Felt snacks: watermelon, strawberries and cupcake

Watermelon

For each watermelon:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern. Cut out two red pieces for the watermelon flesh and one green piece for the rind.
2. Sew the two red pieces together along the straight edge with a blanket stitch. I used three strands of a green embroidery thread.
3. Line up the edges of the rind with the curved edges of the watermelon flesh. Sew along one side with a blanket stitch and then two-thirds along the other edge.
4. Fill with polyester filling or felt scraps and close the seam.
5. Use three strands of a dark coloured embroidery thread to sew seeds randomly on the watermelon.

Strawberry

For each strawberry:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern. Cut out one red piece and one green piece. Fold the red piece in half. Cut the tip off from one end, to make a flat tip as right. Sew together along the bottom and side with a blanket stitch.
2. Sew a running stitch around the top. Fill with polyester filler or felt scraps and pull the running stitch tight. Fasten to close the top.

3. Fasten the thread to the top of the strawberry. Place the green piece on the top. Sew in a cross to hold the green part to the top of the strawberry.
4. Using three strands of a light brown embroidery thread, sew a small, well-spaced running stitch on the strawberry to represent seeds.

Cupcake

For each cupcake:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern and felt pieces. Using a blanket stitch sew the cake top to the cake side.

2. Sew the edges of the cake sides together.

3. Sew a running stitch along the bottom edge of the cake side. Fill with polyester filler and pull the stitching tight to match the size of the cake base felt piece.

4. Sew the base to the cake side using a blanket stitch. Pull out the running stitch.












5. Sew sprinkles or other decorations onto the top of the cupcake.

Maternity leave projects

This time around I made it to maternity leave (yay!) and so I thought it would be nice to complete a few sewing projects. There's probably going to be little time for sewing for a while after No. 2 arrives.

I found this simple little pattern online for a reversible baby hat and made two, because I thought the monkey/helicopter design might be a bit loud for a young baby. On finishing the two though, I think it's the one that I prefer.

Sadly I can't find the website again to refer to it here, and it was in Dutch anyway. With lots of help from google translate, I worked out the main parts.

 I finished this bag this morning. I've been trying to decide on a new bag to make, one that's a bit summery. Now that it's finished I'm not sure if the colours are that great for summer, but it's cute all the same and good practical size for carting around those toy animals, snacks, drink bottles etc. I got the pattern from this blog: http://machenmachen.wordpress.com/2007/08/31/free-pattern-for-the-wasp-bag/. and I have to say that the adding the buttons completely lifted the look of the bag. I was actually a bit disappointed in it when I was done with the main sewing last night, but now that the buttons are on, I love it.

 Now to the felt food... Mia was given a play kitchen a little while ago and although being quite young, she was happy for a while to use anything to put into and out of the cupboards, I thought some felt food might be a nice addition. She had some plastic fruit and vegies, but these just look so much better. I found some great pictures online, but made most of the patterns myself through trial and error - there's also a steak to go with the broccoli and potatoes (the orange thing is fish, not an over-sized carrot!)




I'm also part of the way through adding to my backpack collection - just waiting on some supplies to arrive to finish them. And I thought I'd make myself a few new dresses for after this baby comes, but being disappointed in the choice of fabric in the stores around here (and the price), I'm waiting on some fabric to arrive by mail for those.