Felt Lupines

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For Day 2 of my Book Inspired Craft Week I chose a picture book that I remember my mom reading to us when I was little. Because of that this book always makes me think of her. The book I chose for today's craft is Miss Rumphius. 

Miss Rumphius, or Alice, tells her grandfather that she wants to do 2 things when she grows up. She wants to travel to faraway places, and live in a house by the sea. Her grandfather tells her there is one more think that she should do. She should do something to make the world a more beautiful place. 

When she grows up she travels to faraway places, and she lives in a house by the sea. Then she plants lupines and they make her so happy that she spreads the seed all over and becomes the "Lupine Lady" making the world a more beautiful place. 

For my Miss Rumphius inspired craft I made some felt lupines. In the book she talks about seeing the purple, soft rose, and blue flowers, so you could make them all of those colors but I made mine in a couple of shades of purple. 

All you need for this project is a sheet of felt in each color you want to use, a wooden dowel, some green ribbon, and some hot glue. The felt is folded, cut on an angle, clipped along the fold, and then twisted around the stick to make the flower. Then the rest of the stick is wrapped with ribbon to make the stem. You could also use a wire stem if you prefer. 

You could use this idea to make any kind of tall flower like that, the kind that grows several flowers up the stem like the lupine, or like lavender or Larkspur. This one is a very simple, quick project, easy to make and perfect for spring. 

How to Make Felt Lupine

You will need:

• felt sheets in purples, blues, pink or desired colors
• 3/16" wooden dowel- 1 for each flower
• green ribbon
• glue gun with glue sticks
• scissors

Instructions:

A couple quick notes before I get into the instructions- first, I used a couple different kinds of felt for my flowers, the 2 slightly darker flowers are made with just a regular acrylic craft felt sheet. The kind you can buy for really cheap in individual sheets or a big pack of different colors. It is a little thicker and softer/floppier than the other and it worked really well for this project. The slightly lighter color is Cricut felt. The nice thing about the Cricut felt is it is a slightly larger sheet, but that is about the only positive for this specific project. It is a lot thinner and stiffer than the other felt that I used  which means it doesn't twist around the dowel quite as well, the loops don't open up as nicely. I would definitely not recommend using the Cricut felt. Wool felt would also work well but would be a little pricier. 

Second, I originally planned to make a template that you could print out and use to cut out the felt, but as I made them I decided that it was easier to just explain how to cut it. That way you can cut it the full size of the sheet of felt, whether that is 10" or 12" or something else. It doesn't have to be perfect, some variation is totally okay in a project like this. 

Start by folding one long side of your felt sheet over about 2" 

Cut across from the fold at an angle the length of the felt sheet starting about 2" from the folded edge and ending about a 1/2" from the fold. 

Glue the cut edges together just along the edge, leaving a 1/2"-1/4" open at the short end.

Cut slits along the folded edge starting closer together at the top and spaced out a little further as you work your way down the felt. Leave the glued edge uncut.

Stick the first loop on the short end (where you left a little bit unglued) over the top of the dowel. Then twist the cut edge around the dowel gluing in place as you go. 

When you reach the end of the felt make sure it is glued down securely, then wrap the green ribbon around the bottom edge of the felt. 

Twist the ribbon around the bottom half of the dowel gluing in place as you go. Cut the ribbon at the end of the dowel and glue securely in place.