Things You'll Need:
- Fall color felted recycled wool scraps in a variety of colors
- Basic sewing supplies
- Scissors
- Fabric tack fabric glue
- Sizzix Fall leaf die #2
- Sizzix die cutting machine
- Matching wool thread in a variety of colors
- Black embroidery floss
-
Step 1
Gather a wide range of Fall colored felted wool scraps from you stash. If you do not have a felted wool stash in your home, try going to your local thrift store and purchasing some wool skirts, jackets, or pants and felt them in your washing machine. It is a wonderful way to recycle used clothing!
-
Step 2
If your wool scraps don't look Fall festive enough then there is an easy solution that I have to make your bits and pieces that you do have into something that you can work with. Check out my link to my article how to dye wool with frosting dyes. Use this technique with your wool scraps and you will realize that you can paint any light colored piece of wool into something that you want!
-
Step 3
Die cut all of your different leaf shapes with your leaf die #2. Sort them into like shapes then put them into plastic baggies to keep them organized. This might take some time but it well worth it! If you have left over leaves, save them because you can use then in another project in the future.
-
Step 4
Make a pattern for a 16" diameter circle out of scrap paper. This will be your pattern for the base that you will sew all of your leaves to. You will also need to cut your back fabric for the piece. What I used for this piece was craft felt from my local fabric store. I chose black because it blends with all of the variety of colors of wool leaves. Also black has a way of making any color pop when it is next to the color.
-
Step 5
Assemble in a pleasing manner all of the cut out leaves that you have in your storage baggies onto the base. This is easy to do because the leaves are small and easy to work with. Remember though how in nature that leaves are not always side by side each other sometimes they are laying on top of each other or overlapping each other. So when you are putting them on keep that tip in mind.
-
Step 6
Once you have the leaves in the style that you want it is time to assemble the first layer onto the base. How you will do that in a easier manner is to use fabric tack glue lightly to tack the leaves in place. Set aside the piece for it to dry.
-
Step 7
Once the piece is dry it is time to button whole stitch the leaves into place. I use matching wool thread to button whole stitch around the leaves. It gives the piece a professional look to it. Once the first layer is stitched down, you are able to layer the second layer of leaves onto the piece. Repeat the process of lightly gluing the layer down then stitching. You will do this for all of the layers of leaves that you have. In the picture that I have shown, I have three layers of glued and stitched leaves. I have also used one color of wool thread with all of the color of the leaves to give it an overall feel of Fall.
-
Step 8
Once the project is completely sewn it is time to put a black felt backing on to the penny rug and button whole stitch all the way around the diameter of the penny rug. I use black embroidery floss to do this to set off the wonderful handwork that I have done. Remember to keep your stitches even and the tension of your stitches consistent so that there is no puckers within your work.
-
Step 9
You are done with the piece and ready to display proudly on any table in your home to decorate for the holidays.
