Felt Wee Folk by Salley Mavor (2003, Paperback, Illustrated)

I worked my way up from simpler feltcraft books and finally felt ready to tackle this one.

Salley Mavor's fairies and tapestries are absolutely adorable. Highly detailed, they require a lot more stitching and finishing touches than I've been used to.

Most of her fairies feature colorful, fanciful petal skirts. The author gives you tips on turning faux flowers into skirts by cutting them apart. She also shares tips on salvaging materials or foraging for things like acorn caps for hats for your wee folk.

Carefully photographed, the step-by-step pictures really help me create the projects. Often I just use them as a building block or springboard to start my own designs or embellish on later. She uses a lot of twisted pipe cleaners, so I appreciate the color photos of pipe cleaners in the process of being twisted.

I certainly don't have the skill she does at painting the cute little faces onto the dolls, but still have not been disappointed in the results.

The most valuable thing, for me, is the scenery photographs of her dolls set up in forest scenes. Hansel and Gretel standing in front of a gingerbread house covered in candy is an adorable inspiration, as is her Royal Family standing in front of a sand castle.

There are instructions for a wizard, a pirate, felt brooches, felt appliqued purses, pillows, a checkbook holder, and "fabric relief projects" which I would personally call tapestries or tableaux. Diagrams and templates are provided which you can photocopy and enlarge.

Not for beginners, but a very inspiring craft book to look through when you need some ideas.

Offers easy-to-follow instructions to re-create the many wonderful projects. Includes patterns, stitch illustrations, materials lists and of course delightful photos of finished folk and other crafts. I absolutely recommend it.