This weekend, my sixth-grader made an utterly enchanting Wind in the Willows diorama, jamming a whole delightful world into a tiny 9×6″ box. Since Thursday night, our kitchen table has been host to a glorious assortment of cereal boxes, cotton balls, glue, thread, acrylic paint, and a whole lot of happiness.
A few years ago, Scandinavian-American blogger Linnea wrote a lovely overview of the Swedish holiday known as St. Lucia Day, and she’s back today with a tutorial for the most darling little felt lussekatter (Swedish saffron bun) toys! When Aveline was the same age as Linnea’s adorable little, projects like this were very popular in our house. The supplies needed are so minimal — felt, needle and thread, polyfill — but just look at how captivated babies are with the final product! Beyond cute.
I’m so excited to have had a little girl of my own to be a Lucia in our home! I’ve always thought that felt play food is so darling and fun, so this year I made some felt Lucia buns for her to play with.
I got a few sheets of the golden felt at Michaels, it is a perfect color. Other things you need are thread, embroidery floss in a matching color, and some batting to stuff the insides. If your Lucia is older you could put some dark beads or buttons on to be raisins (they are a bit of a choking hazard for my little Lucia, though!)
Start with a piece 3″x9″. My felt sheets were 9″x12″, so I could get 4 buns from each sheet.
Fold the piece in half and pin. Sew along the long edge and one short edge, leaving a 3/8″ seam allowance.
Clip the corner – this make it easier to flip the corner right side out again.
Turn your tube right side out and stuff it. You want it to be stuffed firmly, but not overstuffed – it needs to have some give so we can roll up the edges.
Stitch the open end closed.
Now we are going to roll the felt much like we would the dough in real life. I found it easiest to roll down the edge just a little first, and anchor that with a few stitches. Here I used 3 strands of embroidery floss because it was a bit stronger and required less stitches.
After that is secured, roll it down a little further and anchor with a few more stitches.
Do the same to the other side, only roll it the opposite direction for a traditionally shaped Lucia bun.
Sew on any buttons or beads for raisins if you are adding them, and you’re done! If you’d like you can experiment and make other fancy shapes with your Lucia “dough.”
Glad Lucia!
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Linnea Farnsworth is a self-described Scandihoovian, a Washington DC-area photographer, and mom to the cutest little sweet pea. Linnea has also shared previously about her Swedish heritage on both the Scandinavian Christmas and Midsommar blog series — Sankta Lucia Day and Linnea’s Swedish Midsommar Celebration. (She really throws the best mid-summer parties, you guys.) Don’t forget to follow her on Instagram at @linneaanne!
I’m happy to introduce you to Linda, the talented and design-savvy owner of a London-based Scandinavian house & home shop called Bo Nordica. (Have a browse, it’s lovely!) Linda graciously sent over this post to share with you. If you’ve been an observant reader of the Bo Nordica blog for some time, you may recognize it — for everyone else, enjoy this beautiful star DIY, originally from the Home by Linn blog. I can never get enough paper stars, can you?
Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. Over the years, the fondest memories I have of Christmas do not include expensive purchases, but precious moments spent with family and friends.
I grew up on a farm near Stavern, a coastal town in the South East of Norway. Every year my father would take the family out in search of the perfect Christmas tree from the woods surrounding our farm. When we returned home my sisters and I would spend hours making paper stars and paper hearts to adorn the tree and decorate our home.
This is just one of our family traditions that made Christmas extra special..
This week I made paper star decorations with my children. I found these paper star instructions on the fantastic Home By Linn website. Why not give them a try?
You will need: paper, scissors, pencil and ruler.
1. The star is made up of of 8 paper squares – so you need to start by cutting these out. To save time you can make a thin cardboard square template – draw around it and cut out. I made my squares 10cm x 10cm. Position the square in front of you with one of the tips pointing towards you. Make a fold diagonally down the middle to make a crease, then unfold paper.
2. Fold each corner to the centre so the tip meets the middle line.
3. Fold again as shown in picture (See the Home by Linn post).
4. Fold the top triangle parallel along the little triangle below. Unfold and make a fold on the opposite side.
5. You have now made a cross. Then turn it around.
6. Make sure it looks the same as it does in the photo! Take the bottom pointy end and fold it to the left along the line that you made before you turned it around.
7. Now this is the tricky bit… You should have a small triangle on top of a large triangle. The large triangle has a line down the middle – fold down the middle along the line. The little triangle should now be bending a little. Fold the little triangle and follow the line from the cross you made earlier.
8. This is what it should look like. It should be easier the second time around.
9. Practice makes perfect… You have to make 8 of these
10. Now for the assembly… Insert the small triangle behind the ‘flaps’ of the large triangle. Do not tighten too hard at first as it will be difficult to assemble the last one. Tighten when they are all connected. Pull the tips carefully one by one. Voila! You have a paper star. You can make an assortment of these in different sizes, colours and patterns.
I hope you enjoy giving these a try. And don’t forget to let me know how you get on!
Until next time,
Linda xoxo
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This is a nice, simple project. Depending how long your little person naps (and how many numbers you choose to make) it just might qualify as a single-afternoon-project.
Since all the examples of felt letters and numbers I found elsewhere were tiny, I made my own template, especially designed for the 8.5×11” sheets of felt that are so cheap at the craft store. Not only are these large items easier to sew than microscopic ones, the resulting numbers are easy to hold, can double as decor, and won’t get lost in the toy box. And, you can print out the template on standard printer paper, without worrying about scale.
Aveline is just learning her numbers (two! free! five! nine!), so I wanted to lessen any confusion about backwards numbers. This was easily accomplished by using a different color for the back of each number. I used charcoal grey felt for the front and off-white for the back, because I really really love when toys match my living room. ;)
The seams are a simple blanket stitch, sewn with various colors of six-strand embroidery floss. I didn’t divide the strands, just used it straight out of the package.
It helps if you have extra-sharp scissors (the secret to cutting felt neatly and crisply.) Because felt dulls scissors quickly, I use these 3/$1.99 Ikea scissors and just replace them whenever I need to.
The project is extremely self explanatory, so I feel a little (a lot!) silly writing a step-by-step tutorial. :-P But here it is:
MATERIALS NEEDED
2 pieces of standard 8.5×11″ felt per number
Embroidery needle
Embroidery floss/thread
Polyfill for stuffing
PDF template (numbers 0-9)
1. Print out the template (numbers 0-9), and cut out the numbers you wish to make. Lest you inaccurately think I’m overly ambitious, I only made 1, 2 and 3.
2. Lay two layers of felt on top of each other, top color first and back color second, then pin the cut-out pattern to the felt.
3. Using extra-sharp scissors, carefully cut out the felt numbers. Take the paper pattern off, then without moving the felt, pin the two pieces together again.
4. Sew the two pieces together with a blanket stitch. When you have about two inches to go, stuff the number with polyfill, then complete the seam.
Voilá! If any of you are crazy enough to make 0-9, you have to send me pictures ;) And if you’re interested in seeing a similar template for large A-Z felt letters, let me know in the comments!
Click photo to enlarge.
When you repost an image from Pinterest onto your website or blog, always make sure you credit the image’s original source. (“Source: Pinterest” or “Image via Pinterest” doesn’t count.)
If the image was pinned directly from the original source, you’ll easily be able to find that source just by clicking on the image. However, lots of stuff on Pinterest wasn’t pinned from the original source, so clicking it will just bring you to an uncredited version of the image on someone’s Tumblr or blog. (Sad face!)
If that happens, here’s to how to find the original source:
Now, go back into Pinterest and leave a comment on the pin with the original source, so the pinner can update their pin! =)
Want to know more about how to credit images? Check out this poster by Pia, Erin and Yvette on Design*Sponge.
i just made these little teeny tiny gift bag out of scraps of paper, some tape, and vintage rickrack i found at the thrift store. you can make your own gift bags, too, in any size, using this fantastic tutorial from the scent of water blog.
The Oaxacaborn Blog 