my little mushroom

Crafters love mushrooms don't they? I know I do, and I've been dying to try my hand at making one. So last night I came up with this little toadstool which measures about 1 1/2" tall.

Wanna make one too? It's easy-peasy and quick-as-a-breezy. Promise.

First of all here's pdf file (added: for some reason the pattern lines are really light in the pdf file but when you print it you should be able to see the lines okay) with the pattern pieces and abbreviated instructions. Okay, let's get started!

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.

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.

5) Re-insert the needle into the felt coil to stitch the end closed. Sorry I can't remember what this stitch is called. 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.

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.

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 hand full of polyfill.

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.

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 slighty 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.

11) Apply a dab of hot glue to the exposed cardboard on the cap.

12) Insert the stem onto the glue on the cap at a 90 degree angle and press firmly but gently in place.

13) Use a knitting needle (I used a bamboo skewer) to push any exposed stem edges back into the cap opening.

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.

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 it's own. And that's it! All pau. Easy right?

OPTIONAL) 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.

And I also couldn't resist adding a face.

 

Happy mushroom Monday everyone!

Comments

[Sarah C. (WAstamper on SCS)]

This is SOOO cute!!

[Haylie]

love them both, do you happen to have the pattern for the frog? I want to make one! Thanks!!

[ORIOL Pla Cantons]

Congratulations!

There are a very beautiful creations!!!

See you!

ORIOL enboolas

[ORIOL Pla Cantons]

Congratulations for your creations.

There are a very beautiful things!

See you!

URI enboolas

[Julia Aston]

This is SO sweet! and what a great face you made on her!!! thanks so much for sharing your pattern and instructions!

[Casarth-Bären]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, ich liebe diese kleinen Miniaturen ! Auch ich habe schon kleine Bärchen gemacht !!! Ich hoffe du hast nichts dagegen, wenn ich deinen BLog bei mir verlinke??
Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland von Ines und den Casarth-Bären

[ohthecuteness]

Oh man the face makes it! This is a great tutorial, I'm really into red and white right now and I always love mushrooms, so I think I'm going to have to make one. Thanks!

[rowena]

Glad to be back Myra...but oh da heat!!! Maybe I should make like a frog and jump in the water, but right now the swells are a bit too big for my liking. ;-)

[anastasia]

How sweet! I love it! It's so original, but so one-of-a-kind!

[Patricia]

Thank you! This looks like a great idea for a Christmas ornament!

[zeltha]

omg this is so cute thanks so much for saring you rock

[zeltha]

i just woke up from fainting...

[mollie]

So, my sister and I talked about making mushroom ornaments for our woodland themed Christmas tree this year, and I was about to figure them out on my own. On a whim, I googled felt mushroom, and found yours. Hooray! Just what I needed! (And of course, your stuff is always the cutest anyway...) Thanks!

[Sandra]

That is adorable! I was looking for ideas for things to make for Christmas and found your link from the Handmade Gifts comm at Livejournal. I love crafting mushrooms from clay, will need to try my hand at one of these.

[Jennifer Landron]

Do you know the size of the felts and cardboard circle you used?

[Shannon]

love the face! super cute.

[Jeanene]

they are so pretty, what a sweet and easy tutorial.. thank you so much for putting it together for all of us to learn from. These would be lovely to put into my little boys advent bags this year.

[Nina]

Nice and cute. Thanks for the tutorial, it gives me an inspiration to prepare my daughter's birthday party this year.