Tea and Felt Biscuits

On the way back from the Post Office the other day I picked up a copy of the current issue of Creativity magazine, which includes a tea-and-biscuits themed project designed by me:

Bigger than an ordinary coaster, this colourful mug mat has plenty of room for your mug of tea (or coffee) and your biscuits of choice.

The mat is made from canvas and felt, and decorated with pretty woven ribbons and fun felt biscuits. The biccies were especially fun to sew! Of course, I had to eat lots of biscuits while working on this project - purely for research purposes, you understand :)

I'm looking forward to flicking through the rest of the mag during a teabreak... and deciding what to make with this month's cute cover gifts. Hmm...

Can't find docrafts Creativity Magazine in your local newsagent? You can subscribe here or buy individual issues here.

How To: Felt Jammy Biscuit Brooches

The final project of the week is a tutorial to make a felt version of yummy jam-filled biscuits.

These brooches are really quick and easy to sew! There are two designs for you to choose from - the heart version would make a quirky gift for Valentine's Day or another romantic occasion.

To make each brooch, you will need...

- the template sheet provided at the bottom of this post
- biscuit coloured felt & matching thread
- red jam coloured felt
- a brooch clasp or safety pin
- a needle & pins
- embroidery scissors

1. Use the templates provided to cut out one biscuit front, one biscuit back and one jam centre.When cutting out the central shape in the biscuit front, bend the felt so you can snip a small cut in the middle with your scissors, then cut outwards from the hole to cut out the shape.

2. Place the biscuit front piece onto the jam piece. Hold or pin the layers together and sew around the central shape with running stitch and matching sewing thread, sewing the "biscuit" onto the "jam".

 

3. Turn over the back biscuit piece and add a brooch clasp or safety pin. If you're adding a brooch clasp (as pictured) use a double-thickness of matching sewing thread to secure the clasp.

 

If you're using a safety pin, use matching thread to sew a small piece of felt over the fixed bar of the pin, holding it in place (visit my iced biscuit tutorial for a photo of this).

4. Then place the front and back of the brooch together and use running stitch and matching thread to sew around the edge - sewing through all three layers of felt. Finish your stitching neatly at the back.

Remember not to give these brooches to / leave them within reach of any small children who may mistake them for actual food!

Click here to view the template sheet in another window/tab, and print it at 100%.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many felt biscuits as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a few photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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More Tea Love

Yesterday (day 344) the tea-themed craftiness continued: I finished the pink tea badges and made a small batch of embroidered "tea addict" pins. Here are both batches all neatly packed away in their storage bags:
I love those little bags: they help me feel very organised! With tea on the brain, I did some DaWanda window shopping yesterday evening and found some delicious tea-themed treats... lovely greetings cards from I Like Pens: birds + tea = heaven!
... and one of the most charming necklaces I've seen in a very long time, a sweet and simple silver teacup from Tollsten:
How darling is that?? Definitely on my wish list. I'm starting to get the hang of Pinboards over on DaWanda and am enjoying keeping little lists of things I might like to buy in future or just plain think are awesome. So far I've started a Teatime pinboard, a selection of Lovely Birdies and an all-purpose list of Pretty Things (because you can never have too many pretty things), they're quite addictive really. More DaWanda finds no doubt coming soon!