Felt Sandwich with Chips

Basically the construction on these is pretty simple. Everything was handstitched using embroidery thread matching the color to the felt. I only used two threads of the embroidery thread in most cases and I used a blanket stitch on everything. the only exceptions to this are the chips and the chip bag. I whip stitched the yellow circle and white line onto the red bag but I did a blanket stitch to attach the two bag pieces together. **NOTE: You could add a little velcro to the opening of the chip bag if you want it to "close". However, I did not.

Potato Chips and Bag:
The chips were the only thing that were not handsewn. The chips were made by first taking one sheet of felt and cutting it in half to make two sheetsthat measured 6"x 9". Then I placed them together and loaded the sewing machine up with a matching thread color. Then I placed the presser foot along on edge. I sewed vertically following the short (6") end. After I sewed that first line, then I moved the presser foot and placed it up against the first line and used that line as a guide. I continued until the entire sheet was stitched with evenly spaced lines. Using this method the stitch lines end up being about 1/4" apart. Then I used the chip pattern (the cutout shape from the pattern sheet) and laid it on top of the stitched sheet of felt and started cutting. You want to make sure your lines run vertically and are centered correctly on the chip (see the pattern drawing for a rough guide). Because the felt has all the stitching, the chips can be "curled" to look like real ruffle chips!!


Sandwich:
For the sandwich, cut 4 pieces of felt for the white bread parts. I wrote on the pattern to cut two strips of dark brown felt in a 14" long by 1/2" wide strip. In order to do this and get it to fit on one sheet of felt, you will have to cut it out on the diagonal. It will take two pieces of felt to do just this part. But don't be discouraged! Save those scraps! They will come in handy for future felt projects I am sure.

Blanket stitch the brown strip onto one side of the white bread part. You can start in the middle of the bottom of the piced of bread or you can do what I did which is start in one of the indented parts of the side. When you go to handstitch the second white bread piece on, leave an opening large enough to stuff batting in. I just used regular Poly-fil. Try not to overstuff it or you will get puffy, swollen looking bread.

Swiss Cheese:
This was pretty simple. I just blanket stitched the holes first (it is easier to hide your starter stitches that way). The I stitched the two cheese pieces together along the outside. That's it!

Lettuce:
I blanket stitched the outside first. Then I hand basted the main "vein" going from one end to the other. Make sure that you get a good secure knot to start. Then when I got to the other end of the lettuce, I pulled the thread to get the rippled effect. Don't pull too tight, it doesn't take much to get the ripple effect. I added a few more veins coming out from the main one also using a hand sewn basting stitch but those were decorative and I did not pull those tight. Do what you feel looks best. Some of the veins may need to be pulled a bit to get the lettuce effect that you like best. Having the rippled effect with the basting stitches and not leaving the lettuce flat really gives the lettuce a realistic look and gives it a more three-dimensional look.

Tomato:
This was one of the harder components of the sandwich. I recommend cutting out the parts with an Exacto knife. The tomato consists of three parts. The back is red, the middle is pink, and the top is the red cutout piece. First whip-stitch the red cutout piece onto the pink piece but only stitch the middle parts NOT the outside edge. Then I just stitched some "seeds" using the same read embroidery thread that I just stitched the pieces together with. Then put the back red piece on and blanket stitch the pieces together.

Other Sandwich Parts:
The rest of the parts were all just blanket stitched except for the peanut butter and jelly. Those were a single piece of felt cut out using the pattern

Blog: Mojo & Co