Today’s review is of a sewing h0w-to book, “Zodiac Felties” by Sarah Skeate. This book provides patterns and instructions for creating felt plush figures representing the twelve signs of the zodiac, plus Mars, Venus, the sun and moon. Each figure is created using small scraps of felt, embroidery floss, and beads, and then lightly stuffed. The resulting figures are only a few inches in height.
Here is what Amazon has to say about the book Zodiac Felties:
With easy step-by-step instructions and full-color illustrations and photographs anyone can make these twelve adorable zodiac felties and their four planetary pals.
From the authors of the sensational Zombie Felties and Steampunk Softies comes Zodiac Felties a craft book for creating felties representing each of the twelve astrological signs plus four planetary figures–Mars, Venus, the sun, and the moon.
These cute and creative felties make perfect gifts for friends and loved ones, so the book also includes a template you can copy and fold into a beautiful card to present to someone along with your creation.
Each figure is given a difficulty rating, letting you know the amount of skill required to make the feltie. Each also has an extensive supply list, some requiring very specific items.
Although you could substitute different colors of felt, there are very specific requirements that cannot be substituted. Many of the felties require small brads. Some need wire, grommets, specific colors of thread, or specific beads. The scorpio above would not look the same without the leaf beads used.
I decided to try two different projects from the book. Being an Aquarius, I created the Aquarius feltie.
The finished felties are smaller than the finished image in the book, and would fit into the palm of your hand. Thse require small, intricate stitches.
After making the Aquarius, I thought I’d try the Gemini, because this feltie requires much more beading.
You can see how much smaller the finished fish is than the fish in the page.
I found the instructions to be straightforward, but that does not mean that the projects themselves were easy. These were many very small pieces that took time to put together. Each felt figure represents over 3 hours of cutting, stitching, and embellishing. I found that the second project I created, the Gemini, turned out much better than my first, as I got the hang of working with such small pieces. I also attempted a few substitutions within the supply lists, creating my projects with different colored fabrics, and switching out a few of the very specific bead requirements. I think the resulting felties are very close to the prototypes shown in the book.
If you have a friend who is a fan of Astrology, you might want to create them their sign from the book. Even easier would be just to purchase them the book, and possibly a gift card to their local craft store so that they could buy all the supplies needed!
The book is out now, and retails for $14.99.
Disclosure:I was provided the book Zodiac Felties by Nicola Tedman and Sarah Skeate for Review.
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that is not a Gemini symbol , it looks more like Pisces