felt storage bowls {tutorial}

I can't believe how long it's been since I've dared a tutorial. Certainly before my first born came along. But, as he is cooperating with my crafting time (by faithfully taking his naps!), I've had some time to DIY a few things for the new little one's nursery. And I thought I'd share one with you.

Do you pinterest? Yes, I've caught the bug, too. And I saw these felt urchin bowls a while back and just loved them.  Of course, as I didn't have any really thick felt on hand, I decided to just layer some cheap, thin felt sheets together and wing it. I was lazy--didn't even bother to thread my machine with coordinating thread, but I love this little things. They're great for tossing keys or make-up or what-have-you into.

They even work with little puzzle pieces. And while I was playing with my kiddo the other day, I realized that he was enjoying playing with the bowl as much as the puzzle. So I thought they just might make the perfect toy storage solution for our baby-to-be.

Here's what I used:
2 ft of felt (width of fabric bolt) in four different colors
thread to coordinate the outermost felt layer
pins, marking pen, scissors, ruler, and sewing machine

First, I decided that I wanted some pretty large but not-too-deep bowls, so I measured out a circle that was 60 cm in diameter (my Canuck hubby's ruler was the first I found!) and cut out a circle from each of the four colors of felt.

Next, I stacked the four circles together and folded the whole stack in half. You can see that my circles aren't perfect. But it doesn't really matter, as we'll trim in the end. :)

 

Then, I measured in from each end (along the fold) 12 cm and made a mark (with a pin at this point). And then I measured 5 cm up from the fold and made another mark. I drew a line connecting the two marks and pinned the felt together along that wedge.

I repeated this on the other end of the fold. Then I folded the pieces the opposite way (90 degrees) and repeated the measurements. And then I marked and pinned wedges in between all of those so that in the end, there were 8 evenly spaced wedges measuring 5 cm wide and 12 cm long (I didn't measure the hypotenuse!).

Next, I loaded up the machine with thread and basically jammed each thick wedge (one at a time) under the foot and sewed along the line (the hypotenuse), taking care to backstitch about one cm from the outer edges of felt.

After that, I trimmed the wedges of fabric about 1/8-1/4" from the seam (this requires some sharp scissors!).

And finally I trimmed along the top edges to make the "lip" of the bowl even.

And that's it! Easy peasy.

In the space of a couple of hours, I made three of these bowls (with the 2 ft of felt--which was as wide as the bolt). And the total cost? $12 for all three. It would have been even cheaper if I hadn't done this on impulse--the felt wasn't even on sale! In the end, the bowls measure about 36 cm (about 14") wide and are 12 cm deep (about 4.5"), perfect for storing all sorts of toys, diapers, burp cloths, etc. And they add a nice punch of color to the room, too!

Speaking of the room. Are you curious? Things are coming along! Here's a little sneak peek--including the felt bowls!