Felt Car Plushie

Felt (3 or 4 squares plus scraps for details)

Needle/Thread

Fabric/Tacky Glue

Jon Scieszka really ought to be required reading for every 4 year old child.  I love him.

Since we already have a multitude of stuffed animals (more on them later!) in my classroom, this one was for my nephew, Mr. Manatee! 

A Humongous Thank You For An Amazing Tutorial Goes To Make-It and Love-It

Of course, I'm too cheap to own a sewing machine (slash haven't used one since 8th grade Home Ec), so mine is all home sewn. I sewed the wheels on with a basic button stitch (and then some inventive looping and more button stitching to ensure it'd stick).  The details to the face/window/hubcaps are all glued on with tacky glue (which was all I happend to have on hand).  It stuck amazingly...for about 30 seconds after being unwrapped by Mr. Moo.  Luckily it was the 3 year old who pulled it off and not the 1 year old - so I'll have to sew it on next time!  I've already got some purple fabric to make a little race car for Little Princess!

Felt Leaf Bean Bags

Felt Leaf Bean Bags

Materials:

Fall colored felt 

Thread

Beans

I love fall! So pretty!

Seriously!

So easy! Cut out fall leaf shapes (I just freehand it), blanket-stitch around the edges, leave a little hole to fill in the beans, sew it up! 

As much as I love fall, I love these little guys! They are perfect for bribing my Pre-K'ers...
Clean up...here's a bean bag to throw into the basket
Listening...here's a bean bag to sit in your lap
Not listening...here's a bean bag "fidget buddy"
Getting noisy in here...time for a fun hand-eye coordination activity
Seriously, why did I never think of making bean bags for the classroom earlier?

Felt Memory Match

Felt Memory Match

Materials:

Felt (assorted colors)

Thread

Needles

Cut backing felt squares 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" and front felt squares 2" x 2".

Embroider matching pictures on 2" x 2" squares. Stitch onto one side of backing.

Blanket stitch around edges.  Sewing a basic straight stitch also works, but the blanket stitch is much snazzier (albeit time consuming).

Most fabulous felt bag for holding memory game pieces.

Embroider hearts, names, pictures, or leave it blank...all are adorable!

Lots of ideas - lots of fun! 

Felt Car Mat

Felt Car Travel Mat

Materials:

Green Felt

Black Felt

Other Felt (for houses, signs, etc)

Yellow Thread (for roads and edges)

Fabric Backing

Toy Cars

Cut felt roads roughly the width of the toy cars.  I hack-sawed my way through by cutting many different lengths and then moving around to design a road.  My nephew LOVES to "park" his cars, so I added a little parking lot, too!  Since I had some spare felt scraps, I used it to make extras: pond, bushes, houses, signs, etc. 

Cut a piece of fabric the width (plus a 1/4'' to fold underneath to hem).  My measuring is a mess, but I played with the fabric enough so that it folds over for the cars to park there.  Then sew the fabric to "park" the cars into 1/3 slots.  Fold play mat into thirds.

Alas, it's still an unfinished project.  The embroidery took a while, so now it's time to set up the sewing machine and get it ready to gift away!