My kids are crazy obsessed with Disney’s new show Doc Mcstuffins.
I like to think it’s because they aspire to be doctors helping out those in need but more than likely it’s because they like toys and singing .
What better way to encourage all of the above than with your own Doc Mcstuffin style stethoscope!
For each Stethoscope you will need:
1 plastic headband (look for fabric wrapped ones without the little teeth along the top the headbands pictured are from Dollar Tree in a package of 3)
2 feet of ribbon (I doubled it over to glue it but if you are willing to sew you can get away with 1 foot). Shorten if needed to insure ribbon can’t be wrapped around the child’s neck.
*All felt wool or wool blend, acrylic lacks the thickness so measurements may be off and hot gluing acrylic is a recipe for burns
Attach heart to small bandage center and bandage center to bandage. Finish with french knots if desired.
Attach bandage to one of the stethoscope circles and set aside.
Loop Ribbon over headband.
Glue ribbon together with felt or hot glue (you can also sew it)
Attach the back of the stethoscope (the piece without the bandage)
Place stethoscope top (the side with the bandage) on top of the back and stitch where the ribbon meets with a running stitch and continue with an overcast stitch.
Slip in large squeaker and whip stitch closed.
Wrap end of headband with felt strip and hot glue. Make sure to use glue along entire strip to felt can’t come loose.
Finish by placing glue in center and gently pinching to seal off the headband end.
When finished the ends should be large enough to fit over ears like ear muffs and should not fit in the ear canal at all, add more felt if needed to accomplish this.
The Doc is In!
May not suitable for younger kids
Happy Crafting
~Andie
See our full line of Felt & craft supplies at American Felt & Craft.
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!
It’s inevitable that once your child collects enough felt food he or she will want to make an imaginary store or restaurant. Since no little grocer or waiter wants to work for free little shoppers will need to cough up some cash and what better way to pay for felt food than felt money. This is also a great way to teach your child math by helping them to make change for their purchases and you can be sure your wool blend money will last through thousands of mini transactions.
This pattern is super easy to follow for every 10 bills you will need:
1 sheet Cilantro colored wool blend felt
2 sheets Buttercream colored wool blend felt
1-2 sheets Fresh Cut Grass colored wool blend felt depending of the size and amount of numbers you are making
Cream thread, green thread, and or felt glue.
First cut your Cilantro or money colored felt into ten bills. Since our felt is sold in 9″ x 12″ pieces just cut as shown into a little larger than 2″ x 4.5″ inch pieces.
Or if your cutting from yardage use this template
Next you will need to cut 2 buttercream circles for EACH bill so if your only making 4 bills you will need 8 circles, for 10, 20 circles and so on. Each circle is about 2″ in diameter.
Circle Template:
Lastly you will need to cut numbers in whatever denomination you like from the Fresh cut grass, or darker green color, don’t forget little circles for the inside of the 0’s. For each bill you will need a set (2) of matching numbers.
Step 1 : Sew numbers to circle as shown,using green thread to match your numbers you’ll obviously want to do these in matching sets. You may want to use felt glue to speed things along. Felt glue is wonderful and your numbers will stay on indefinitely however your bills may be a little stiff. I like the homespun look of sewing but if time is of the essence nothing is faster than felt glue.
Step 2: Pin circles to both side of the money making sure your numbers match, for clarity I have left off the number in the example picture.
Step 3: Stitch around the circle using cream colored thread and a running stitch, watch to make sure that each stroke looks nice from both sides. Finish hiding your knot along the ridge of your circle. Again I have left the numbers off the example for clarity.
And VIOLA! Felt money…if only making real money were this easy!
Enjoy and please remember our patterns are for personal use 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!
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 