Roll up your sleeves, throw on your elf cap and get to crafting a handmade gift the little one in your life will treasure.
Here are 10 great handmade gift ideas complete with free tutorials and patterns.
1. Felt Seahorse Ride on
This adorable felt hobby horse is actually pretty easy to make and guaranteed to be loved by all weary mer-people in your underwater castle.
2. Groundhog Puppet
Craft handmade felt groundhog and shadow puppets and help your little
one welcome spring with a giggle.
3. Felt Stethoscope
Create an easy handmade gift for aspirimg medical professionals these felt stethascopes are a Pinterest Favorite!
4. Felt Soildier Rattles
Although these sweet British Palace Guards do get a little rattled when you shake them they remain loyal and steadfast.
5. Cut Apart Felt Carrot
What’s more fun than play veggies ready for slicing? This free felt food tutorial will walk you through handmaking the whole thing!
6. Chocolate Chip Cookies
chip cookie this one is an absolute basic felt food tutorial but it’s a great starter project if your new to sewing it’s also great for kids since it really couldn’t be easier.
7. Felt Play Money
Every kid can use some felt pocket money. This handmade play money is also a great way to teach your child math. Use high quality wool blend felt to insure your wool blend money will last through thousands of mini transactions.
8. Felt Starfish Baby Crinkle Toy
Follow this simple tutorial for a fun crinkle starfish toy no baby on land or sea can resist.
9. Tic Tac Toe
The hearts are simple to sew (or at least hard to mess up) and so this makes a great mommy and me sewing craft . And of course you could always substitute the Pink with another color like a bright green like Key Lime Pie or lovely blue like Sparrow if pink isn’t your thing.
10. Felt Ninja Pouch and throwing stars
These felt ninja throwing stars are lightning fast to stitch up and a great way to teach hand sewing your karate kid. A traditional throwing star has a hole in the center making it easy to string on a belt for transport. While you can easily add a hole in the center we think you’ll agree the ninja belt bag creates a far more adorable storage option.
Happy Crafting~ Andie
Avoid the cold and have your toy making supplies delivered.
Meet our newest arrival – Spring Supper Felt Food PDF pattern
Meet our newest arrival, Spring Supper!
I created this felt food pattern with the goal of making it as interactive as possible.
The result is a ham that can be dressed and sliced, potatoes that can be baked, deviled eggs with removable filling, stacking jello salad, and decorative lettuce leaf accents.
This mammoth pattern also features felt steamed asparagus, hot cross buns, a coconut cake, pineapple slices and a simple but impressive felt pan pattern.
This pattern was truly a labor of love and like all proud parents I feel the need to show you a ridiculous amount of pictures.
This adorable little felt ham only measures 5″ x 7″ x 5.5″ to perfectly fit into play ovens and pretend kitchens.
It was based on the vintage style pineapple hams of the 1950’s.
The pint size play ham features slices attached with hook and loop for a fun slicing action.
Pull up a chair and grab a plate.
The felt pineapple slices are attached with colored hook and loop and come off with ease for hours of culinary play.
The scalloped potatoes and asparagus are perfectly portioned for sharing!
Deviled eggs with removable fillings make the perfect pre-dinner appetizer.
Don’t forget the veggies!
Felt Scalloped Potatoes.
Felt asparagus nestled into a felt pan makes a healthy and fun felt side dish.
Felt Jello Tutorial Pattern – Spring Supper – American Felt and Craft
Of course my absolute favorite part of this tutorial e-book is the felt jello salad.
Felt Jello has been on my sewing bucket list for quite some time and I went through at least a dozen prototypes before I was happy but I think it was all worth it.
The felt food jello pieces all stack and can be made from any color of the rainbow.
See more of our latest felt food pattern and save on ALL our PDF patterns this week only!
What is it that makes Jelly Beans so exciting? It could be that every bean is a new taste sensation sure to be delicious (except of course the nasty black jelly beans and the slightly mouthwashy green ones), or their bright colors heralding in spring and warm weather days, maybe it’s because they are only available once a year. No matter what the reason I always feel a little giddy when I see them roll out the first bags of beans at my local stores. What little felt food play store would be complete without a few boxes this Easter?
For this project you will need:
Colored roving: I used both sets in our mini packs (brights and pastels). About 6″ of roving per bean.
Dish soap
9″ x 6″ piece of felt in color you’d like your box, I used honeydew and matching thread
White felt scrap – 1.5″ X 3″
Thin Clear Vinyl– 3x 3 square
Cross stitch thread
Sewing and embroidery needles
Scissors
Rattle insert (optional)
Templates at the end of this post.
Making the beans:
You will need to make your jelly beans and allow them to dry before the next few steps, fortunately the jelly beans dry quickly (an hour or two) and if you have some little ones around you can easily whip up a whole slew of beans in less than an hour.
To make these jelly beans you will need to wet felt them, ok breathe…don’t panic, it’s easy I swear! How easy, allow my adorable 4-year-old daughter to demonstrate:
Here is a more detailed run down.
Step 1:
Pull off the amount of roving you need from the rest (about 6″ long ). Pull into a thin strand. Starting at one end roll upwards (it may help to have slightly damp fingers) wrap around and over to create a ball shape.
Your felted piece will be approximately 50% smaller than this so you want your roving ball to be about the size of a large gum ball or quarter.
Step 2:
Once you have a reasonable facsimile of a ball shape you will need to begin the felting process. This is done by agitating and shocking your wool. If you have ever been a teenager you should be well versed in shocking and agitating. Begin by gently dunking your ball into a bowl of warm water add a small drop (almost a half a drop) of hand dish washing liquid to the top of your ball. Gently move the ball from one hand to another squishing it ever so slightly. Dunk in cool water and squish and then warm water. Lightly rub the wool so the wool catches on itself.
DO NOT roll between your hands yet, if you do this the fibers will come apart and you will end up with a very unsightly shape. Continue cradle and lightly squish your soon to be jelly bean from one hand to another for about 30 seconds to 1 minute better to overdo than underdo. You will need to be gentle to prevent your roving from coming apart, my daughter likes to pretend that the ball is an egg. I think that’s a good way of thinking about the level of stress you want to put on your piece at this point.
Step 3:
There! You’ve finished the hard part now to finish the jelly beans. making by rolling in between your hands moving the piece from warm to cool water to help shock the wool into place. You should begin to feel your piece firming up. While it still has some give to it roll between your palms in one direction to create more of an oval shape.
Step 4:
From here you want to manipulate into a bean shape you can do this many different ways. Working it so that one end is thinner than the other, by thinning out the middle or by pressing a finger into the center while pulling the ends upwards. Experiment and see which method works best for you.
Lay out to dry and repeat as desired.
Making the Jelly Bean Box
Step 1:
Cut out template pieces
Cut 2 of each A, B and C from the color felt you have chosen for your box.
Cut the jelly bean shape out of only 1 of your A pieces.
Step 2:
Place your vinyl piece over the window area and stitch down using a running stitch.
Step 3:
Trace out the letters for Jelly Beans onto your white felt scrap insuring that they will fit on the front of your finished box. Using cross stitching thread and whatever style stitch you like , stitch the letters into place.
Cut around the letters to create a more fun feel.
Stitch label into place.
Step 4:
Assemble the box by adding one side piece (B) to the side of your completed front and overcast stitch up the side.
Continue with the other side piece.
Add back to the box by stitching side pieces (B) to back (A).
Stand box on it’s head and stitch the bottom piece (C) in place using the overcast stitch.
‘Before continuing you will need to decide if you plan on having an open jelly bean box or a closed one.
If you plan on using a rattle insert place, box front side down and add your jelly beans until nearly full, slip the rattle into the back so it isn’t visible and adjust jelly beans if needed. Place box right side up again and add top the same way you added the bottom.
To make an open box start attaching your top from where you want the opening to begin, stitch around until you reach the matching point on the other side. Continue your overcast stitch around the unfinished edges to create more of a polished look. Enjoy!
Templates
Copyright American Felt and Craft for personal use only.
Don’t forget our great Easter collection pattern available now for a limited time only!
What’s more fun than play veggies ready for slicing?
Besides a barrel of monkeys, which actually just sound dirty and loud to me but to each his own I guess… where was I… oh yeah veggies.
Here as promised is the felt carrot tutorial. You can do this with any felt food you’d like you’ll just need to modify the pattern by cutting it into smaller pieces and creating a Hook and Loop or Velcro inside. American Felt and Craft now stocks 16 diffrent colors to match with nearly anything you can dream up.
Keep in mind that most quality Velcro (aka hook and loop) is very strong so for the sake of your pieces posterity I would recommend “cutting” pieces apart with a plastic, wooden, or even felt knife rather than pulling on them. The little blue knife from Ikea pictured above is perfect for this.
For this project you will need:
1 sheet Sweet Potato, or orange colored felt (will make 2 carrots)
1 sheet Fresh Cut Grass or dark green felt (will make 2 carrots)
Stuffing, I used 100% wool legacy stuffing but any stuffing will do
1 6 inch strip of colored hook and loop in Fresh Squeezed. (will make 2 carrots with quite a bit left over.)
Roll stem up stem piece and stitch up as shown, stitching can be done with any color thread, it won’t show.
Step 3
Cut Hook and Loop (aka Velcro) into small circles, obviously you won’t be using this color.
Step 4.
Match up rounds you have cut out, you should have two of each place scratchy side (hook) onto one of the pieces and soft side (loop) to matching piece, stitch into place as shown. Make sure the right pieces fit together, it will be hard to correct later.
Step 5. Sew up sides of rings using a running stitch as shown below, turn inside out so seam doesn’t show
Step 6.
Sew bottom to slice A, the dot represents Hook and Loop (Velcro).
Depending on how far in you made your seam on each carrot ring the bottom and top circles may need to be trimmed a bit to fit properly.
Step 7
Set up like a cup and gather stitch around and lightly stuff.
Step 8.
Place stem into carrot and pull gather stitches tightly, pass needle through the stem a few times to hold it into place, the top is done.
Step 9
Sew tops and bottoms on to remaining rings as specified above. Stick Hook and Loop (Velcro) sides together and Viola! A felt carrot!
OPTIONAL: To create, carrot “dents” make a large running stitch in side of finished slice, Hiding knot in the seam. Come up through top seam, pull tightly and knot. Repeat as desired.
Please let us know if you like the felt carrot pattern. We would love to see finished pictures!
Enjoy and please remember this pattern is for personal use only!
9. Tic Tac Toe
10. Felt Ninja Pouch and throwing stars
Your felted piece will be approximately 50% smaller than this so you want your roving ball to be about the size of a large gum ball or quarter.
Step 6.
Step 8.
Step 9
~American Felt & Craft ~ Blog 