One of the best things about crafting is the friendships I’ve made, and how crafting together provides an outlet for fun and fellowship. A couple of weeks ago, I got together with Cathy and Iris to make felted bracelets. We used roving and silky fibers from my considerable stash, and Iris provided the burlap ribbon for the base.
Burlap is trendy right now, and I thought it would make an ideal stabilizer for the felting. It worked perfectly. All three of us were able to fill the burlap mesh with a thin layer of felt in about an hour of leisurely needle-felting. because the felt locks the burlap fibers in place, we can cut buttonholes without the need to bind the edges. Shown above is a polymer clay button I made many moons ago. Cathy loved it, and now it’s hers.
Here’s Iris and her felting:
Here’s Cathy and hers:
Here’s me and mine.
The edges of the burlap ribbon are bound with a fine wire, which I found scratchy, so I started to cut it, and the fringes on the burlap started coming off. I wasn’t sure if I liked the fringe anyway, so eventually I’ll remove all the wire and fringes. I plan to add some beads to my bracelet, and maybe finish with a snap instead of a button. That’s right, another project for the UFO Initiative.