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.
The Ivy wall
With flowers (attached with Velcro)
The friendly dragon ( I copied a clip art image and had my Dad draw it to scale.)
Window Wall with shape matching on the bottom.
Crown, torches, and mail
Weather pieces so She can match the weather outside.
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.
