How-Tuesday: Make a Felt Mushroom with My Little Mochi

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katiearms

Story by katiearms

Published on May 19, 2009 in Make

Myra Masuda, the brains behind My Little Mochi, knows that crafters love mushrooms. She promises that this cute little guy is easy-peasy and quick-as-a-breezy. Download the pattern and complete project instructions here. Enjoy!

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Materials:

Red and white felt scraps
Scrap of sturdy cardboard
Red and white embroidery Floss
Brown crochet thread or cord
Polyfill stuffing
White acrylic paint
Hot glue gun
Paint brush or stick with a Wide back tip
Ultra fine glitter (optional)

 

Instructions:

1. Transfer and cut out the pattern pieces from white and red felt and cardboard. You will need a large red felt circle, a small cardboard circle and a strip of white felt.

2. Making the stem: Tie a knot at the end of a length of white floss (I used red floss here for illustrative purposes only) and use a needle to string it through the bottom corner of one end of the white felt.

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3. Starting from the end of the felt with the floss, begin rolling the felt into a coil. Make sure to keep the end of the floss outside of the coil.
4. After you’re done rolling the felt into a coil, insert the needle into the middle of the coil and out through the bottom outer corner of the felt strip.
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5. Re-insert the needle into the felt coil to stitch the end closed. After the last stitch, insert the needle back into the coil and out through the center of the coil, and tie a knot at the center to secure it in place. Set the stem on the side.
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6. Making the cap: Tie a knot at the end of a length of red floss (I used white floss here for illustrative purposes only) and sew a running stitch along the edge of the red felt circle. Pull the thread to form a little sack.
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7. Firmly stuff the sack with polyfill. Note: the more polyfill you use, the higher the cap of your mushroom will get. I used all the polyfill shown in the materials photo at the top which was a nice sized handful of polyfill.
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8. Insert the cardboard circle into the sack, over the polyfill. It’s okay if some of the polyfill peeks out the sides, but try your best to keep the polyfill in place with the cardboard circle.
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9. Pull on the red floss again to tighten the red felt over the cardboard leaving a small opening of the cardboard visible. Note: the opening should be slightly smaller than the diameter of the white felt stem coil for a nice tight fit.
10. Use your needle to secure the gathers and tie a knot. Hide the thread end by reinserting the needle into the felt and out through the middle opening. Clip excess thread.
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11. Apply a dab of hot glue to the exposed cardboard on the cap.
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12. Insert the stem onto the glue on the cap at a 90 degree angle and press firmly but gently in place.
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13. Use a knitting needle (I used a bamboo skewer) to push any exposed stem edges back into the cap opening.
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14. The dots: Pour some white acrylic paint onto a paint palette and dab the back end of a wide paint brush handle into the paint. Apply the paint to the top of the stem to form dots. Depending on the type of felt you use and the look you want, you may need to apply two coats of paint for each dot.
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15. If you like, you can add a short length of brown crochet thread or cord to the top center of the cap for a hanger, but it should also be able to stand up on its own. And that’s it! “All pau,” as they say Hawaii. Easy right?
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I sprinkled ultra-fine glitter over the white dots while the paint was still wet for a shimmery effect, which was really hard to photograph, but looks so great in person.
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Thanks to Myra for sharing! Don’t forget to head over to her blog, My Little Mochi for more fun.

More crafty project downloads can be found in our How-Tuesday series on the Etsy blog! And did you know that you can buy Supplies on Etsy?

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