Over the years sewing with felt and comforting embroidery cottons has proved a hit with my girls again and again. This quick purse was made up from scraps of acrylic felt and oddments from a craft pack and was really easy to put together but a very pleasing finished product.
You will need:
Felt; our scrap was half an A4 piece cut lengthwise
Cotton, a needle and scissors
A large button, scraps of ribbon & felt or foam scraps for leaves.
Glue.
To make:
- Fold your strip of felt so the pocket end is roughly double the depth of the flap (2/5 front of pocket, 2/5 back of pocket, 1/5 flap). Pop a pin in the middle of the doubled over layer to hold it together.
- Using blanket stitch start at the bottom corner of your pocket and stitch the front and back side of the pocket together, keep blanket stitching around the flap as a decorative edge and then go back down the other doubled side of the pocket. Make sure you hide your knots inside the pocket to look neat.
- We decorated the front of the pocket with sticky foam flower stems and leaves but you could glue or stitch on felt versions just as easily Sew a button at the top of the stem; this will be the fastening and the centre of the decorative flower.
- Cut a button hold in the flap, making sure it lines up with the button underneath. You can blanket stitch or over-stitch around this as strengthening if you wish.
- Stick short lengths of ribbon around the button hole a petals. Make sure the inner ends of the ribbon will be covered by the button when it is through the hole.
Once you’ve got the basic idea you can add loops on the back for attaching it to a belt, or a strap and make it in any size you like and with any design. As projects go for little people who enjoy making but need to use fairly simple skills and have a finished product quickly, it is ideal. If blanket stitch is too hard overstitch looks nearly as good and even a simple saddle stitch will work.