Handmade & Trade [September] Felt Flower Hoop Embroidery

As you may or may not know, I've recently joined Instagram after getting fed-up with facebook algorithms.  I'm having a hard time gaining followers and getting people to interact on my posts despite my activity there and the amount of views I have here on my blog.  (That being said, I have made some really good new friends through my Instgram pages).  So recently I stumbled upon an Instagram hashtag/event called Handmade and Trade and I really wanted to get involved. Not necessarily to get sweet little handmade gifts (although there are a lot of talented makers involved!) but to get connected with other makers on Instagram.

If you are a maker of any kind (hobby, blog, business, etc) you should consider participating. It goes by 3 month time spans so the next one should start in January. Aaaanywho- I wanted to share the item I made and sent to my partner this month:

My partner sueforgod mentioned a few things about herself, including her faith and her favorite color (blue).   I also knew she liked felt because her own shop is made of stunning felt creations. Y'all should check out her etsy shop Be Joyful Always Shop. (She uses her shop as a way to earn money for her and her husband's adoption journey!) So I came up with this simple but lovely hoop decor.

I finished off the back and glued a wall hanger to it so it could easily be hung on the wall. When she said that she was going to hang it in her someday baby's nursery I about cried. What an awesome honor that will be!

Here's what it looked like before I embroidered it:

I'm still perfecting my embroidery stitches and these probably could have been better but overall I think it turned out really well.  Of course, it was a labor of love so maybe that shined through in the end!

A close up on the felt flowers.  Check out my small business page (Instagram) to snag some of these felt flowers on headbands!

Lastly and sweetest of all, my son (almost 5) has started his own little "confetti" business.  He solicits anyone that visits our house to buy a bag of large confetti from him for $1.00 and threw in a bag of this handmade confetti with my embroidery hoop.  The words on the bag were his message to her.  Ooooh my heart, how sweet is he?  I love the gift I made but my mama heart loves this even more.

I'm excited to see what she created for me but most of all, I'm tickled to have made a new "online pal".  I love watching other small businesses thrive, especially ones with such a sweet cause like hers.  I wonder what I will make for my partner next month!?

No-Sew Pumpkin Purse Tutorial

What is the one line every creative person you know has said?  Any guesses?  You'll laugh when you hear it.  Ready?... 'I COULD MAKE THAT'.   You're laughing now aren't you?  Because we all know it's SO true!  We have all seen something in a store or online and thought that we could do a better (or at least cheaper) job at DIY-ing it than we could buying it.  Sometimes this works out great and other times we spend a lot more time and money on it than it's worth.  I know this to be true not just for myself but others because there is a world of memes out there:

[Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to products that can be used to make this project.  Purchasing through these links may earn me a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thank you for supporting my blog.]

I had one of those projects this week (a successful one).  I saw a cute fall/halloween layflat online and part of it included a little pumpkin purse.  I did a quick search on Amazon and Target (because Target always has cute purses like this in the toddler/kids section) to no avail.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money because it was for my 2.5 year old.  She isn't that gentle with things, it's going to have a short lifespan (pumpkin= fall/Halloween) and the girl already has 4 other purses.  (ridiculous right?)  So instead, I made one.

The best part? You can make it too.  I did it entirely NO-SEW so that anyone out there could enjoy this project as much as we do.

Here's what you'll need:

- orange craft felt (plus black and green felt for the face & stem)

- interfacing (I'm sorry I don't remember the exact kind I used. It was a scrap! Anything to add stiffness will work great.)

- hot glue gun & glue sticks

- trim of your choice for the strap




How to make it:

I like to use tissue paper when I make my patterns because it's almost like using an actual sewing pattern (and it's super cheap!)  Just draw out a pumpkin shape in the size you want the finished purse to be.

I drew out the lines on the inside of the pumpkin and also the face on my pattern but only to get the right shape/size because I'm terrible at drawing freehand.  Nothing is actually used except the very outside edge of the pattern so no need to add them like I did.


Next, cut out 2 pumpkin shaped pieces from the orange felt as well as 2 from the interfacing.  Also cut a long rectangle from the orange felt in the size you would like the depth of the purse to be.  Ours was about 1.5 inches.  It needs to be long enough to go across the bottom and up the sides of the pumpkin shape but you can adjust this as you put it together if you aren't sure.

Now is also a good time to cut out a green stem and the black jack-o-lantern face or you can do it later if you aren't sure whether to add it or not.  I wasn't sure at this point in the project but it definitely adds a little Halloween fun!

Next, hot glue the interfacing to the orange felt pieces.  I suggest trimming the interfacing down just a tiny bit so that it doesn't go all the way to the edge of the orange.  It will make it easier to hide the white (which I didn't realize until I had already started. Learn from my mistakes!)

Next, hot glue the rectangle strip of orange felt to one pumpkin cutout.  Fold it under as you go so that no rough edges are showing.  Hot glue is very helpful for this because you really can just pinch and smooth it down as you need.  I started at the bottom and went up both sides so I could get a feel how high I wanted the edges to be. 

This is an example of how it will look after one side is finished.  You can see how the felt is folded to the inside around the curve.  The second photo below shows how it will look from the outside after this step.

As you can see, some of my white interfacing peeks out. It isn't very noticeable when the purse is being worn but I still wish I would have cut it down a shade and glued it orange to orange.


You're almost done already.  Crazy right? Now do the same thing to the other side of the purse with the second pumpkin shaped piece.

Lastly, add your trim or purse strap by hot gluing it to the inside of the finished purse.  My 2 year old picked out the mini pom pom ball fringe  (which I got last Christmas in the Target dollar bins!)  This trim looked fine without anything over it, but feel free to add a square of orange felt on the inside to finish off the edges of your trim.

All done!  How darling is this fun little purse?  My 2 year old loves it and my (almost) 5 year old has asked me to make him one too!  This would make a great little gift or a perfect addition to all those cute fall outfits.  Now... bring on that fall weather!

Don't forget to follow me on INSTAGRAM and subscribe to my e-mails!