Strawberries- too cute to eat

and they are made of felt. 


Yesterday I posted a teaser called That Fat little thing. It links to some of my favorite felt food websites.

Helping Little Hands has a great tutorial for that classic strawberry.



But like people... not all strawberries are perfectly shaped. Some have more curves to them.

I felt there was some lacking in the felt strawberry realm. I searched many blogs and found only the cute perfect strawberry tutorials. Well something had to be done!

So here it is... 
[I like tutorials with lots of pictures when I do crafts, so mine has lots of pictures]



Start by gathering your supplies

  • Sheets of felt    they were only 29 cents at my local craft store
  • Floss thread     you can use beige like me or black...you decide!
  • Scissors     and no I didnt use these... you need a good pair!
  • Pencil
  • Circle to trace     larger the circle, larger the berry
  • Thread   I didnt have red, so i used orange. Worked just fine, but you would want a green
  • 3 needles     that is my preference but 2 or less works if you want to rethread your needle over and over again
  • Scraps or stuffing     a great idea for scraps from Helping Little Hands mentioned above

On to the steps:

1.     Cut out your red circles from the felt. It is okay if the full circle doesnt fit. The perfect circles can be used for perfect berries and the wonky circles make our fat strawberries!


2.    Fold a wonky circle in half, matching up the curves. Cut at an angle and then cut triangles out.

[2.75 When sewing with felt I double the tread and knot it. So the knot doesnt pull through the felt I put the needle through the doubled thread. Almost creating a locking stitch.]


3.     Then sew, using a running stitch (I hand sew, you could machine it). Follow the yellow line. DO NOT cut the thread when done. Start at the arrow, finish at the circle.

Then flip your berry inside right so your seam is hidden.

Note: There are two ways to sew on the seeds that I will show. They look more natural if all seeds fun up and down the strawberry.

4.    I split the floss from being 6 threads thick to being 3. Threaded my needle, single thick and knotted the end. Start from the inside, so the tail is hidden. The arrow is where you sew back in, that is how you decide the direction and size of your seed. The circle is where you next seed will be located. Be careful not to go through both sides of the strawberry. It will look funky inside when your done.



5.     Stuff with scraps or your choice of filling.

[do you recognize those scraps? they are left over from the fortune cookies!]

6.    Pinch the top together and close with a basting stitch...long running stitch really.
Carefully pull the thread to close the berry. 


Sew in an X fashion to close securely. Cut Thread.

I then set my berry aside to do a second type of berry

2b.    Fold the wonky circle to have the curves match. Cut off a small piece. The fold and the flat side become  the sides of the berry.

3b.     Then sew, using a running stitch. Follow the yellow line. DO NOT cut the thread when done. Start at the arrow, finish at the circle.


4b.    Stuff the berry and close it the same way the previous berry was closed.

5b.     Now that the berry is closed. We will sew on the seeds. Start from the top so the tail can either go into the berry or be covered by the stem. The basics of how the seed is formed is the same.
This is my preferred method.

Now that you have two stuffed and seeded berries we need stems! I tried out a few different ones. The overlapping one is my favorite.


8.    Cut your green felt into a strip. Then decide how wide you want your leaf to be and cut it again. You fold it in half and then you cut starting at the fold to make an upside down horseshoe shape.

9.     Using your green thread (again I double it) Sew the overlapped leaves onto the top of the strawberry. I use many stitches to make sure it is secure. I then finish it off under the stem like a button but going round and round under the stem and then knotting the thread to itself.
did anyone else's grandma/mom teach them to finish a button like that?

Now you are done... Lots of pictures... but really only 9 steps! 

Let me know if you have any questions or if something isnt clear

Would love to see pictures of how yours turn out!




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