FREE FELT FOOD PATTERN: TEA BAGS

Next on the list for my son's birthday present which is a retro picnic basket filled with plates, cups etc and felt food is felt tea bags.

I apologise for the appalling step-by-step photos but hopefully they will be good enough to follow!

Also I was going to upload a template to for you to print out but the scanner is nowhere to be found at the moment so measurements will have to do!

You will need:

2 x squares white felt 4.5cm x 5.5cm
1 x square brown felt 3cm x 4cm
2 x squares blue felt 2cm x 2.5cm
1 x small pink/red heart to fit in the blue square!

Embroidery floss
Pinking shears

I like to cut out and make about 6 at a time....

Using two strands of floss whip stitch a heart onto the front of a blue square which will form the tea bag 'handle'....

Then work out how long you want your tea bag string to be remembering to allow enough for making knots at both ends. I used full 6 strands of white floss cut to approx 13cm here....

Attach one end of your string to the back of the heart and knot firmly...

Then lay the other blue square over the back of the heart and blanket stitch around the edge making sure your tea bag string is centred. Use whip stitch if easier.

That is your tea bag string complete. Now move onto to the bag itself....

Lay your brown square or 'tea' in the centre of the white square........

....then add another white square on top and pin in place.

Next you need to stitch the tea bag together. Using 3 strands of white floss and a running stitch start stitching down a long side of the teabag (hide your knot on the inside). The idea is to stitch around following the square of the brown tea under the white......

I found it useful to hold it up to the light as I stitched so I could see the outline clearly...

Once I had stitched 3/4 of the way around (leaving the top open) I cut the edges using pinking shears and being very careful not to snip the thread/needle still attached!

Next grab another needle and thread it up to the bottom of the teabag string and stitch it tightly onto the top of the tea. Then with your other needle still attached to the bag just continue your running stitch around the edge, knot it on the inside and you are done!

Too cute!

You could do all sorts of variations....

Stitch the word 'tea' on the bag before you sew the front and back together.
Have an apple or orange instead of a heart so you know which flavour it is.

Next up I am starting the felt sandwich and luckily for me I have already found a great pattern and I have stocked up on my felt so I just need to get started!

Lollipop Hama patterns

The other day when I showed you all my latest Hama bead projects I meant to include these photos so you could make the lollipops yourself.....

This large swirly lollipop fits on one large pegboard......

....and you can get two of the smaller lollipops onto one large board.....

Yum!

Hama bead projects

I haven't shared any of my hama bead crafting for a while but don't you worry I have been busy with those beads....it is definitely addictive.

Bunnies

 

Mr Hedgehog

 

Lollipops

 

The lollipops were inspired totally from one of my many Ondori cross stitch books.......

 

...I should do a string of hama gingerbread men for Christmas...cute!

 

London Bus

Miss Riding Hood

 

Woodland Matryoshkas

 

Paper dolls.....

 

....pretty in pink....

 

...in disguise...

 

...and a boy doll too!

 

Hubby says I have to get rid of all these projects (and more!) before I am allowed to buy any more beads....he doesn't quite get my fascination! So I have dutifully listed them in my Etsy store if you are interested. Except for the paper dolls which I of course have to make more clothes and accessories for!

EASTER CRAFT: EGGCUP FELT PINCUSHION

Eater is rapidly approaching and I haven't shared any of my Easter crafting yet so here goes....

I found this little guy....

...at a local market at the start of the year and took him home for $4. I think he is just devine and he has inspired all of my Easter ideas this year. My immediate thought was he would make a perfect pincushion.....so here is what I did....

....I cut a rough circle of green felt and grabbed a handful of stuffing.

Using 3 strands of floss I used running stitch around the edge of the circle......

....pulling tight as I went so I ended up with a little felt bowl. Then I stuffed it with polyfill and cut a small circle in matching felt....

.......then blanket stitched it become the base.....

Popped it into bunny to make sure it fitted...

.....perfect. At this point I didn't really know what I was making but thought a basket of eggs would be cute.

I cut a small circle of brown felt and used running stitch to gather it together at the top and knotted it tightly on the inside but kept the needle and thread attached...

....then time for the handle. I cut a tall rectangle of felt and cut 2 slits not quite to the top....

...and then plaited them. Holding tight to the bottom so it didn't unravel I stitched it to the inside of the basket...

....it looks a little like a snake here! Then tucked the other side of the handle in and stitched it tight, I knotted it on the outside of the basket and then hid the knot in the pleat...

 

Next I added a little stuffing to the basket and cut out some coloured circles for eggs, random sizes of course...

 

....the I folded each circle in half and threaded all of them onto 3 strands of floss...

 ...pulled tight and knotted at the other end......

.....added a touch of glue to the bottom and added the eggs to the basket....cute!

Then I decided I needed a bunny, a 3D one seemed a little too daunting so I went with old favourite and cut out the shape. I tried it on the pincushion to make sure it would fit with the basket.

 

Then I gave him a face and blanket stitched him on...

Time to add the basket......

 

...I positioned the basket, made a knot in the pincushion directly underneath then bought the needle up through the basket across and down back near the knot. I did this a few times until the basket was firmly on...

 

...and my Easter pincushion is complete! The great thing is I didn't glue it in the cup so if I can get sick of it I can change it.

 

Here he is with an Easter cupcake I have also been working on....

 

....more details on how to make that later!

FREE FELT FOOD PATTERN: DONUTS

It is time to have fun with felt again!

For my son's third birthday in mid April I want to create him a picnic set. I am on the lookout for a retro basket and have my eye on this one....

 

......which is listed here on Trade Me. I am going to scour the op shops and internet for some classic picnic items like duraware plates and cups, fabulous napkins, doilies etc.

 

But most importantly it needs to be full of felt food! Lets start with the donuts.....

 

...these ones are actually now at my son's preschool as I mentioned them to his teacher and she got all excited so now I am making double of everything so they have a set too!

 

Now I could have made my own pattern but there are so many free patterns out there that I went straight to my felt food board on pinterest and found that I had already pinned two donut patterns - love it when that happens!

 

So the donuts I made are a combination of a couple of patterns plus my variations. The donut template I used can be found here at Skip to my Lou blog. If you want to make yours with a sewing machine then she has the full tutorial to follow.

 

I prefer to hand stitch and took inspiration from these tasty looking ones....

you can find the free pattern for this here but to be honest I had trouble accessing it. I think maybe you have to create an account first.

 

Note: you can substitute whip stitch for blanket stitch in all the steps if you find blanket stitch a bit tricky. Check out my Stitch Guide page if you need a hand!

 

Anyway here is what I did....

...cut out all the bits. I always do at least three at a time, that way you can start a production line and use all the thread on your needle etc

 

Next I whip stitched the icing on the top and then added sprinkes in lovely pastel colours.... 

.....then I used blanket stitch around the donut centre to attach the top and bottom halves.

 

Here is a close up......

Here is a look at the same stitching from underneath...

 

Next I blanket stitched most of the way around.....

...then stuffed with polyfill and stitched up the rest.

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....donuts..........

 

Next free felt food tutorial is......Tea Bags....I am half way through making them so should have the tutorial ready in a couple of days so stay tuned......

 

You could stitch along with me and at the end of all the tutorials you will have your own basket of play food - your kids will love it!