You may remember this most mysterious blog post from Dec 13th…
Well today I am so excited to show you guys the NEW American Felt and Kits and share with you the story behind them!
Just a few weeks ago I was contacted by a buyer at Zulily who was familiar with my work and asked if I would be interested in working with them to sell some of my kits.
My conversation with Zulily seemed like the perfect opportunity to revamp the kits, and add some new ones to the mix…and although my time frame was nail bitingly short I had to give it a go. After all all I needed to do was; Sew beautiful sample pieces, redesign patterns, take inventory, order supplies, literally cut THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of pieces of felt by hand, then package hundreds of kits in less than a month during the Christmas Season, while still doing all my other AFC stuff this…shouldn’t be a problem right?
My friend and graphic designer extraordinaire Maura Huston of Blackbirdie.com stepped up and gave my patterns the much-needed face lift in a matter of days. Aren’t they pretty?
And amazingly we’re still friends!! None of my type A nit-picking threw her off a bit it could be that she’s a professional or that she has built up an immunity to me and I have long since lost the ability to irritate her either way I think the patterns look great!
Meanwhile I sewed samples day and night!
(A little secret, the blueberry muffin, the Brownie Pan and all the shrimp you will see pictured on Zulily’s site this Sunday the are actually just snatched from my kids collection to save time, some of them are 3 years old.)
Then I cut the pieces for the kit samples, printed off the sample patterns and sent everything off.
That’s when the real work began…I tried to remember to take pictures but as you might have guessed I was pretty busy.
Here are some of the thread cards, each one represents a kit.
Sorting through thousands of pages of patterns from the print company.
Empty cardboard inserts from felt bolts, which were hand cut into the correct sizes, we ended up with about 3 stacks of these!! Anyone know a great craft project for about 60 empty cardboard bolts?
Packaging hundreds of kits
There you have it!
And on Jan 1st you will have access to the new kits on Zulily at a DEEPLY discounted prices!
All 100% made in the USA!
If you’re not a member of Zulily it’s free to join and here’s an invite: Join Zulily
I’m still getting the kits and pattern redesigns listed at the store so it may be a day or two before they are available there.
I’ll keep you guys posted!
~American Felt & Craft ~ Blog 
AMAZING! I would NEVER have been able to accomplish all of that! Great work!
So excited for you! Can’t wait to see your stuff on Zulily!
Those are so fun and nice to have a kit to learn a new pattern. I love the fish and sea food, very unique.
Debbie
If you have kids, you could make a fort out of the empty bolts. 🙂
Wow! Looks like lots of hard work! For the bolts…would they be a good size for felt cutting boards or grills if you covered them? Or maybe tape them together to build a cool obstacle course for your kids!
I found you through Zulily. I saw the kits and had to find out where they came from. They are SOOO CUTE! Congratulations on accomplishing such a huge task. I hope being featured on Zulily helps you reach your goals. Happy New Year and Happy Sewing.