Craft - Felt Animal Masks

There are not many cool felt animal masks for a child's Lion themed birthday party so I thought I'd make some.  Started with a simple super hero mask idea and just sketched out how I thought I could transform these into animals.  I was really happy with the end product and the children all looked adorable.  If I could go back in time I would have just bought Seed Jungle Party Masks.  My Google-Fu failed me this time but I learnt a lot about random craft stuff and beefed up my sewing kit.

Materials:

• acrylic felt
• cotton
• pins
• heat n seal
• sewline fabric glue pen
• one sheets of stiff, white felt.  It came out of a cheap pre cut set of something so I do not know what type of felt it was. Scavenge felt.
• elastic.  White is alright but black would have been better.

Process:

1. The first thing is to print out the pattern on normal paper and cut it out.

* This is the point that you should place the pattern against the child it is for and make sure the gap between the their eyes isn't going to make the mask uncomfortable or difficult to see through.  This was my biggest problem with making these but because of the heat and sew it was easy to get a bit brutal with the end result and cut to fit after they were finished.  I did not include a pattern for the embellishments.
** Use a piece of paper between the iron and the mask to stop the sticky heat and sew from getting on your iron.

2. All of the masks except the tiger, elephant, crocodile and monkey were based on the same super hero mask pattern.  The main mask pattern only needs to be printed out once and re pinned whenever used.

3. Pin the pattern to the felt using sewing pins and cut the felt to the same shape as the pattern.  Two pieces need to be cut for the mask.

4. Trace around the main mask shape on the paper side of the heat n seal, cut around.

5. Iron the plastic side of the heat and seal to the back piece of the mask so that when you attach it to the front the heat and seal will be in the middle.  Follow the directions in the heat n seal pack but even then I still made mistakes.  It should not tear away from the felt you have ironed it to.  If it does you should just cut another bit out and start again.  Flick the corner like a difficult sticker until you clearly see the almost rubbery, clear piece of heat n seal separate from the paper backing.  It comes off easily after that.

6.  This is the point you want to pin the ears the the back mask piece.  Run a single line of stitching across the pinned ear to secure it.

7.  Wherever embellishments are used like the monkeys cheeks, pale face area, and inner ear secure these with the glue pen and then stitch around them.  Because I made so many this became a bit of a production line and with the tiger and zebra especially, I was glad not to have them moving around while I was trying to sew.

 7a. One thing I did not do and it meant the eyelashes were not long lived.  I recommend sewing around the eyelashes or at least up the centre so that the felt does not stretch too much and come apart with use.

7b.  In the case of the flamingo sew once down either side of the beak puckering it up enough that it sits forward and out rather than going flat when the mask is worn.

8.   Pin and sew the elastic in between the mask pieces.  Put the elastic on with the edge sticking out sew across then fold back and do a reverse stitch across it again to make a really secure head band without adding weird bulk to the mask.

9. Now following the heat and sew directions, iron the front piece of the mask to the back.  Use your paper protection again to stop the iron getting dirty.

10.  Sew around the entire mask, in the case of tiger and money sew around the entire ear and mask.  Sew around the eye holes.

Enjoy.

Church Renovation

It has ticked over four years and we are still going but the end is close and we spent our first night sleeping in actual beds in a carpeted bedroom.  It is bliss and so beautiful.  Everyone who has worked on this is fantastic and anyone looking for a builder in Sydney or the Blue Mountains should get a quote from Luke O'mara.  He is the person who has made this build a good experience with amazing outcomes.

The process:

 This is before we purchased.

It was a long time between buying and starting the build.  Going through council we learnt a lot about the process to renovate a heritage listed property.  First get a good architect and then worry about Conservation Management Plan and Statement of Heritage Impact.  We went with a heritage architect to begin with and it was like he was working for the building rather than for us and the heritage consultant from council was the person who gave us the permission to make our own heritage architects design liveable.  So more than two years after purchase, another baby and many fish and chip picnics in the slopping floored church we started to find a builder.