I whipped up 5 of these buns for my daughter's pre-school to use when they sing the '5 Currant Bun' song.
They absolutely loved them and are keeping them especially to use for mat time. It is so nice to be able to make something that is useful and appreciated.
Anyway what follows is a basic tutorial so you can whip up your own. Apologies for the mediocre photos, it was either a quick tutorial or nothing at all!
You will need:
Thin card
3 x pieces of A4 brown felt
1 x piece of white felt
Scraps of red felt
Scraps of dark brown felt
Sharp scissors
Brown, red and white embroidery thread
Sharp needle.
START by printing out the pattern pieces which you can find HERE.
GLUE the print out onto light card and then CUT out the pieces.
TRACE around the pattern pieces onto the felt and cut out.
Currants come later.
Take the large brown circle and using 2 strands of brown thread use a running stitch around the outer edge, gathering as you go.
You will end up with this. Don't knot the end just yet.
Add heaps of stuffing while holding the gathering in place.
When quite firmly stuffed knot off your thread. Then keep adding stuffing in until it is nice and firm.
Take the small brown circle, lay it over the stuffing opening and pin in place. Use 2 x strands of brown floss and either use whip or blanket stitch to attach it.
Then it looks like this.
Flip it over and you have nice round firm buns!!!
Time to start on the cherry. Gather the red circle using 1 x strand of red floss in the same way as you did the bun.
Add a little stuffing and pull the gathering tight as you add a little more stuffing. A toothpick is quite handy for this part.
Pull it tight and do lots of stitches to secure it in place, leaving the thread still attached
Now grab a bun, place an icing piece on then position your cherry on top. Once you are happy with placement take your thread down through the icing and into the bun and back up again to catch the bottom of the cherry. Do this a few times and then...
...knot your thread under the icing. This just helps the cherry stay firmly attached especially if little hands are going to be tugging on it.
Next pin the icing down and attach it to bun using 1 x strand of white floss and whip or blanket stitch. (sorry missed a photo of this!)
Now cut out lots of currant shapes out of dark brown felt. I used about 10 currants per bun. Pin them on in a random fashion and then stitch them in place with 1 x strand of dark brown floss and either whip or blanket stitch.
And then you are done!!!
Your kids will have hours of fun playing tea party with these and you could also bring them out at Christmas for decoration as they look like little Xmas puddings.
Check out my other great pretend food tutorials HERE.
