Sunday 2 September 2012

Felt Carrot

Carrots anyone?  The latest felt food installment.


Tutorial
Instructions for one carrot (although some of the pictures in this entry show 2 carrots being stitched - it is much faster overall to make more than one carrot at a time).
Finished size approx 16cm long + wool leaves
Materials - orange felt (about 20cm square), green wool, needle, thread, stuffing, sewing machine (optional but faster!)



Mark out the triangle pattern shape onto the orange felt. I used my sewing machine freemotion embroidery setting to then stitch lots of straight 1cm - 3cm lines in dark orange thread randomly over the carrot but you could also hand stitch these on.
free motion sewing the lines on the carrot

Two carrots shown here with sewn lines
Now either cut out, fold right sides together & then stitch the seam to join side A to side B or,
I found it easier to get the carrot point looking better by folding, sewing first & then cutting away from the larger piece of felt (less fiddly at the pointy end I think)
sewing up the first carrot matching side A & side B & cutting once sewn together
Turn carrot right side out & stuff.
Inside out carrot on left.  Right side out carrot on right
Hand stitch a running thread around the carrot top and begin to pull this closed to gather the top.  Before it is too tight add in the leaves.

The Leaves - I used two different coloured wools to make the leaves, wrapping them around my thumb & little finger in a figure of 8 about 4 times before removing and poking one end of the wool into the carrot top.

Poke the wool into the hole at the top & then pull up the gathering thread to close the top.  Reinforce the gather with another line of stitching & stitch through the wool a few times as well to secure in place.
pull up the gathering thread to close the top
Now make a few more to get yourself a bunch of carrots!