Category Archives: Felt Projects

Daiso DIY Felt Bear Tutorial

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It’s been awhile since I’ve done any craft work, so a quick visit to Daiso set me up for a few felt projects. As it turned out, Daiso has moved on from food felt DIY Kits to animal related ones (well, just an FYI).

So I got a few animal ones, so let’s start with this orange bear in cute green shorts!

Daiso Felt Bear

This kit comes with templates and all the required materials. What you’d need to get on the side is some craft glue, pins and a needle.

felt bear materials

felt bear template

Of course the most important part of this DIY pack is the set of instructions. Even though it’s in Japanese, it’s pictorial enough for you to understand without a hint of the language.

felt bear instructions

So let’s get down to it!

The first thing you’d need to do is cut out the shapes provided in the template.

felt template cut out

After which, you can cut out the felt, based on the templated shapes. Remember that you’d need to cut 2 pieces for some parts. This was not stated clearly in the pictorial set of instruction.

felt bear cut outs

Start by sewing the two pieces for the head together, leaving a slot for you to insert the wool in.

felt project wool

Next, sew the “nose” and “mouth” on the white felt and use the craft glue to stick it. Then,paste the provided stickers for the eyes and rosy cheeks. Lastly, paste the pair of ears to the back of the head. And there you have it – a ready head!

felt bear head

Next we work on his torso, followed by his cute shorts. This is the cutest part of this project because these are actual “shorts”! As in you’d need to put his legs through the leg holes kind of actual!

felt bear shorts

HOW CUTE IS THAT?? Very, very cute :)

So next, finish up with the arms (sew the pieces together to make 2 arms, and stuff with wool) and then you’d have this:

felt bear almost done

What you gotta do now is sew them all together. The torso goes to the back of the head. You can use craft glue if you want it to be more secure, but I didn’t. I just made a few extra stitches to hold it together. Same goes with the arms. I improvised a little with the left arm, lol.

So here’s the finished product:

completed felt bear

Hope you’ve enjoyed this mini tutorial, and have fun with your very own felt bear!

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an imperfect felt bear

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felt bear

With all the mini felt food projects I’ve been doing, I was itching to try something else.

So I attempted to make a bear. This may sound like just another project if I am a seasoned seamstress. But I’m not. Fact is, I have never sewn a bear in my life and it is precisely because of that, that I did it. I love figuring things out when I have absolutely no idea on how to do them.

I got the template from Martha Stewart’s website (I know, how domesticated is that? but her craft ideas are hard to resist). It was originally supposed to be a bear with a pocket for children to put their baby teeth (so that the tooth fairy can take the teeth and replace them with money).

tooth-bearimage taken from marthastewart.com

And on the pocket was supposed to be a name and an outline of a tooth.

But of course I modified it. I don’t need a tooth bear.

So I started working on it after some crazy shopping for felt and other bits and pieces at Daiso.

felt-bear-cut-out

First I had to cut out the outline of the bear template. My first time cutting out my own felt pieces (previously it was all pre-cut for me, all in one package, remember?)

It felt and looked like some sick acupuncture session for the paper bear, but nevermind. So I then cut the second piece. I decided to make it’s back polka dotted mainly because I was in love with the polka dotted pink and white felt I found at Daiso.

felt-on-felt

(the polka dotted felt is white on its reverse side)

The most challenging part for this project, in my opinion is the fake “pocket”. Because I had entirely no idea on how to 1) make the bear’s nose and mouth and 2) to sew letters.

And the fact that I chose to make an embroidered heart with the letters LOVE on it was complicated enough, but somehow I managed to figure it out.

felt bear close up

The eyes were basically french knots (which I have by the way perfected, based on an unfinished food project involving strawberries) -> simple enough. The nose was done with satin stitches -> which I had to research through Google and Youtube on how to make it. Mouth was just an extension of the nose.

So. For the fake “pocket”, I decided to do a heart. So I drew a heart on the felt with a pencil, and sewed running stitches for the outline, and applied the newly learned satin stitch to fill up the heart outline. Heh heh, talk about being a fast learner. I guess the heart turned out decent enough.

For the words, it was a scribble and then I just stitched my way thru.

polka dotted felt bear

So then it was time to sew the two pieces of felt together. In the intructions, it says to use a whip stitch. I had no idea what that is and so did some research, again on Google and Youtube. Tried to follow but everything got tangled up. Gave up, took a shower and finally realised that it is something similar to overcast stitches.

Did a research on whether overcast stitches is the same as whip stitches. And voila! Whip stitches are actually overcast stitches but it it only called whip stitches when sewing 2 or more layers of cloth together.

Pissing off and time wasting. Not that I knew that it was practically overcast stitches, I was back on the ball and happily stitched up the border of the bear.

Confession: I stuffed my bear with white knitting yarn. Because Daiso ran out of cotton stuffing. So I improvised. Nobody can tell the difference anyway. And I love the rainbow bow that I added as a touch up. Nice touch! (If I may say so myself) :)

It may not be the tidiest piece of work ever, it may have imperfect stitches but to me, this bear is an accomplishment on its own. After I was done with it, I could hardly believe that I had actually made a stuffed bear from scratch. It was such a rewarding feeling.

Next thing to try out would be knitting! But that would be another story altogether.

felt-bear-at-work bear with cacti

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Strawberry Tart with Chocolate Wafer, anyone?

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strawberry tart with chocolate wafer

Number 3 of Training Wheel Projects accomplished. One more to go.

The last one will be chocolate pieces, hehe. And then, I’m off to the real world of felt projects.

This one was pretty easy to make, just that I thought I got stuck. I did a running stitch for the tart base and tried to pull them to make the ridges in the base. But every time I did it, the thread snapped and I was scared half to death that I would cut my finger.

So I stopped for a few days. And today I looked into it again. And realised that for that particular step, I should have used 2 strands of thread instead of just one.

No wonder the thread kept snapping!

Anyways, I really love this piece – the strawberry looks so pretty with the green leaf on top of it, and the wafer is just the right touch this tart needs.

<3!

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I “baked” pretty donuts

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felt donuts

My second attempt at felt projects, using pre-cut felt pieces. I’m still on practice mode as far as felt projects go.

This one was pretty simple and took a very short time to complete.

When I saw the sample picture of this project, I thought I had to do plenty of french knots for the “sprinkles” on the colourful donut. But when I opened the package, I found out that those were seed beads. And I had to sew the beads on to the felt. Nice!

I love the donut with sprinkles. Simply because in real life, I would have chosen it rather than the other one because it’s prettier and doesnt have nuts.

The only thing that bothered me abt these donuts is how thin they are. Donuts are supposed to be thick and puffy. These look more like cookies, lol.

But the thing is, everything was pre-cut and there’s only so much cotton i can stuff in.

So perhaps it’s supposed to look like this after all.

Can’t wait to get off these “training wheels” (read: the pre-cut felt project kits) and move on to proper felt projects :)

Gotta start using all those craft books I splurged on, you know?

a new hobby needs reference books right?

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craft felt food books

Today I spent $80 on 5 craft books for felt food projects.

It’s like so irresistible when you sort of know how to do it, and you get excited when you recognize something you have learnt how to do. (“ohhh i know how to do this part! it’s using reverse stitching!” – looking at books that are purely in Chinese/Japanese.)

Just that the difference between the projects in these books (adorable much, but no spoilers mainly because I’m lazy to flip and shoot photos) and the fruit tart I made yesterday is that I have to get my own felt and cut them out, based on templates.

But should be lotsa fun! :) So much to explore, and so many adorable food to create, hehe.

But before I get to that stage, I shall practice more on projects with pre-cut pieces and english instruction. I reckon 4 more of such projects should get me prepped up for the next level.

mini felt projects

I really cant wait to make them! Especially the one with the strawberry and chocolate wafer on it. Adorabable much? :P

It feels damn nice to have a hobby so enjoyable. Too bad you cant have the cake and eat it too!

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who knew $2 = so much fun?

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I think I might have a new hobby. And it involves needle and thread. Given my thread record with sewing projects, it was an amazing wonder that I completed this one at all.

completed fruit tart

I spent the entire day today working on this little gem. Pretty isn’t it? It’s imperfect, as far as I can tell. But to me, it is equivalent to an entire day’s effort. And I don’t care if the stitches are untidy or ugly. They are untidy and ugly because sewing is never my forte. But it will get better with more time and practice.

I love my whip cream lol. It looks awesome. So out of the point, but it’s true! :)

fruit tart packet

I was craving for a creative project. I had been on a dry spell; haven’t done anything close to creative and I was getting worried for myself. I was worried I was getting stupid (lol) because I have this belief that writing and craft works makes you smarter. And since I haven’t been writing either (I know, sad sad!), I knew I was gonna be in deep shit if I didn’t find something worthwhile to do.

So a trip to Daiso last Saturday found me this little packet of happiness. And I only had the time and enthusiasm to start on it today. Was so so excited, lol.

sewing materials

I went to get some materials that I didn’t have (mainly fabric glue, pins and needles) before I started on it. As you can see, the fabrics were already pre-cut for me so it was not exactly rocket science. But still! There were some stitches I had absolutely no idea how to do despite the diagrams within the instructions.

Such as.. french knots and reverse stitching. *lost*

So I consulted Youtube for some advice. Viewed a few demos and thankfully because I am such a visual person, I managed to emulate the methods. My strawberries, which needed french knots are partially powered by youtube. The whipped cream was fully powered by youtube -> reverse stitching here!

cake base with strawberry

This was strawberry number 1. It pissed me off coz it looked weird coz the french knots were all over and i didnt know how to close up the gap after stuffing the cotton it it. Then i re-read the instructions and found out that i had to stitch first then stuff the cotton in.

Oh. Okay.

But the second strawberry took a much lesser time to achieve. Maybe this is what they call practice makes perfect. I’m nowhere near perfection but hey it got better.

And if you see on the dark brown felt, I used a white thread for the overcast stitches (talking like a pro now). It was only when I’ve glued everything nicely that I realized that I should have used the brown thread. There I was wondering why I had a brown thread lying around for the duration of the project.

But anyway, if I didn’t tell you that, you wouldn’t know anyway :)

felt cake base

I spent close to 6 hours working on this project. And as tiring as it was, it was still worth the time. I learned all abt new stitches, which I never knew before. I managed to complete a sewing project (first time ever!) and I now have a pretty fruit pie to look at.

Did I mention that it is also a magnet? It is! I made a magnet today!

/dances.

I am so easily pleased.

And now, I wanna raid Daiso for more felt food projects. And after I am stabilized, I can try on bigger projects.

But that’s another story. :)

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