Tea Time Centerpiece

Nearly all my 'Make' posts to date have been centered around the kitchen and food! And here is another kitchen themed 'Make' post, a small centerpiece to rest your favorite tea pot on. When I have friends over for a cup of tea or 2 (or more), I try to make it slightly special. Be that using my favorite teacups and teapot, nice teas or even some flowers! With some felt, threads and your trusty needle this centerpiece can be whipped up for all such occasions. It's made with felt so its very simple and feasible- no hemming or fraying involved!

Felt has a tendency to mainly be available in quite bright colors so I toned this down a little by using more subdued threads and yarns. Pin together 2 layers of felt so its nice and sturdy, you could have a different color for the underside. Draw out your simple shape on one side. I wanted mine to be a flower shape so I used a hoop to trace around for a circle and then drew the petals around that. Using pencil is the easiest option on felt, just keep it light and accurate as you are going to stitch directly on top of it. Then cut out your shape, keeping the 2 layers pinned together.

Try using a mixture of embroidery threads, sewing threads and thin yarns to give it a rich and varied texture. As well as running stitch why not try some other stitches to add to your center piece. These are nice and easy and you can use them for all sorts of projects. Running stitch alone can very effective also!
Even though you won't have the underneath showing it's nice not to have any knots on that side so carefully begin your line of stitches between the layers, near the edge- but not too near! Remember to keep an eye on the underneath/back at all times as tangles can creep up on you.

Give yourself enough thread to reach from one side of the piece to another, a good guide of how much thread should be on your needle is to measure it from the tips of your nicely manicured nails to your elbow. A lot more than this will end in disastrous tangles on the back of your piece. Not fun.

Once you have sewn to the middle of your piece you can then change your stitch. Below is fly stitch with a sewing thread.
If you want to start a line of stitching from the center of the piece you would pass the needle between the layers and work it up to the center, passing though the top fabric at that point. If you are doing this in a tight space, you can place a pencil in between the layers and work the needle up next to it.

Buttonhole stitch. One of my favorites.

For the final step, stitch around the edge of your piece or close to, to prevent the 2 layers of felt being frayed separately and to make the piece more sturdy. I emphasized the 'petals' of my piece around the edges. Use a slightly stronger thread than sewing thread for this final stage.

Now for the best part- tea time.