Unique felt crafts for banquet and more: sewing patterns

Citrus Coasters

 Unique felt crafts for banquet and more: sewing patterns
Ever since the weather turned warm, I've had visions of pink lemonade and iced tea with lime wedges dancing in my head.  Summer also puts me in the mood to entertain so I thought it would be fun to have a set of coasters to match this citrus drink theme.

I love to have a summer sewing project that is portable so I can take it with me to the beach! Felt is often my material of choice for portable projects since it's ideal for hand sewing.  It's also great for making durable home items like these cheerful coasters.  For this project we used our Spring Felt Bundle because the bright colors reminded us of real citrus fruits.
I love that each coaster is slightly different from the next due to the handsewing. They will add a breezy, summery vibe to any table.  This is the kind of project you can do with very little experience since it requires absoultely no special skills or equipment.-- Molly

Materials

• A Spring Felt Bundle
• A Citrus Coaster Template, available for free download here, printed and cut out
• Valdani Embroidery thread to match the colors of the felt bundle. I used colors 18, 10, 0244, 1212, and 45. You could also just use ecru on all of them if you don't mind seeing the stitches.

Cutting

For each coaster cut the felt as instructed on the template. You will have:

• 2 large colored circles for the peel and the backing
• 8 colored segments (4 cut from each segment template)
• 1 ecru circle for the pith

Cut "seeds" out of two or three of the segment pieces by folding the segment piece in half lengthwise and then taking a small snip across the fold to take out a small triangular chunk out of the piece.

Sewing

Place the pith circle in the center of one of the colored circles. Then arrange the segments on top of the pith circle as shown above.

Pin all of these layers together.
Using thread to match the colored felt and a very small running stitch sew on the segment pieces around their edges.

Sew on all of the segments in this manner and press the piece flat.
Pin the other colored circle to the back of the piece.
Hiding the beginning knot in between the front and back colored circles sew the back on with the matching embroidery thread and a small running stitch all the way around the coaster.

Once you've gotten all the way around tie a small knot on the back piece and then pass the needle through the two layers and pull it out in the middle of the back. Snip the thread at the exit point thus hiding it.
Trim edges to make the front look nice and neat.

Repeat all steps to make 2 coasters from each of the colored felt pieces.