Recently I wrote about the project I made for my mom. Today’s post is about a project Mom and I did together. Mom’s mobility is seriously limited and her world has grown very small as a result, so when I visit her, I bring something crafty for her to do. She won’t do crafty stuff on her own but she loves to help me with my project du jour, and she thrives on the feeling of productivity and usefulness it brings.

I saw these adorable ornaments on Betz White’s website and knew I had to make some, but wool sweaters are damn near impossible to find in southern California thrift shops. Fortunately I have suppliers who live in the midwest and are willing to scrounge for me. Wendee and Jenn even run the thrifted sweaters through a hot wash and dry cycle to felt the fibers (this makes the sweaters smaller and easier to pack and mail, too).

A regular ballpoint pen proved to be the best tool for tracing onto felted sweaters; on dark colors I used a silver Sharpie and we took extra care to trim off all of the marks.

I traced circles onto pieces of felted sweaters using the bottom of a fat water bottle as my template. Not perfect, but it ain’t brain surgery. I think the circles were about 3.5″ in diameter and there were a few slightly smaller ones in the mix too. Then Mom cut out all the circles, hundreds of them by the time we were finished. It kept her busy for days.

Next, cut a spiral into each circle, so that the resulting curly “snake” is about 1/2″ wide with a “head” at the end (middle of the circle) that is about the size of a nickel. Maybe a little bigger. You don’t want the strips to be much wider than 1/2″ because that dimension represents the height/thickness of the finished flower, and the ornaments look lopsided and weird with some roses sticking out more than others. Mom and I didn’t bother to draw the spirals onto the circles, we just went for it with sharp scissors and keen eyes.

Starting at the pointy end of the snake, roll up the strip to form a rose. It helped to keep a grip on the pointy end, using it like a tiny stem.

This photo is much easier to understand than what I've written in the next paragraph. When you wrap the strip to form a blossom, keep a grip on the pointy end in the middle, and lay the strip so that the bottom surface of the flower turns out flat and compact. The top of the flower will flare out beautifully.

On the bottom side of the rose, try to keep the edge of the strip on a flat plane — that is to say, while you are wrapping the strip to form a rose, you want the bottom edge to be wrapped snugly and evenly lined up, while the top edge flares out naturally.

When you get to the end of the strip/head of the snake, cut off the pointy “stem,” apply some Sobo or other strong white glue to the bottom surface of the rolled up felt, and flop the “head” of the snake onto the glue. Hold it for a few moments while the glue sets, and before it dries completely, gently nudge the flower in one direction or another so that it does not look like a perfect bullseye. This looks more natural and it is helpful to have different shapes of blooms when you are trying to fill in the blanks on your ornament.

Then, starting around the hanging loop and working your way down to the bottom, glue roses onto the ball, fitting them together like puzzle pieces. I worked on two ornaments at a time, adding three or four flowers to one ball and then setting it aside to dry while I puzzled over the other one. (I don’t know how vital this is, but I used special styrofoam glue for this step. I noticed it at the craft store and figured if it exists, there must be a good reason. Maybe I am a sucker.)

The pins add a little extra whimsy to the blooms, and they also help to hold the flowers in place while the glue dries.

As each rose was glued to the ball, I secured it with a pearly straight pin in the center, where Mother Nature would put stamens. Here and there, I used additional pins to manipulate the “petals” to hide all the styrofoam.

It took 15-20 roses to cover each little styrofoam ball, believe it or not! Mom and I ended up with enough roses to make eight or nine ornaments, and the solitary leftover rose was subsequently swiped by my kleptomaniac cat Sandy, who occasionally carries it from room to room to re-hide it from me.

I’m delighted with how these turned out and it was really fun to work on them together with Mom. Her health challenges are a little depressing and this gives her a dim view of her current capabilities, so I am always happy to prove her wrong! LOL She did a great job and felt very happy contributing to a beautiful outcome.

Now we’ve used up my entire stash of warm-colored felted sweaters, leaving only greens, blues and browns. Hmmm, maybe next year we’ll make felt pine tree ornaments?