Mushroom Madness with Tutorial

This all started when I joined a poppet swap. What's a poppet? Well, technically it's any doll shaped thing, but on Craftster its a specific type of jointed doll as shown here.

The poppet is made from a recycle cashmere sweater and the hair is a variety of leftover variegated yarns. This particular poppet is a fairy and has purple wings attached at the back. Every fairy needs a place to hide her treasures. And since fairies are typically associated with fairy rings, aka a circle of mushrooms, I decided to make a mushroom container.


MUSHROOM TRINKET BOX TUTORIAL

Materials:

a yogurt container or other container with a plastic lid that can snap down

• white felt
• red felt (in this case I used recycled wool felted from a sweater
• Buttons
• Gold colored Embroidery thread
• needle
  
• glue (I used both tacky and spray adhesive)
• glitter
• scissors
• cardboard
• polyfill or other stuffing material
• red ribbon 1/8 inch wide
  

Process:
After you eat the yogurt and clean out the container. Let it dry, then use the bottom of the container to trace a circle on the white felt. Cut it out.

Also cut out a rectangle of felt the height of the container and the circumference of the widest part of the container plus about 1/4 inch wiggle room for both measurements. Spray the rectangle with craft adhesive and wrap around the container. Snip the excess material up the side so it can be overlapped onto the container and laid flat.

Trim the bottom so its flush with container. Spray the circle of felt and place on bottom of container. Repeat for the inside. now you should have a felt covered yogurt container bottom that looks remarkably like the stem of a mushroom, and can be used to hold small items like earrings, hair accessories or spare change.

Now for the mushroom cap.


Cut out 3 more circles. First from the cardboard, about 1.5 inches larger than the yogurt cap and the second one of felt about 2 inches larger than the cap, the third one about 3 inches larger than the cap.

Use the spray adhesive to glue the smaller white felt circle down onto the cardboard. Snip the excess in to the edge of the cardboard and turn it over and glue around the cardboard. The thread the needle with a full 6 strand of embroidery floss. hold everything so the plastic lid of the yogurt container is centered ans sandwiched in between the felt covered side of the cardboard and a button (one with four holes not a shank type) Starting from the cardboard side poke a hole in the center of the cardboard through the plastic lid and through on of the button holes. Sew the button to the cardboard piece. Be sure to leave a few inches of floss at the back so you can knot the ends together once you are done. For good measure spray adhesive (or use other strong glue to secure the lid to the cardboard.

Now for the top of the cap. First decide on buttons, pick five that match. Use these as a guide and cut out circles of red felt 1/8 to 1/4 inch bigger than the button. Place one randomly on the white felt. Center the felt and button together, and sandwich the felt between the button and the white felt. Thread the needle with two or three strands of embroidery floss and sew on the button. Repeat with the other buttons until you have a nice spotted mushroom pattern on the large white felt. Using any stitch you desire sew the edge of the red felt to the white felt. I used a different stitch with each button. For ideas try a blanket stitch, cross stitch, even a running stitch can all look good.

Now thread the needle again with regular thread or one strand embroidery floss. Use a running stich along the edge of the large circle until you have gone all the way around. Gently pull the threads, gathering the circle until it is the same circumference as the cardboard circle.

Fluff out the gathers so they are even, then using a ladder stitch, sew the large white felt circle to the edge of the cardboard felt circle just catching the felt of the circle that is glued down. Leave a 1 inch opening for stuffing.

Stuff the mushroom cap until nice and fluffy, then sew closed.
Add red ribbon to the lip of the plastic lid. cover the button in glue and cover with red glitter if desired.

Let dry and you have your very own Mushroom Trinket Box.

It turned out to be the perfect size for my poppet (15 inches tall) to sit on or lean against. Since most of the poppet is head, it might work very well for 12 inch Barbie type fashion dolls in a fairy environment. If you make one I'd love to hear from you!