felt – Cecelia's Spot

Felt Weather Board

A felt weather board is a great way for a toddler/preschooler to learn the days of the week and the weather! I ended up having a few pieces of felt, some thread, and ribbon left over from other projects so I thought, why not? Weather board time!

The first thing I did was fold a piece of felt in half, horizontally. I decided to make 2 pockets to hold the weather icons. Sew the two sides together, going through both layers of felt, then do the same in the middle.

Next, decide on a background color. Lay the felt pockets on the bottom overlapping the background color. I overlapped 2 inches then hand sewed the sides 2 inches down (only on the inner layer which you can’t see) and along the top.

Next, I used a sharpie and wrote “Today is” at the top. I didn’t intend to do the days of the week as my girl is only 2, so she won’t really grasp that, but I had more felt and space! This weather chart can grow with her. Not only will I add more weather icons such as hail, sleet, moon phases, but I will also add the days of the week as she gets older. For now I will store them to the side to focus on weather!

Time for the fun part, making the weather symbols! There are countless ways to create them, I decided on these.

I also added a partly sunny symbol which you will see in later pictures. I did all of these by hand, sometimes outlining the pattern I wanted on the felt first, then cutting them out. I used the glue gun to add some different colors such as the white on the snowflake, the mittens, wind, lightning and rain.

I bought some velcro from Michaels. You can use the scratchy side on the back of the weather symbols. This scratchy side will stick to the felt that is the background, you don’t need the soft side of the velcro at all.

I also added a partly sunny symbol you can see at the top of the picture. I did not use the hot glue for the velcro, it just happens to be in the picture. The velcro has a sticky side that will adhere to the felt.

I had extra felt so I made days of the week!

My daughter won’t really grasp the days of the week but we can practice anyway. I can also store them until she’s ready. I might have to do that! She loves the felt weather board so much she puts them all up and takes them all down. Her favorite symbols are the sun and partly sunny. She had to take them to my sister’s house. Luckily I convinced her to leave them in the car so we didn’t lose them and I returned them to her board!

I ended up adding ribbon by making a stitch at the top. To make it extra sturdy I decided to hot glue the bottom of the ribbon to the felt too! You can use string, small ribbon, or anything you choose for this! I hung it above her work table using the clear command hooks that will easily come off of the wall if I want to remove them.

You can make the weather board a daily routine! Do it in the morning, or change it throughout the day based on the weather. Enjoy!!!

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Felt Snowman Fun!

What’s that? A foot in the corner of the picture? Yes! Madison couldn’t wait to get her hands on the felt snowman and decorate him!

My pile of felt was stacking up after doing a few projects and Christmas was over…what to do with it? I took down the amazing felt tree my sister made after the holidays and felt a bit depressed. Noooo Christmas can’t be over! Winter isn’t over, so why not make a felt snowman similar to the felt tree Madison loved so much?

The project is very simple & super cheap!

You need:

Felt in various colors: white, orange, black and a few other colors for the hat, buttons, and mouth.
Velcro
scissors

First, I cut out the 3 circles for the snowman out of white felt purchased at a local craft store (you can also get cheap felt at Walmart). I didn’t use any patterns, but just cut everything free hand. You could also use a marker to draw the shapes first, then cut them out.

I went with simple features, a carrot nose, 2 arms, and a scarf. You can choose whatever colors suit you. I made 4 buttons, a mouth, rosy cheeks, eyes, and 4 hats.

Why 4 hats you ask? Madison likes to dress up different dolls and I thought she would like to make the snowman not only something she puts together, but gets to switch the different features. Plus, I had lots of extra fabric and time. After cutting everything out I hot glued the 3 white circles that make up the snowman together.

Another option would be to put velcro on the bottom of the top 2 white circles and your child could put the snowman together that way. I know my toddler, and she likes to pull on things, so gluing it together was the best option for us.

I bought velcro with sticky back so I wouldn’t have to glue it. I simply used the hook side of the velcro. Yes, I had to look that up, the hook side aka the rough side. I cut each piece depending on what I was using the velcro on. For example, the scarf is long so I used at least 5 inches of the hook side of the velcro.

For the buttons I used about an inch each. You don’t need the soft side, the loop. If you use felt then the rough side of the velcro will stick to the velcro. After you cut the hook velcro just peel off the sticky side and put it on your snowman accessory. Do this for each accessory. When you are all done putting velcro on, you can have your child decorate!

If you wish you can put dots on the buttons and lines on the carrot nose with a sharpie marker! You can lay this on the floor or hang it up for your little one to decorate. It also makes a great present!

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DIY Felt Christmas Tree!

Cece bear loves to pull toys out of baskets and put them back in. She also likes to build blocks and figure out other puzzles. So I thought to myself, what can I make for Christmas that she can play with? And a mini Christmas tree came to mind. Eventually, I figured out a felt Christmas tree with all sorts of sensory stimulation and Velcro ornaments would work! So I decided to get to work.

I decided to make three trees, one for each of Cece’s friends. It also made a great birthday gift for her friend Kyle’s first birthday! This is a great activity to do with older children as well. They can make their own ornaments and decorate the tree! There are a variety of ways to put the tree, ribbons, buttons, and ornaments together. The two I used were sewing and hot glue gun, but you can do one or the other as well. Just make sure if you have a baby, infant, or toddler, to make sure everything is very secure so they can’t pull it off!

As always, there is a youtube video and written steps and pictures. Feel free to add your own creativity and pizzazz!!!

If you have an older child, instead of using velcro to stick the ornaments on, you can use string or twine looped on the ornament and they can put them around buttons on the tree!

What you need:
*Green felt fabric (I used 1.5
yards for three trees)
*velcro
*Brown felt fabric (stump)
*Felt fabrics of various colors for
ornaments of your choice and design
*optional: buttons, ribbons,
and other accessories

1) Fold your green felt and make a tree outline on the fold (so half of it traced on). Then cut your tree out!

2) Next, if you want a stump, use brown fabric to cut one out! Once again you can trace it out. You can either sew it on the bottom or hot glue gun.

3) I wanted to make something to hold the ornaments besides just having them stick to the tree. So I decided a present with the child’s name on it would be perfect! So next I chose a color of felt I had and cut about 11x 7 inches.

4) Next, for one of the presents I made I wanted the bow long ways down so I sewed a piece of ribbon straight down the piece. (the other two I made have it across the box which you can sew on now or later)

5) The next step would be to turn it right sides facing inwards and sew to the length you want so you have the top of the present flap long enough. Check out the picture to see what I mean. Then turn right side out.

6) As you can see, I decided to iron on letters for the name of the child. These two presents are different sizes. Also, if you want to put a piece of iron on or sew on or glue gun on Velcro to the top of the present to have it stick now is the time.

7) Then decorate the present at will. I added some adhesive Rudolph stickers. I did hot glue them so they would be more secure.

8) Follow that, I sewed the present onto the tree. This is optional, you can have it separate or not have a present at all. I opened the top flap and sewed right along the fold to the tree. You can also hot glue gun it.

8) Now, back to the tree. Now is the time to get even more creative! Use ribbons, garland, buttons, or whatever you want on the tree! You can sew or hot glue gun them on. If you have an older child and want to have hanging ornaments on buttons then align your buttons!

9) Next, it is time to make ornaments. If your child is older they can help decorate and make ornaments. I chose actually Christmas items and one ornament and one light bulb. I used whatever felt scraps I had to make them. I also made a star at the end. Remember to Velcro your ornaments on the back using the hard side of the Velcro. You want to iron them on before you decorate the front! Otherwise you might melt or damage your decorations.

To hang the tree, I used 3m adhesive strips, but I have heard that the blue paint tape works well on walls. You can also use suction cups if its on the window or door. Ok enjoy! Feel free to post your tree below!

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