!  Exactly like a rattlesnake :D Very impressed.

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Another of this week's projects:

He's a stash-busting xmas present for The Boy.  Made to this pattern.  He was really easy.  I'm contemplating unpicking his tail though, I want to make him into a rattlesnake by adding a rattle bead, if I can find one that is, they don't seem to be easy to find :( .