Felt Tomato Tutorial

I whipped up one of these a couple weeks ago, decided that I liked it enough to make a tutorial, took the pictures, and then got distracted. So here it finally is. How to make a felt tomato.


Materials:

Red and green felt
Red and green thread
Stuffing (not pictured)
Scissors



Cut six football shapes from the red felt. I didn't use a pattern; just eyeball it. Once you make the first use that as a pattern for the rest. Real tomatoes aren't exactly perfect so it will be fine.



Start sewing two of your red football shapes together.



Sew the third one on the same way.



Keep going until all 6 football shapes are attached. Reinforce the corner at the bottom a bit or to keep it from gaping. Don't worry about the top yet, that happens quite naturally in a few steps. Sew up the final side, completing the ball, but leave a bit of a gap.



Push your stuffing through the gap you left. I'm always surprised by how much stuffing it takes to do this. Not that it looks like much when I look at my bag, but it feels like quite a bit when I'm stuffing it. This is a step that Monkey loves to help with. I like a bit of a firm tomato, so I fill it quite full. I also find that if you skimp on the stuffing as the felt food ages the stuffing sort of re-arranges itself in there and it just doesn't look at good. My carrot, for instance, has no stuffing in the bottom 1/3 of the carrot now. So fill it up pretty firm. It should feel like it's bursting out of that open seam a bit, and it takes a little effort (but not tons) to close it up as you sew it shut.



Sew your tomato shut.



Now, close up the top and reinforce the top where all the corners come together. Tie off your string.



You can keep your knot from untying a little better by leaving a tail inside the tomato. To do this, push your needle down into the tomato at a shallow angle.


Pinch the tomato and push the needle through.



Carefully snip your thread.



Ta-da! The main part of your tomato is finished. Now for the green stuff on top.



Cut yourself a smallish squarish piece of green felt, like so.



Start cutting out some triangles, making it look like the leafy top of a tomato.



It'll look more or less like this when you're done.



Take your green thread, and begin to sew the top on. If you sew around in a circle you'll get the effect of the stump of a stem in the middle. Hide the end of the green thread in the same way you did the red thread, and you're done!



Enjoy!


Check my tutorial listing for more of my tutorials and other favorite tutes from around the web.