I had a super cute yellow pot that I wanted to put on a shelf in the baby’s room but didn’t really want to have to maintain a living plant in it. So, I decided to make a little felt mushroom that could call it home. This process is pretty easy and could be used to make a mushroom for just about anything: an ornament, a toy, whatever you want.
The first thing you need to do is to cut out a rectangle to use at the mushroom stem. How long you cut it depends on how long and how big of a mushroom you want, so that’s really up to your discretion. Once you’ve cut the rectangle, fold the long edges together and start sewing them. I just used a basic stitch, but I’m sure there are ways to make it look neater/cuter if you’d like.
When you’re done, you should have a little felt tube.
Next, cut out a circle to use as the bottom of the mushroom cap. I left this plain, but if you wanted to you could paint or embroider the little “ribs” that mushrooms have onto it. Once you’ve cut the circle, fold it in half and cut out another concentric but smaller circle in the middle that’s just wide enough to fit your tubular base.
Insert the base into the hole and sew the two parts together.
The next step is to cut out another circle, about the same size or a little larger to use at the top of the mushroom cap. I chose orange for this, but you could use any color you’d like. Sew the top onto the bottom of the cap.
Now it’s time to get to stuffing. I crammed a small amount of polyfill into the mushroom to give it some lift, but other kinds of fill could work better depending on what you want to use the mushroom for when you’re done. Because I intended to use the mushroom in a pot, I also inserted a small piece of balsa wood into the stem to give it some structure.
At this point, what you choose to do will depend on why you’re making the shroom. If, like me, you’re using it as a decoration, you’ll want to get some floral foam, put that in the container and stick the mushroom into it. Felt, dried moss, or other materials can be used to cover the foam and make everything look seamless. If you’re making it into a standalone mushroom, you’ll want to cut one more piece of felt and sew it onto the bottom to keep the stuffing inside.
I also opted to add some spots to the top of my mushroom. I just used fabric paint to do this, but for most purposes, acrylic paint will work fine, too.
I paired my finished mushroom with a hedgehog pincushion I made a few years ago (sans pins, of course) to make a little diorama of sorts for the nursery shelf. The little shell was a gift from one of my husband’s students, who wanted to give the baby something. So sweet, so we had to put it in the nursery.
From start to finish, this probably only took about 25 minutes, so it’s a great way to knock out something cute in a very short amount of time!
1 Comment
Cute!!!