Zombie Felties: How to Raise 16 Gruesome Felt Creatures from the Undead [Paperback]

Nicola Tedman (Author), Sarah Skeate (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 10, 2010

Shudder as you stitch…ZOMBIES A ARE CULT FAVORITE with a lot of projects in 2010 and beyond for books and movies. Charming, easy-to-make, and undead, Zombie Felties contains 16 irresistibly haunting projects to celebrate the zombie zeitgeist.

Nicola Tedman and Sarah Skeate awaken their inner George A. Romero and focus their creative attention on the malleable, fuzzy softness of felt inside Zombie Felties: How to Raise 16 Gruesome Felt Creatures from the Undead. Inside, crafters will find instructions for more than 15 zombie creatures, including a Romero-esque Day of the Dead Zombie. Additional Zombie Feltie projects include:

* Zombie Bride

* Zombie Puppy

* Vampire Zombie

* Zombie Bunny

* Folklore Zombie

* Zombie Surfer, and more!

With only the most basic of sewing skills, crafters can raise their own macabre multitude of Zombie Feltie creations from the undead with an average construction time of less than one hour per pattern. Each design includes a full-color photograph of the finished project, as well as an illustrated, instructional overview, pattern diagrams, and a convenient list of everything needed to complete the project.

Zombie Feltie friends can be customized with limitless embellishments and they make great Halloween decorations, party favors, finger puppets, key rings, and even mobile phone mascots. Get ready to shudder as you stitch!

Editorial Reviews

Review

I received this book whilst my brother and my sister-in-law were staying with us which was handy because it meant we could spend two very enjoyable evenings 'doing makeys'. Nila has made softies before and Tom has had a little go but Tom counted himself a novice. Zombie softies has 16 designs from which to choose, Tom and I made a two skull zombie, but Nila had a go at the three skull design (difficulty levels start at one skull and go right up to four). The patterns are ready to trace or copy at full size which was nice. Some pieces are teeny tiny so used up some of my silly-small scraps of felt. There are very good instructions for all the techniques and stitches you need at the front of the book and there are brilliant diagrams with very specific directions for each zombie, right down to how many strands of embroidery cotton to use. You do need a good selection of beads, buttons, threads, felt, and other miscellaneous haberdashery, we ended up with nearly all my boxes of treasure out on the table, but it was nice to be creative and use up some precious bits. The zombies are tiny and bits of the process were very fiddly but they are totally ace, so that makes up for any earlier extreme concentration in their construction! Tom, the novice, enjoyed making his zombie and with a little help and advice he was very capable. I think the book would be a fun project for a sewer wanting to work with some funky young types, even if they had never sewn before but if you were giving it as a gift into a non- sewing household it is worth putting in some supplies as if you were buying everything you needed from the instructions it would soon add up. I really liked this book and I really like my zombie, the book is going from here to Tom and Nila's so more horrific(ally cute) undead can be unleashed upon the world.-Jennyflowerblue.blogspot.com Did you think that all felties were lovable? Well, there's a darker side to the feltie character rarely seen public until now. Zombie Felties aren't cute at all, their eyes dangle from empty sockets, and their innards protrude in unruly loops and swags of horrible pink floss. However, they should appeal to teenagers and slightly ghoulish stitchers looking for projects that can be turned into keyrings, bag tags and other accessories. There are 16 projects in the book, from gyrating Zombie Thrilla (a tribute to Michael Jackson), through gesticulating Zombie Bunny and Classic Zombie, trailing his tiny grace bandages. This book should appeal to anyone wishing to raise 16 gruseome felt creatures from the undead.-Needle & Handicrafts --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Nicola Tedman is a model maker for theater and television.

Sarah Skeate, is an illustrator with a steampunk fetish who just happens to work in publishing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; Original edition (August 10, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740797646
• ISBN-13: 978-0740797644
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Crafts & Hobbies > Toys & Models > Stuffed Animals

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, but super time consuming! September 24, 2010

By Erica Lopez

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The book has several different patterns for tiny felt zombie dolls. Why do you need a felt zombie doll? You don't. But they're cute. You can hang them from Halloween trees if you have them or you can do what we did and turn them into refrigerator magnets. Making the dolls is not a difficult task but it is absolutely, positively time-consuming.

We used tracing paper to trace the patterns in the book. Then we cut out the pieces and traced them again onto colored card stock. (If you buy this and plan on making several zombies, I recommend that you do this so that you have sturdy pieces to trace onto the felt in the future.) Our pieces are color-coded and each sheet of card stock is textured on one side. This allows us to find the right pattern easily (colors) and orient them the way they need to be oriented when tracing them on felt (texture) which is especially helpful if you have felt that is not the same color on both sides!

There are a lot of materials required for these little projects, so just starting out can be expensive. We had an advantage because we already had a ton of different beads and we had a ton of embroidery floss. The only materials we actually had to buy were a few more beads, some ceramic magnets, toy stuffing, and a bunch of felt. You can buy bulk packages of assorted colors of felt online for really cheap (usually there's not much color variety) or you can go to your local craft store and improvise with what they have to offer.
ASSORTED PACK ACRYLIC CRAFT FELT 100 PCS
ASSORTED PACK ACRYLIC CRAFT FELT 9 INC X 12 INCH 50 PCS

Seriously, making these is time-consuming. The first night we made these, we were cutting out patterns, tracing them, cutting out pieces, and then figuring out how to put them together. I'd say we spent at least four hours making them and each of us had only produced one at the end of the night. What we are doing now is cutting out patterns and felt pieces days ahead of time so that when we have the time to spend sewing them together we'll have all the pieces ready.

Don't try to make these exactly as they are in the book; you will have to make do with what supplies you can find. Also, there are a lot of very small pieces to these dolls so I wouldn't try to make these with small children or pets around. The dolls themselves are fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand tiny.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great, But Needs Suppliers List! January 29, 2011

By C. Coln

Format:Paperback

I have several other books on making softies and things from felt. I bought this book because of the zombie theme and because some of the techniques I saw (particularly the pink brains and use of white bugle beads for bones) were ones I had not seen elsewhere. I love the projects in this book and was ready to get started right away...only to find that I couldn't do the zombies I most wanted to try due to lack of supplies. As another reviewer mentioned, it's not like I live in the boonies. I live in Atlanta. I went to every craft and bead store in the area. Not a single one had plain, white bugle beads. And what about those unique pearlescent sequins with the embossed concentric circles used to make the brains that impressed me so much? I have no idea where to find them. My son was incredibly disappointed when we were not able to create any of the zombies we liked. I've found an online source for the white bugle beads, but have no idea how to find the sequins. And, honestly, if a craft book is using supplies that you can't find in the local Michael's or Jo-Anns, they should provide a suppliers list. After all, they got their own from somewhere! So I've given the book 3 rather than 5 stars for missing this critical aspect. If you can't make any of the things in the book, it's essentially a picture book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy and cute! September 9, 2010

By Shala Kerrigan TOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I really loved the first Felties book, so I was fairly sure that this one would be just as much fun.
Felties are tiny little dolls made from craft felt. They are stitched with embroidery floss and thread, accented with beads and sequins and embroidery techniques and are just wonderful little projects for gift tie-ons, making into brooches and as small gifts. They are quick, affordable and a great portable craft or craft to do with kids just learning to hand sew.
The Zombie Feltie book focuses on the creepy side of this craft. Just perfect for Halloween really, and the projects stitch up fast enough you could make a whole bunch little creepy cute brooches to wear through October. There are a bunch of just wonderful patterns, sewing instructions and tips on making felt easier to work with in small scale. The projects include, as you'd expect, a few regular zombies. Then the authors got creative. A diminutive zombie fairy holds a scepter topped with a skull, zombie vampires, a dead duck with little bullet holes and blood, a pumpkin head zombie has sequin brains coming out of a break in the pumpkin. It's gruesome, it's adorable. It's one of the cutest and most clever takes I've seen on horror themes in crafting.
16 full sized patterns and instructions. Just perfect for your favorite little ghoul, as long your favorite ghoul is old enough. The finished projects do have small parts and some of them have jagged edges.