Leaves for Little Caterpillar Friends

Here's a quick little five-minute project!

 My daughter JellyBean has two stuffed caterpillars, purchased at the dollar store, that are very special.  They like to do all sorts of things with her -- eat, sleep, play dollhouse, etc.  Recently JellyBean decided that they needed "blankies" of their very own.  Here is what I came up with:

 Ta-Da!  A cute leaf, complete with zig-zaggy edges and a hole for the caterpillars to climb through -- and they are big enough to wrap the caterpillars in when it's bedtime!

I simply started with two sheets of green craft felt (around 35 cents each at a craft store!) placed in a double layer for strength, and cut out a basic leaf shape, keeping as much of the surface area as I could.  I sewed around the edge, then free-motion sewed veins and a stem on the leaf.  (Of course you could do this with a straight stitch too -- with a little stopping, turning, etc.)  Then I cut a template for the hole from a scrap piece of felt.  Felt was the key, because it stuck right to the leaf!  I sewed around the felt circle (not on it of course), and simply cut just inside my stitching line.  I used pinking shears for the bumpy leaf edges.

 And then of course I had to repeat for Mrs. Caterpillar's leaf!  This one turned out smaller because my other two pieces of felt were not quite full-size.

Mrs. and Mr. Caterpillar (and JellyBean of course!) are very pleased with their new caterpillar blankies -- that double as lunch!  :o)