FAQ

Have a look at this handy page which will show you how to get started whether you are a beginner or an old hand.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It’s a way of sharing a document across any platform or software without losing the formatting, and it’s the file type I use for all of my patterns.

Advantages: No waiting! You can download it instantly after payment. Custom printing: Print any or all of the pages, as needed, whenever you like. If you’d like to save paper, print only the pattern pages themselves and read the instructions from a screen. Do overs: No worries, if you lose the file, you can download it again from your Etsy account history.

The patterns themselves are not emailed, they are downloaded by you anytime you like after payment! Yay! No waiting. Etsy sends email receipts which include download links. Patterns are also stored in your account on Etsy.com, and can be re-downloaded by logging in with a browser and checking under your purchase history.
Guest purchases: If you purchased without logging in, the only way to access your pattern is through your email receipt. Guest purchases will not show in your Etsy account unless you link them. It’s easy.

NOTE: If you purchased a pattern from my now closed CRAFTSY shop, simply log in to your craftsy.com account using a browser and look in your pattern library. 

No worries, check for tips on how to troubleshoot here.

Check first for the answer in my extensive resource pages located here! If you don’t find the info you need, I’m always happy to answer questions. Message me here!

Sure! Your purchase is backed up online at Etsy.com. You can access it by logging in with a browser (not the Etsy app!) and looking in your purchase history. Your pattern downloads don’t expire.
NOTE: If you purchased as a guest, the only way to access your patterns is with the emailed receipt. Link your guest purchase to your account like this.

Because of the way many of my projects are made, printing the pattern sheets directly onto Sulky stabilizer is key. If you have ever wrestled a craft book to flatten it on a copier, you’ll know what I mean.

Also, most of my projects have a lot of steps and detailed instructions, so the PDFs are many pages. This makes them impractical to sell in a preprinted format. It would not be very cost effective unless  1) I greatly pare down my instructions or 2) make the font/illustrations really small – two sacrifices I refuse to make in order to preserve the unique quality of my patterns. PDFs may not work for everyone, but they are the best format for my patterns.

The best way for a timely answer is via the direct messaging in my shop, mmmcrafts.etsy.com. I can usually respond within a few minutes or a few hours, depending on your planetary time zone and whether I’m asleep when you’re awake. I’m in the Eastern Standard Time Zone in the US.

How nice! Etsy digital purchases are keyed to the purchaser’s email address, so it’s best to give your crafty recipient an Etsy gift card (or Visa gift card, or cash) and a link to my shop: mmmcrafts.etsy.com. They can easily create an Etsy account for free, and their gift from you will be backed up in their own account online in case they ever need to re-download.

I’ve received many requests for a Nativity pattern series. Thank you so much! I have given it much careful thought, many times, and here’s where I’ve landed: The night my Savior was born on this planet is, in my faith, one of the two most important events since the world was created. How I wish I could have been present to hear the angels singing and experience all creation rejoicing to welcome God With Us! It’s amazing to consider, and I find I simply cannot fit my Lord and Savior into a wool felt ornament. It’s way out of my league. It would be creating the Creator. I hope you can understand?

I’m always happy to hear suggestions for future pattern designs, but I do not take requests. My head is absolutely stuffed with my own ideas. I’m telling you, it’s chaos in there, with a million possible designs all jostling for first place! Oh for more time.

No, sorry! I am up to my eyeballs in my own design projects. Occasionally I might list some samples or needle books in the shop, and if I ever do I’ll be sure to announce it on all my channels. If you would like to find someone who sells handmade items made from mmmcrafts patterns, a great place to start is the mmmakers list on my site.

I only sell patterns at this time. However, there is a US vendor I’ve worked closely with to supply patternless kits for my ornament series. For the kits, I personally choose the colors, make the samples, and provide detailed color guides. In turn, Benzie Design provides you delightful bundled kits and optional notions which go with my guides.

Benzie Design! They sell a wide selection of wool felt blends, 100% wool felts, plus metallic and glitter felts. Not to mention lovely sequins, beads, tools, and notions. Benzie offers kits to go with my color guides. International shipping is available.

(Are you looking for international wool felt vendors? Check this post)

I use both! Either kind works very well for my ornaments, for reals. To help you decide, here are some pros and cons:

BLENDS:
PROS: Economical! A combo of rayon and about 20-35% wool. There’s a wide selection of colors, and during presoaking they save you time because they get wet immediately and shrink less. They also air dry more quickly.
CONS: They can feel lightweight compared to 100% wools, not as dense or nice to sew. Because the fibers are less dense, they can get a bit fuzzy when you pull off the adhesive stabilizer.

100% WOOLS:
PROS: Soft and super dense. More substantial hand feel and a matte, luxe finish. Colors tend to look more rich, vibrant, and intense than blends. They don’t get fuzzy easily and can hold a really tiny seam allowance. Super small pieces do not disintegrate.
CONS: More expensive! When pre-soaking, they resist water and shrink more. To encourage them to get wet, you can roll them gently underwater with your hands and leave them in the water for longer. (They sometimes do not completely saturate with water, but that is fine as long as they get pretty wet.) Also, it can take a little longer to soak and rinse away the Sulky stabilizer.

In the end, color is king in Larissa world. I sometimes combine blends and 100% wool felts to get the exact colors I’d like.

I don’t recommend acrylic or polyester craft felt for my wool felt patterns (with some exceptions for various parts/accessories). While it is the most economical option and the most readily available at your local fabric and hobby shop, the colors are typically limited, the texture is not great, and it is not durable at all. It can look shiny, which I do not prefer. It gets an unattractive halo of fuzz and pills after just a short while. Fabric glue refuses to bond it sometimes. Small pieces tend to stretch, fray and pull apart. It has a strange, almost greasy feel sometimes. It is also very likely to shrink, warp, and melt if you iron it. It has its uses, but wool felt is far superior. Trust me, if you are spending the time to hand sew an ornament, you’ll be glad you used the right materials.

Korean hard felt is synthetic, slightly stiff, and very dense. While it is popular to use in craft projects which are machine sewn, you’ll find it’s nearly impossible to enjoy sewing it by hand. It’s difficult to get your needle through it and it will wear out your fingers and your patience. Ask me how I know.

(Hard felt is not to be confused with synthetic stiffened craft felt, which is a good bit stiffer but somehow much easier to sew through. I specify stiffened craft felt for use in some of my patterns.)

While I have no personal experience sewing with the felt from these vendors, I have a reference list of international wool felt vendors that have been recommended to me by customers from three different continents. Some of the vendors listed offer kits which complement my patterns. Be sure to ask! Click here to view the list!

Yes! I promise you will be glad you did. Wool felt shrinks in water. So if you do not preshrink, and then you soak your lovely embroidered piece to remove the stabilizer, it will shrink. After drying, your stitches will look loose and the piece will no longer match up with the unembroidered pieces. Yikes! Nobody wants that! Preshrinking is easy and the wool felts air dry overnight. See my patterns for detailed instructions.

Exception to preshrinking: Metallic or glitter felts. Those are wool felts coated on one side with plastic. I have found that even though they shrink on the wool felt sides, the coated side does not. They can look cupped after soaking, but they relax as you sew the pieces together. You can also give them a quick press, but only from the wool felt side.

Nope. For my ornaments, cutting the shapes beforehand with a digital automatic cutting machine does not work well. The embroidery is done by hand, and if you pre-cut the pieces they are often way too small to work with comfortably. If you try to cut them with a cutter after you do the embroidery, the outlines will no longer match up because the embroidery naturally pulls in the edges a bit. Embrace doing it the old fashioned way and enjoy the process. You’ll get the best results by carefully trimming the embroidered pieces by hand, per my instructions. Cutting out the pieces as you go is actually one of the least time consuming steps!

Yes! If you are a home sewer you can sew up a storm with your own little hands and sell the items, with some limitations. Please read them here!

Not at this time. As much as I enjoy crafternoons with creative folks, I find that my current schedule does not allow for teaching sewing classes. That may change in the future if my schedule opens up.

Thank you so much for your patience and encouragement! I promise you I work on new patterns as quickly as my time will allow. I’m a part-time pattern designer. I escape to my design studio as much as I can during the week, mostly in the evenings. Sometimes designs come easily, and sometimes they do not. It’s not an exact science, and my creative muse goes on strike occasionally. For that reason it is difficult for me to pinpoint release dates for you ahead of time. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you also know I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and that my patterns are super detailed. They take a while to draft because I do all the work myself – design, layout, editing, proofreading, samples, diagrams, photos, marketing, PDFs, etc… I love it! I know it’s hard to wait, but I’m doing my absolute best to ensure that you’ll be glad you did. One thousand thanks for your support! 🙂

If you live in a cruel part of the mint eating world where you can’t just go down to the corner drugstore and buy a delicious and refreshing tin of Altoids® Curiously Strong Mints, then you can buy them online directly from Altoids® or you can usually find them (fulls or empties) on Ebay, Amazon and Etsy.

The tin dimensions are 9.5 cm x 6 cm x 2 cm. If you are looking for generic tins, there are blank same-sized tins sold at various shops on Etsy and Ebay. A quick search for small tins will turn up several options.
(Disclaimer: Use due caution and read the fine print, like you would with any internet purchase!)

I’m always looking for good tin substitutes for any part of the world that is unlucky enough not to have Altoids® readily available, so let me know if you run into any!

Remnants are great for this pattern because the actual amount of fur needed for each TravelWee is quite small. Etsy.com and Ebay.com are ideal resources for that! Use ‘synthetic shag fur’ and similar terms in your search field and see what you can find. There are also some online fabric retailers that sell a good selection of synthetic furs.

I use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. All the diagrams and drawings are done by me, either digitally or by hand. But I like doing it! I’m weird that way.

Everyone likes free stuff. But my blog is all about me *circles head with pointer finger* and I don’t sell posts or offer advertising. I blog about things that are meaningful to me and stuff I’m truly jazzed about.

Sure, links are always welcome, and thank you! If you would like to borrow one of my photos, I’m happy for you to if you play along with the rules: Please only borrow a photo or two of a completed project. No in progress or tutorial photos/diagrams. And please credit me with the photo, Larissa Holland, and provide a link to mmmcrafts.com. Thanks!

Nope nope nope, thanks. I appreciate your interest and your links, but keep all my posts right here at ol’ mmmcrafts.