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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Felt Playhouse-Castle Style

Hello! Back again, it seems harder to craft and then blog than I had anticipated. How do you find the time to get your crafting in? It seems particularly hard for me because the MR. has requested that I not do after hours crafting. (He is probably right considering I am GROUCHY if I stay up too late. Morning comes early with multiple wakings and kids.) At any rate, I am trying to do it with three kids running around all day and it isn't very effective! 

I also finished and shipped the second Bowser costume! Wow, it still took a lot of time, and I made some great hair this year so the costume was even improved a little! And then a breathed a sigh of relief and began tackling my owns kids costumes, way behind schedule. But they are coming along. 

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On to what you want to see! I posted a while back about a felt playhouse that was in the works. I joined a 1st birthday exchange and felt the need to make something great! (MR thinks I went overboard, but a little girls joy is SO worth it-right?)  So here are the pictures of the castle I made for a sweet little girl. The only thing I would change is I would have done the battlements differently. See how they won't stand straight? I double layered the felt and used pipe cleaners for some 'bones' in between the layers, but the stability I was looking for isn't there. Next time (if there ever is one) I would use a real strong interfacing-the kind used for hat brims- and put that in between the layers and I would not sew it onto the fort as shown here. I would put Velcro all the way around the playhouse and attach the battlements as a second piece.

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The Ivy wall
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With flowers (attached with Velcro)
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The friendly dragon ( I copied a clip art image and had my Dad draw it to scale.)
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Window Wall with shape matching on the bottom.
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Crown, torches, and mail
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Weather pieces so She can match the weather outside.
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Notice how the 'Drawbridge" door stays connected at the bottom? I put small grommets into the door and the 'door frame' and then used a key ring to run through both layers giving the Drawbridge effect I was looking for.

So, what do you think? I got the original idea for a Felt Playhouse from Jill at Homemade by Jill.