Fancy Tiger Crafts is coming at you with our Spring schedule!

Oh boy, do we have a fabulous spring schedule to share with you! We have added about a billion new classes for all your crafting needs. We are very excited to bring you a wide range of new classes for this Spring. Expand your skills and come get crafty with us! 

Fresh new sewing classes:

1) The unisex Cooper Bag by Walden 

2) Ruffled Jersey Skirt

3) Peter Pan Collar tee

4) Tablet case

5) Needle felting Flower Garland

6) Fancy Tiger's classic T- shirt 

7) A Pet Bed for your beloved kitty or pup

8) Make your own Undies

9) Polly Top from By Hand London

10) The Quillow (yes, its a quilt that folds into a pillow!)

11) Foldover Clutch

12) Kid's sewn Stuffie Cloud

13) Sailor top by Fancy Amber

14) Color Theory for crafters

15) Dolly the sewn doll

 

Next up, knitting and crochet classes:

1) February Lady Cardigan

2) Crochet Granny Squares by Tymla Welch

3) Color Affection by Veera Välimäki 

4) Howelsen Hill Hat by Sunne Meyer

In addition to our spring classes, we are so excited about the amazing guest teachers we have lined up to teach at Fancy Tiger this Spring!

First up is Cal Patch! She will be in town for the Makerie and is making a very special trip to Fancy Tiger Crafts to teach her Folk Dress. Sign up for both her workshops at the Makerie and at Fancy Tiger Crafts to receive a combined discount of $50!

Spend the weekend with LA's Christine Haynes, the designer of the popular Emery Dress, and all around great person. This intensive two day, 12-hour workshop will have you learning all of Christine's favorite tailoring tips for darts, bodice lining, invisible zippers, gathering, in-seam pockets and perfect hem. Sign up now for this sure-to-fill-up class in coming in April!

Check out these hand stitched goodies! Lisa Solomon, author of Knot Thread Stitch, will be here in late spring with her beautiful and modern embroidery skills. She will be teaching two classes. Embroidered Necklace walks you through making a one of a kind stitched pendant that you will turn into fantastic jewelry, and Embroidered Portrait will have you stitching up textural heirloom artwork from a drawing or photo.

Don't miss this schedule full of all the things! Just give us a call or drop by to reserve your spot!

Craftastic Weekend Project: Needlefelt Mushrooms

For this weekend, we have a mushroom needlefelting tutorial. Needle felting is a dry method of making felt (matted wool) using a barbed, triangular needle. It is easy to learn and can be conceived of as sculpting with wool as your medium and the felting needle as your tool. Roving is the name of the wool that has been cleaned and carded (brushed). Amber is an amateur mycologist, so for this project she was inspired by Clustered Bonnet mushrooms. If you live in the Denver area, we will be doing a free make-and-take of this craft project at the Clyfford Still Museum from 5 - 8pm tonight. 

For this project you will need: (all materials are available at Fancy Tiger Crafts) Our finished mushrooms are 1" - 3" tall and the caps are about 1" - 1 1/2" in diameter. One ounce of fiber will make 5 - 6 mushrooms.

• White Wool Roving - mushroom stem and cap
• Light Grey Wool roving - mushroom cap
• Pale Brown Wool roving - mushroom cap
• Foam block - used as a work surface to protect your needle and your fingers
• Felting Needle - we used a size 40
• Chopstick

Step 1: Make stem. Pull a piece of white roving - about 1" by 3". You can just pull it apart gently with your hands - no need for scissors. (If it is hard to tear, move your hands further apart along the roving and it is easier to break.) Wrap this strip tightly around your chopstick. Now pull the roving off of the chopstick - it should already look stem-like without any needle felting. Place this on your foam and needle felt it while turning it over so it is even on all sides. To needle felt, poke the needle into the stem about 1/4" to ½" deep and at a 90 degree angle. Leave one end fluffy - this fluffy end will be used to attach the stem to the top. 

Step 2: Make cap. Pull a small amount of white roving and lay it on your foam. Repeat with the grey and then brown rovings, pulling a smaller piece for each color (brown being the smallest). Now wrap this strip of neutral roving rainbow into a spiral. The white should end up on the outside with the gradient to brown going toward the center. Now needlefelt this round shape until it holds together - you should end up with a flat disk.

Step 3: Attach stem to cap. First you can shape your cap with your hands so that it has a dome shape instead of a flat shape. Next, you will attach the stem to your mushroom cap by poking the fluffy end into the underneath of the mushroom top. Poke it all around until the stem is firmly attached to your mushroom.

Yay! Now repeat and vary your size for the ultimate cute factor. For a lovely display we attached our mushrooms to a real log using hot glue. This would make the perfect centerpiece for your next foraged meal with friends or family. If you want more needlefelting, be sure to check out all of our awesome kits!

Turnip Darling is Here!

A new needlefelting kit friend has arrived! Turnip Darling is the most darling of all, thanks to Heide Murray of All Good Wishes!

Heide is an amazing needlefelter, known for her adorable felt objects which she sells at local craft fairs like Fancy Tiger's Holiday Handmade. We are huge fans of Heide's work and asked her to design a needlefelting kit for Fancy Tiger. Please welcome: Turnip Darling!

We hope you love this sweet turnip friend as much as we do! The kit includes everything you need to make two darling-to-the-max turnips of your own.

Turnip Darling is available in our shop here in Denver and in our etsy shop online.

Craft Up A Trend: Nautical Style

Nautical style is super adorbz! We've been seeing it everywhere--in some of our favorite local shops and on the streets of Denver as the weather turns warmer. 

1) Kling dress at Fancy Tiger Clothing  |  2) Whale Necklace by Winter Garden Studios  |   3) Anchors Away Wall Embroidery by motherMAEi  |  4) Sailor Shorts by Tara Starlet  |  5) No. 232 Duffel by Billy Kirk  |  6)  Nautical Set by Vital Industries  |  7) Knot Diagram Pillow by Coral & Tusk 

We've gathered together our best nautical supplies and patterns that would be coveted by the most fashion-forward sailor, so you can craft up a trend!

The Jasmine top sewing pattern by Colette is a sweet and feminine take on a sailor top. A light cotton voile in navy and white polka dots would be perfect!

Knitting guru Emily is already on the right track with this trend, knitting an Aidez cabled aran cardigan in deep royal Cestari Worsted (100% US raised and milled wool yarn). The free pattern from Cirilia Rose is a hip take on a classic fisherman's sweater.

The Anchors Away collection by Dear Stella is nautical to the max with nets, knots, sailboats and anchors. Summerime pool bag? Yes.

Erquy by Heather Dixon is a saucy, striped camisole, and would be perfect knit up in shiny Pima Cotton by Cascade.

We've been anxiously anticipating the arrival of Colette's brand new patterns and just love the new shorts pattern, Iris. Made in Essex yarn-dyed cotton linen and embellished with four bright red tagua nut buttons, tehy would be perfect for lounging on your sailboat.

Narwhals! Mysterious creatures of the high seas! Ysolda captured their adorable-ness in her mitten pattern from Whimsical 3.

A summer dress? Little boy's button down shirt? Pretty much anything would be amazing made out of this "French" sailor print on double gauze from Japan.

We love jersey! And what's better than jersey? Striped jersey! The Renfrew pattern from Sewaholic is the perfect pattern to get you sewing up a summer wardrobe's worth of cute tees. (Secret note to you: We will also have two fantastic classes for jersey tops on our soon-to-be-released summer class schedule--look for that at the end of the month!)

Sailors beware, this adorable toothy shark by Woolbuddy will teach you to needlefelt and then be your friend forever if you let him! 

We hope to see you sporting some handcrafted nautical style soon!

New Pollika Wool and Wope!

New felting wools are here in a rainbow of magical colors. These little bundles of Dutch wool are wrapped in paper which is dyed to match the colorful wool inside--little bundles of woolly joy, they are!

And can it get any cuter? Why, yes it can. Also from Denmark, these portable little palettes of wool have their own adorable totes printed with fairies. These could be the perfect gift for your favorite young felting enthusiast.

Wool + Rope = Wope!

Wope is here in a gorgeous array of hues! This thick and sturdy yarn is amazing for making bright rugs, ottomans, purse handles, hot pads...we are way into Wope.

 

 

 

And now here is Joey Lawrence with a special shout out.

Better Know A Crafter: Zumi

Zumi is just six and a half and already she is impressing us with her crafty designs. She was sweet enough to share her most recent--and first ever--one-of-a-kind felted book projects with us! We love it. Keep up the awesome work, Zumi!

Tell us about yourself.

What types of crafts do you do?


What makes you want to be crafty?


Tell us about what you've made.
 

Did you you use a pattern to make your book?

When did you learn to felt?


Tell us about the person who taught you to do what you do.

What is your favorite animal?


Thanks Zumi! Happy crafting!

Better Know A Crafter: Rachael Hamilton

Rachael is a needlefelting superstar. She has been buying up every last bit our beige Corriedale wool roving. We finally found out what she's been up to when she walked into the store dwarfed by the gigantic troll doll friend that she has been working on. We were like, "Wha-what-what!?" This enormous woolly needlefelted troll is an amazing thing to behold.

Rachael Hamilton

1) What kinds of crafts do you do?

I have been a sculptor for about seven years, but this is my first time using wool and felting. I am a sculptor major at Metro State and will soon be working on my MFA. I have always been crafty and after this experience I think I will be more fiber based.

2) Tell us about making your troll friend.
The troll was for a project in my fiber arts class at Metro. The theme was "the everyday and the sublime" so I decided to make a large troll. I built an armature and fiberfill and then needlefelted over top of it. The whole process was a learning experience. I had never needlefelted before.


3) How did you pick up your crafty skills?
I had to learn to felt, both wet and dry, as a requirement for this project. Because we had to use this technique I did my best to learn as I went. Fancy Tiger was a huge help in my process.


4) What is your favorite animal?
I love pandas and red pandas.

Thanks Rachael! Happy sculpting!

Better Know A Crafter: Jasmine Dillingham

Jasmine stopped by to see us and brought some of her needlefelting in with her. She is a ukulele player and she's been felting up some sweet ukulele inspire figures.

Jasmine Dillingham

1) What inspires you to craft?

I've always been a painter and an illustrator...until I discovered needlefelting! It's like painting a sculpture! ...And I love my ukulele!

2) Tell us about your ukulele playing felted friends.
I made them with wool roving and love.


3) How did learn to needlefelt?
I found out about it in December. I discovered it at the Fancy Tiger Holiday Handmade Craft Fair.

4) What is your favorite animal?
Robot elephants.

Thanks Jasmine! Happy needlefelting!

Craftastic Halloween Project: Woolly Monster Felts

Get ready for spooky Halloween fun with these felt monster heads! Here's how:

Materials
wool roving in lots of colors
felting needles

Optional
water
soap
Futte Futte felt ball maker

Start by making a felt ball. We like to make a bunch of them before the decorating fun begins by using the Japanese Futte Futte wet felt ball maker. You can also make felt balls by rolling the wool roving between your palms with some warm soapy water, or by needle felting them. You can make them uniform in color or mix a couple of colors together for a crazy monster. If the balls are mis-shapen or have weird wool dreads hanging off of them, that's okay - imperfections just make scarier monsters.


Once you have made lots of wool balls the fun can begin. At this point you may want to invite your friends over for a monster making party. Use your felting needle to add tiny bits of contrasting wool for your monster's eyes, mouth, hair, fangs and/or drool. Just place the wool on your monster head and poke it in about a 1/4" to 1/2" deep holding the needle at a 90 degree angle to your monster ball. You can roll the roving up into a fuzz ball between your fingers first to bring it together and make it easier to felt. Use the needle to poke and shape your fuzz ball into an open mouth, wacky eye, or tiny tooth.


Pin a monster to your lapel, make one for your most ghoulish friend, or put several on sticks and start a monster puppet theater! Wool monster-making is fun for kids and adults alike on a dark, spooky evening.


Happy felting!