Something I find funny about my sister is that she hates felt. I discovered this one day when we were Christmas shopping, and I shoved past her and knocked down some old ladies to inspect a felt ornament more closely that I had spied across the store.

After I oohed and aahed over it, and said something brilliant like, “Isn’t this cute?!?!?!” She said these 4 words: “I don’t like felt.”

Did you feel that? That pit in your stomach that could only mean you must now dis-associate yourself with a close member of your family? After buying her 30 felt ornaments for Christmas, I wondered just why that had struck me so strongly, and I supposed it was because I had such a strong, visceral affinity for all things felted, I assumed everybody else did, too.

In any event, since you probably do too, or you wouldn’t have clicked over to this post, I shall show you how to make little felted embroidered lip balm pouches to hand out to all of your true loves on Valentines day.

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Uno. Buy felt and embroidery thread. I got both from this lovely Etsy store, because the craft stores only have the kind of felt that makes you sneer, roll your eyes, and stomp away.

Dos. Cut your pouch pieces out. I lay my lip balm down and eyeballed the size, but it is approximately 3 1/2″ by 1 3/4″, or 8 3/4 cm by 4 3/4 cm. Something like that.

Tres. Embroider pretty little things onto one side (or both) with contrasting embroidery floss. Mine feature: x’s, french knots, a heart, and something resembling a rib cage.