Sew Cute: Easter Eggs

Easter is just around the corner! There are so many fun traditions associated with the holiday: big family get-togethers, lots of good food and, of course, Easter egg hunts. I have wonderful memories of finding those brightly colored plastic eggs tucked behind the couch or hidden in a flowerbed, and opening them up to find little sweets and treats.

This year, I thought I would make fabric versions of the classic Easter egg. I ended up with a half-dozen little guys that act as small pockets for your holiday goodies. For the fabric, I used a mixture of patterned and colored felt to imitate the look of dyed eggs. I even found some glittery felt, which is pretty much a perfect thing. It does tend to cover the workspace with sparkles, though, which is one of those problems that sort of isn’t a problem. If you use it, just be prepared to be extra dazzling for a while!

Materials:

• Colorful felt
• Thread in a complementary color to the felt (you can use the same thread for all of the eggs if you want—no one will mind!)
• Basic sewing needle
• Scissors
• Measuring tape
• Piece of paper
• Ballpoint pen
• Straight pins
• Optional: sewing machine

Craft away:

• Draw a half-oval shape onto the paper, 3-inches wide by 2 1/4-inches tall, and cut it out. 

• Trace the template four times onto each piece of felt, and cut all of the pieces out.

• Cut a few feet of thread and fold it in half, then thread the needle and tie a knot.
• Begin piecing each egg together. To do this, pin two of the same colored felt pieces together with wrong sides out. Stitch around the perimeter of the pieces using a simple in-and-out motion, but leave the straight ends unstitched. You can also use a sewing machine, if you prefer.

• After you have finished the seam, flip the pieces inside out to make a half-egg shape.

• Repeat the above steps until you have completed all of the half-egg shapes.
• Connect the two halves of the eggs with a little stitched “hinge.” To do this, simply make looped stitches between the top and bottom part of the eggs. Only go about halfway around the eggs—you’ll want to be able to fill them with treats!

• Repeat the above steps until you have assembled all six eggs. You can always make more, of course, or even one really big one!
• Fill the eggs with candy and little surprises, and hide them with gleeful abandon.
• Ta da! A sweet new Easter tradition, created entirely by hand.