DIY MINI FELT HOUSES!

   This diy comes from www.poopscape.com .  Wouldn't it be a sight to see several of these little houses adorning your Christmas tree and all lit up.  What a warm glow they would create!

Felt House

I have a thing for felt. Felt is the textile equivalent of construction paper- you can make nearly anything with it and I have a certain weakness for the fuzz. I decided to make little houses out of felt for an Iron Craft challenge, since I already had piles of wool felt fat quarters that I bought at Stitchlab in Austin and I figured it was about time for another felt project. I wanted to make a village of tiny felt houses to place in random areas around my house. This project also introduced yet another product to my ever-expanding craft supply stash- Stiffy fabric stiffener. Yeah, yeah...giggle all you want. Without it, my little felt houses would have collapsed. What you'll need: House template (see below) Felt Embroidery floss and needle Scissors or x-acto knife Stiffy Fabric Stiffener Foam brush Optional: battery-operated led tealights Step 1: Trace the house template onto the felt with light pencil marks and cut out using scissors or an x-acto knife. Step 2: Cut out squares for the windows and a flap for the door (upside-down "L"). I didn't put these on the template because I wanted to allow the template to be customized.

Step 3: Press to crease the fold lines (dotted lines on the template) of the house so that all the corners fold to the center. Step 4: Stitch the edges together with the embroidery floss. I used a blanket stitch, but your basic whip stich would work just as well. Step 5: Saturate the sewn house with the fabric stiffener. Step 6: Let the houses dry for several hours. I kept checking on them to make sure they were keeping their shape and reshaping them if they started buckling. Once the fabric stiffener has dried, the houses will keep their shape pretty well. Result? I love how these mysterious little houses are simultaneously cute and creepy. The led tealights are the perfect size to fit right inside, but I could also see adding a ribbon loop at the top and making these into Christmas ornaments or place markers at a dinner table.