Red and White Felt Toadstools - 50 Christmas makes - 15/50

More felt work today, this was inspired by a toadstool brooch I made a couple of years ago, I am glad to say that the brooch is still going strong and I regularly receive nice comments when I wear it.  This was the original inspiration for my brooch

I made a template by drawing the toadstool shape on an old cereal box and played around with it until I got a shape that I was happy with. I then traced round the top that is going to be the red part and made a second template - this needs to be a little bit larger than the base as it sits over the top.

Cut two red heads and two white head and body.  I cut out double layer of felt so that I could be sure that both sides would be identical.

You can cut out small holes in the red heads to allow the white to show through or use very small white buttons as I have done.  These were a bit of an e-bay mistake so I love that I have found a nice way to use some of them. Check that you are sewing the second lot of buttons onto the correct side otherwise you will need to remove them and start again (cough cough ooops).

Sew in a loop of ribbon to the middle of one of the white "heads" this will be used to hang the finished item on the tree, this sewing is not visible in the finished item.

Sew the two white pieces together sandwiching the ribbon into the middle. Pop the red head over the top and sew around the sides.

I chose not to add any stuffing to this as I felt that 4 layers of fabric gave it enough body.

I was looking for a template to help you with this when  I found this (page 48/49) and it involves buttons so I was quickly sold it.  There are a raft of other ideas for Christmas makes, I wish I had found it sooner, I could have just followed some of their instructions instead of fumbling through making things up as I go along!

So another one off the list, making it 15 out of my 50 makes for Christmas.

Another "photoshoot" using the battered olive tree, I am really selling myself the idea of dressing it up for Christmas.

Good news on the weather front, it looks like we are getting another burst of sunshine before mother nature rolls over into autumn.  This is great news for us as we are off to the Goodwood Revival at the weekend, we have been for the past two years and on each occasion we have been blessed with perfect summer days, fingers crossed we are lucky again.

Have you got any outings planned for the weekend or will you be sitting at home being creative?