Amigurumi Friday!-using felt

Remember this sweet face from earlier in the week? 

Well today we're going to talk about how to do it!

First off, thank you Harugurumi for the excellent pattern of the sleepy sheep, available free on her lovely blog! This is my version using felt for the face and embroidery. (Her sheep have a crocheted face and yarn features) 

Supplies you will need (for face only): Felt, scizzors, chalk or marker, embroidery thread, tapestry needle, and a little imagination!

I crocheted the head of the lamb, then traced onto the felt using white chalk the shape of the face I wanted...somewhat of an oval. You can get super particular here about having a true oval shape, but I prefer the home-made with imperfections look. I think it gives the animal character! 

Then you cut it out!
Next, trace onto the back of the oval the shape of the eyelids so you don't embroider blindly- and choose the color you want to embroider the eyes with. Begin!

I went one way with simple straight stitches and then back on the curve filling in the gaps left. 

Next add the eyelashes by beginning in the back of the felt, poking the needle through at the eyelid, and stitch out and down, always beginning at the back of the felt at the eyelid.

You getting the picture? good! Now do the other one :)

(Here's a view from the back, so you can see the mess is always on the wrong side of embroidery. That's why you do the face before attatching it to the head!) 

Right, now for the nose and mouth. Start at one central point and fan out your stitches to the left and right for the nose. I chose a peachy-pink :)

Ok, once your done with that, put your needle from the back, right into the bottom of the nose and do just 1 vertical stitch down for the mouth. 

(Make sure you tie everything off in the back! )

Now, to sew it onto the face, you can continue using a straight stitch as I did with the brown face, or you can choose to do a blanket stitch. That looks like this:

Here's how:

Enter your needle from back, and make sure before you put your needle back into the fabric that your needle passes above the thread left from your last stitch before you pull tight! 

I hope those images are actually helpful!

I find it's beneficial to safety pin on the face as your sewing so the features don't move around on you

But that's about all I have for you this week. I'd love for all of you to try your own lamby face, and share how it turned out!