Fun With Felt Pt. 3

 This is the third installment of my fun with felt series. We've already done felt food and felt play-mats. I was inspired for this next project because my sister in law, after seeing my own kids' Halloween costumes this year, jokingly asked me to make one for her 18 month old son. I don't think she expected that I really would! But once she told me he was going out dressed as a doctor, I had so many fun ideas running through my head, and I couldn't resist whipping something up.

Materials Needed:

• half yard of white felt materials from the bolt, not the little squares.
• scraps of other felt colors to make the Dr. tool accessories. You'll have plenty of white felt materials left over from your vest to make the pockets and Dr. accessories that need white.

First, cut out your vest using this tutorial here on danamadeit.com This is my go to vest for all things dress up. There are SO MANY variations to this vest (so far I've made a vest for Woody the Cowboy, a pirate, and now a doctor)  and it's so simple to make.

Once you have your vest pieces cut out, don't sew them together yet. First, add the dr. details. At the end I'll tell you the exact order and how I assembled my vest.

The hardest part of this project was getting the tools proportioned to the vest and to look good. I was inspired by this pin from the storytimekatie website. However, she said when she made the Dr tools she just printed out clip art images. I had a really hard time finding images that would work for what I wanted/needed so I just freehand drew my own. But the good news is, you don't have to! Drawing and erasing and redrawing took a lot of work, so I made sure to save my patterns. All you need to do is print the patterns out on a regular-sized piece of printer paper.

Click HERE to get the pattern

The easiest way to make your dr. accessories is to print them on paper or cardstock, cut them out and then pin them to your material and cut them out using a good pair of sewing scissors. The reflex hammer-thing (what is that thing actually called?) is two pieces. I just sewed the grey part over the top of the blue part. The eyelight is one piece of black felt with a tiny circle cut out of white felt. The band-aid is flesh colored felt, a square of white felt and a red felt heart on top. I secured the white pad and red heart to the "band aid" separately before I sewed the entire thing to the vest.

 I didn't include the cross with my pattern, but you can print out or draw a plus sign on a piece of paper and use that. For the medicine bottle, I cut out the entire bottle on white felt then cut out just the lid on gray and sewed it on. then cut out just the bottle shape on pink and sewed it on. The thermometer is all on white and I used red and black markers to add the details.

 The stethoscope was tricky. It's 3 pieces. I sewed the back piece on first. then I lined up the two side pieces so it would look like all one piece. I cut the entire stethoscope out using black felt. I sewed the grey circle over the black one for the little pump. For the ear pieces, I cut just the U shape out in gray, then I actually trimmed the black U shape down so I could lay the black piece on top of the gray U. I hope that makes sense. The gray U shape kind of comes over the middle of vest, so I hand sewed just the "ear pieces" in place.

Tips for assembling the vest:

• Sew the back piece of stethoscope first. Then line up the two side pieces and pin in place so it looks like one piece. sew the two side stethoscope pieces in place.
• Sew the red cross on the back
• sew the red cross on the front
• pin all your dr. accessories (except the band aid) in place. Sew them.
• cut your pockets to the size you want. Place them over the accessories and pin and sew pockets in place (leave the top of the pockets open)
• Pin and sew the band-aid in place.
• Sew your vest together. Don't forget to sew it right sides together so your shoulder and side seams are hidden!

It's always fun to see an idea become a reality. I thought this vest turned out really cute and I sure hope my little nephew loves it. Don't forget to visit my etsy shop to see if anything catches your eye. Thanks for stopping by!

Confessions of a Wannabe Seamstress: Fun with Felt (pt. 1)

I know it's March, so if you're looking for some St. Patrick's Day printables, click HERE

My six and three year old have very active imaginations and love to play pretend. Pretend cooking, pretend picnics...I love to listen to them as they play together and come up with little stories to act out. I considered buying some plastic kitchen food, but then had a thought of a clarity: 1) it's overpriced and 2) I could just imagine one of them hitting the other with a plastic turkey leg. So I turned to a less expensive, quieter, and less injury inducing alternative. I turned to pinterest to gather my ideas. And while there were tons of pictures of felt food people had made, I had a harder time finding patterns or instructions. I finally decided to make my own patterns and to just go for it...learning along the way.

Please note that this was my first time creating my own patterns, and I learned a lot! I will do my best to impart my wisdom (if any) that I gained and I'm sorry if parts of this tutorial are confusing.

To make the felt food, I took a trip to Joanne's Craft Store to buy sheets of felt. They are usually about .50 or less per sheet.

Apple: this is not my pattern. I found this pattern and used it. It was simple and the apple turned out so cute!

NOTE: To print all patterns, you'll want to print them horizontal (landscape) and make sure they fill up the entire page of a regular printer sheet of paper.

For the apple pattern, click HERE

In an effort to save paper, I tried to fit as many shapes onto a standard white piece of printer paper.

Egg, Carrot and Cookie: When it says x2 that means I cut out two of that shape. I stuffed the carrots and cookies (sewing together wrong side out, left a space for stuffing, turned right side out, stuffed and then hand sewed closed) and for the egg, I just laid two pieces of white felt on top of each other and sewed around the edges. I liked doing this because I felt like it really reinforced the egg and made it more durable instead of floppy. You'll see I do this for several other food items.

For egg, carrot, cookie pattern, click HERE

I kind of deviated from the pattern a little bit to make my carrots a little smaller. The opening at the top is where I left it open so I could add stuffing. Then I just added some strips of green and sewed the opening closed.

 I cut the egg yolk out, added a tiny bit of stuffing and sewed it with my machine after I had already sewed the two white pieces together.

 I was going to hand sew the "chocolate chips" on and then decided I was way too lazy and that my kids wouldn't care, so I hot glued them instead!

Pizza and Hamburger: Here's where it gets a little confusing, so please bear with me!

Pizza: I only cut out one of the crust, not two. I did this because I figured I was already sewing so many other layers, two crust layers wasn't really needed--and I was right. The pizza turned out plenty stiff. Also, my pizza is about the size of a "personal pan pizza". So if you want a regular sized pizza you'll obviously need to cut your circles bigger. There are also two different versions of the lettuce for the hamburger. I ended up liking the top one better.

For this pattern, click HERE

The pizza cheese circle ended up being way too small. Instead, I used the circle for the sauce and then took my scissors to cut around it again making wavy lines to look like melted cheese. So cut out TWO pizza sauce circles: One on red felt for the actual sauce. The second one on white felt for the cheese.

For the pizza pattern, click HERE
 The size of the pizza is like a personal pan pizza. I arranged all my pizza pieces how I wanted them and then cut the pizza into fourths. Taking each section at a time, I sewed the three layers together (crust, sauce, cheese). Then, like the cookies, I just hot glued the pepperonis and mushrooms. (I really hate hand-sewing, can you tell?)

 Hamburger: The lettuce, cheese, and tomato were pretty simple--I cut two of each shape out of the felt and just sewed them together--no stuffing. You can tell I did add some detail to my cheese.

I realized the size of the bun and patty were way too disproportionate-- especially once you factor in that I stuffed these (turning them right side out) and that makes them even smaller! So instead, I used the PIZZA SAUCE circles for the bun--cut out two of those for each bun (so 4 total). Sew around the edges of two circles, leaving an opening. Turn right side out and then stuff. Hand sew the opening closed. It makes the bun the perfect size. Repeat again for the other bun. For the patty, I used the HAMBURGER BUN circle. (are you confused yet?) Cut out two circles, sew around edges leaving an opening. Turn right side out, stuff, and hand sew it closed. Guess how I applied the black grill marks? That's right, hot glue!!

For the hamburger pattern, click HERE

 And that, my friends, is my first round of felt food! There are so many more cute ideas out there, I can't wait to make more.

And stay tuned for part two in this felt tutorial--up next I'm going to show you how to make a cute farm play mat that folds for easy carry in a diaper bag or church bag. I'm a little felt obsessed!