Answers

When I was missing my scissors  after a great cleanup lately I  decided on creating  embellishments for the book covers I had been working on that consists only of round shaped felt pieces, meaning: paper punched.

How do I use my paper puncher on felt?

To prevent the felt being torn by the puncher and not cut, I just apply a sheet of paper under the felt.  If you iron on this material (could you please tell me how it is called in both languages, German and English?) the felt is even more "fray safe" and it can be just ironed on the fabric (iron from the fabric side!).

Of course it's possible to use any puncher, but when you use those scrap booking paper punchers, you will find that the felt is too thick to be inserted in order to be punched...

A small piece of paper will help you: Cut out felt in a size according to your puncher. Fold the paper and put in the felt.

Take the covered felt and pull carefully into your paper puncher - not so easy but it works...

Place the puncher on the FLOOR as you will (have to) step on it for punching. So, step, turn and check if the felt was spit out... if the felt still appears to be captured at some points, try using a pin to get it out. Carefully.

Woolen stars...

Another question was how I am cutting the slit for the cord into the fabric... not only in times of missing scissors I take a rotary cutter, fold the cover in half, wrong side facing and make a little cut into the edge. Don't cut too bounteously, it's always easy to cut a little more to make it fit!

Then you have been asking me about my printed tags... I guess some kind of alphabet stamps are available in your country, too. These rubber stamps and ink I am using are fun to play with and as quick as my paper puncher punched felt appliques.

Sorry for assuming you all have a blanketstitch on your sewing machines... I am so happy with my machine that I feel like we were together ever since, but actually I got her only last year... before that I haven't had all those fancy stitches... how quickly it's happening to get used to convenieant and pleasant things... I think for the book covers machine stitching is better working than handsewing, maybe a very dense zigzag stich. By varying your machine settings it is possible to create a satin stitch alike stitch which could work very well as a seam stitch. I would just try different stitches of your machine and see what's looking best.

Have fun!

PS: The scissors are back. But now my single puncher is gone, no joke!

Comments

[Nic]

Obwohl ich doch eine alte "Papercrafterin" bin, bin ich wirklich nieeeee auf die Idee gekommen, Filz/Stoff mit Papierunterlage zu "punchen"... ehrlich! Ich habe mich immer nur geärgert, dass es ausreisst!

DANKE!!! :o)))

GLG, Nic

[Kristin La Flamme]

That fusible web looks like "Vliesofix" by Freudenberg, or "Wonder Under" by Pellon. They are actually the same thing. Well, yours is a little different because it has no paper attached. Maybe it's more like "Stitch Witchery" which comes as a strip on a roll, or "Misty Fuse" which both have no paper attached, but I don't know their German versions.

Sorry to hear that the scissors required the sacrifice of the puncher before their return.

[Amelie]

mmh... I want such a stamp set, too! I've seen those in Germany, yes, and they probably exist down here too. I just have to find out where (somehow I'm having trouble with this -- just back from a 1.5h search for knitting needles). Hope your puncher turns up again soon!

[stephanie s]

what a generous post. thanks for wonderful information, i am now going going to find all my punches and felt and start punching!

[myra]

What a great idea for punching felt. It never occurred to me to use paper. In the past I spread fray check liquid all over the felt which stiffened it up a lot and made it easy to punch out.

Wonderful information, thanks for sharing!

[Kate]

Thankyou, thankyou for the punching felt tips. This will save much frustration and swearing at my house.

[corinna]

for all germans who are interested in such a stamp set: i found some here: http://www.brummels-stempelladen.de/
(@alex, du löschst das, wenn du hier keine links möchtest, ok? danke!!!)
die idee mit den stanzteilen ist genial! danke! :)
corinna

[ruth singer]

the sticky stuff in England is called wonderweb I think. The stuff with paper backing is bondaweb and this un-backed strip stuff is for making hems. but it's great for lots of things!
I use a professional leather punch on felt, but this only works on really thick wool felt, not craft felt.
lovely tutorial, thanks!

[Heike - annilu]

Nachdem ich nun seit zwei Tagen Deinen Blog hier rauf und runter "blättere" und lese und mich gar nicht sattsehen kann an all den wunderschönen Dingen, die Du da so fabrizierst und die unglaublich gelungenen Fotos bewundere, fange ich jetzt einfach mal an dieser Stelle an mit einer kleinen Frage: Was für Farbe verwendest Du denn für Deine tollen Stempelstreifen, -schildchen, -labels,....?

Wie schön ich Deine Kreationen finde, kann ich gar nicht sagen; es fällt mir schon schwer, mich nur zu entscheiden, ob mir die Sachen selbst am besten gefallen, oder ob es die Fotos davon sind... Ich staune, und bin ganz ehrfürchtig, und sammle Eindrücke und bin einfach nur begeistert!
Ich schätze, Du hast einen weiteren Fan gefunden und ich bin sicher nicht der erste und noch lange nicht der letzte!

Liebe Grüße
aus dem ebenfalls sehr herbstlichen Süddeutschland

Heike

[simple me]

Yes, those paper punchers are great. I have a couple and I need to try with felt.

[Lacona]

Ich hab das Net wochenlang rauf und runter nach einem schönen Stempelset abgesucht. Entweder sind die Buchstaben nicht schlicht, oder sie sind riesige 7,5cm oder sie kosten 100€ (ernsthaft, Schulstempelsets) oder sie kommen aus Australien.

Könntest Du mir vielleicht, eventuell, verraten, von welcher Firma Deine Sets sind und ob es in Japan einen online-Shop dafür gibt? Weil ob aus Australien, USA oder Japan geschickt wird, wird auch schon egal sein.

Herzliche Grüße!

[Jen Segrest]

I was wondering if paper punches would woork on felt, but I didn't want to invest $6+ on a punch I couldn't use! Thank you!!!

[Berta]

To Spain: Thanks for this post.