a mini felt tea cup tutorial

My daughter has started serving me tea in little tea cups. Since she doesn't have any real cups she uses duplo blocks. Yesterday I had my box of felt out and decided it was time for some "real" tea cups. 

Here is a mini tutorial of how I made them.

Step 1: Draw a tea cup shape, cut it out and use it as a template to cut out four felt tea cups, two in white and two in the colour you want for the outside of the cup.

Step 2: Decide on how you want to decorate the tea cup, cut out felt embellishments and choose embroidery floss colours.

Step 3: Embroider a design on one of the outside tea cups. I had an idea in mind but find it easier to decide on the design as I embroider, adding leaves and beads as I go, and little embellishments until if feels balanced.

Step 4: Using blanket stitch, first stitch the tops of the tea cups together, so that you have two pieces with white on the inside and green on the outside, then continue blanket stitching around the rest of the tea cup, this time stitching all four layers together. This will give you a tea cup that is open at the top. 

I wanted my tea cup to be able to lie flat, but if you want it to stand up, try adding an oval at the base.

Make a few and have a tea party!

ps. do you like this tutorial? See more of my tutorials here. 

felt hair clip

Just after Christmas I started sketching ideas for more little things to make with felt. I came up with this little sketch of a cherry blossom and a leaf, thinking of making it into a little felt hair clip. Now I finally put it together. This is a rough draft, I want to refine it a bit, and then maybe make a pattern / tutorial.

christmas tree

On the weekend we put up our christmas tree. We have it in the bay window which takes up some of the precious light these days, but since the sun goes behind the houses at quarter past three, it doesn't really matter. 

The last three years I've made different kinds of ornaments each year. Last year I knit these baubles, the others will have to be another blog post! This year I made felt ornaments as part of my preparation for teaching a felt craft evening. I love the little dala horse. It was kind of a make-up-as-you-go thing, so I'd like to make another and think it through a bit more.

felt christmas bauble tutorial

I've had a lot of fun the last few weeks playing with felt and creating some felt ornaments in preparation for teaching a craft evening. For those who attended the evening - welcome! - here is a step by step pdf tutorial for the christmas bauble with photos. For anyone else - enjoy the tutorial and I'd love to see what you made.

boe zegt de koe

About a year ago my aunt blogged about this embroidery that she bought second hand and which she then gave me for my birthday.
I finally framed it today and wanted to share the final result:

Can you spot the difference since I got it? (Hint, it says roekoe).

Whoever embroidered this was amazingly neat, just look at the back! I learned a new technique of cross stitch trying to emulate the technique when I stitched the dove. The design is by Dick Bruna.

Lavender

A few weeks ago I harvested some lavender. when it was dry I removed all the dried buds from the stalks and enjoyed the smell for a few days.

Then I made some lavender shortbread. We had the shortbread at our wedding and its delicious. You can find the recipe here. 

I had enough lavender left over to make some lavender sachets: sew two pieces of material together, leave a gap, fill with lavender and close by hand. 

Dollhouse 3

Time for another update on the dollhouse, since the walls are up, the roof is on and the living room is finished.

 

a closeup of the living room. I decided to make it 4pm, time for tea.

 

winter embroidery

This is a design by Marjolein Bastin, one of a series of four of the four seasons. My mother received this as a kit many many years ago and sometimes I would find it at the back of the closet and ask if I could please have it, or if not, at least make it for her. I don't remember when she finally gave in, but it must have been right before I graduated from highschool. This was my first big embroidery project and I started working on it after I first moved to Germany. I loved the colours and the different small details of the design.

The matting was done in the Summer in 2001. Doug had a special ruler and a 45 degree knife for cutting matting and a few of us went to an art store to choose matting. Looking at colors and thinking through different combinations is one of my favorite things.

Two years ago when we were looking for a place for our wedding reception and for a place where guests could spend the night we found a small hotel/bed and breakfast in the middle of the Veluwe. We had been driving and looking at places all day and were pretty discouraged. We walked up to this place wondering if anyone was around and were promptly invited into the dining room and served coffee while the owner went to get his books to talk with us. As we sat there sipping our coffee I saw that the other three seasons were embroidered and hanging on the wall. It ended up being the place where our guests stayed, and I would have liked to as well!

Dollhouse 2

The brick walls are up, I like the difference it makes when the bricks are mortared.

and the trees are planted.

Dollhouse 1

Recently I started another big embroidery project, the dollhouse by pako, the same designer as the four seasons I finished last year. I spent many many hours on gimp colouring in boxes at 400% and choosing colours. I bought the material from a little sewing store in Brummen that is going out of business. I wish it wouldn't, because she has so much dmc embroidery floss! Every month theres another 10% off, and in December it was down to 50%. I had most of the colours and could steal the rest from my mother. Now I've started embroidering, beginning with the foundations of the house (why the joists of a house are blue I'm not quite sure!), and thought I would post updates as I progress. Here are the first two.

kitchen embroidery

this embroidery has been finished for a while. I was inspired by a similar one my mother made and had hanging in her kitchen for many years, colour-matched to look good with her curtains.

embroidery

I finally finished and framed (albeit already a few months ago) this embroidery project by pako - de vier jaargetijden. I got the pattern and kit from Irene for our engagement a year and a half ago. halfway through embroidering I left the pattern in the train (!?) and did the rest looking at the cover picture. It was frustrating, but I'm glad I finished it!