 |
| Almost good enough to eat... |
Today's post is about my favourite method, based on a combination of techniques that I've seen people use.
Variations include crafting with felt and glue (with no sewing involved), leaving fabric edges raw and/or "pinked", and even coating fabric with starch or something similar to allow the finished items to bend, stiffen and hold their shape.
Efficiency being the aim of my game, fussy steps for a simple thing are a turn-off. That said, I don't want pinked edges. Any fortune cookie I've ever seen has had smooth edges, so that's what I wanted to achieve here.
 |
| A big one and a small one... |
What's great about a project like this is that you can make it whatever size you want. The two you see here were created out of circles of fabric measuring 6.25" (~ 16cm) and 13.75" (35cm) across. The finished size of the smallest cookie is about 3.5" (about 9cm) from the points to the base.
Know what else is great about this project? You can practice sewing along a curve, which is a skill we can all hone from time to time.
These are crazy easy and quick to make and since you can use fabric scraps (that may or may not be pieced together; check out my set of scrappy cookies at the bottom of this post), you might find yourself with a whole bowlful of fortune cookies in no time at all.
That said, I had this Robert Kaufman Oriental Traditions selection that was just waiting to be made into a fortune cookie! (I have it on good authority that the Chinese characters on it represent dreams and love.)
 |
| Just the right fabric for a fortune cookie... remember the navy version I used for my customized sling bag? |
All you need are two circles of fabric, some fusible fleece for the exterior side and (optional) a light weight interfacing for the lining.
 |
| Cut and interface two fabric circles... |
The first step is to cut and interface the circles of fabric. Cut your interfacing smaller than the fabric to keep it out of the seams.
Here you can see that I pieced together two scraps of fabric for the lining and even used a scrap piece of fusible fleece.
 |
| Sew circles together and clip the raw edges... |
Put the circles right sides together and sew around the edge with a 1/4 (6mm) seam allowance, leaving an opening to turn right side out. (For easier sewing, the smaller your circle, the shorter your stitch length should be.)
Pink the edges except around the turning gap.
 |
| Turn right side out and pin the turning gap closed... |
Turn right side out and use pins to secure the turning gap. Press well.
 |
| Topstitch all the way around... |
Topstitch all the way around to close the turning gap. Press again.
 |
| Fold and crease... |
Fold the circle in half, with the lining side out. Fold it in half again and mark the crease.
 |
| Sew along the middle of the crease that you made... |
Sew along the middle part of the crease; i.e., don't sew from end to end, just where shown by the dashed red line above. How much space you leave will depend on how big the circle is. (For the small cookie, I left about a half inch at the top and the bottom.)
 |
| Flip the exterior fabric out to form the cookie... |
You're already done; flip the "ears" right side out on either side of the stitching line and you have yourself a fabric fortune cookie!
 |
| Finished (small) cookie! |
All that's missing is the fortune strip.
You can see the end of a fortune inside the big cookie in this photo.
 |
| What's a fortune cookie without a fortune? |
This was an Easter gift for the teenaged son of good friends of ours who have spent many Easters with us out at our mountain getaway. I filled it with actual fortune cookies.
 |
| A giant sized fortune cookie can be used to hold many things... |
When you make a big version like this, it becomes an interesting vessel. Put it on your desk to hold candies and flowers, for instance.
For truly scrappy variations, piece together scraps of fabric and then cut out circles. (If you use a CD as a template, you'll end up with approximate "life size" cookies.)
 |
| Piece together fabrics and then cut circles... |
I skipped the light weight interfacing on the lining side for these smaller ones, but you can see that I put my fusible fleece scraps to good use.
 |
| Making the most of my fusible fleece scraps... |
All four of these cookies had their fusible fleece "puzzle pieced" in that same way. It was an interesting task to do while listening to TV.
Here are the completed cookies (with the original smaller one in the middle). As you can see, they are just a bit bigger than an actual cookie.
 |
| See the actual cookie?? |
By the way, are you curious about the fortune that I put into the big cookie? Well, you'll have to wait for a subsequent post to get the big reveal. ;-)
In the meantime, if you're interested in a fortune cookie purse, take a look at my Retro Reticule.
No comments:
Post a Comment
You have the power to brighten my day. Leave me a comment; I'd love to hear your thoughts... you can even remain ANONYMOUS! And rest assured that I acknowledge all comments, either here or via email. (That is, if you don't see a response from me here, I would have responded privately to the person.) Spam or generic comments with unrelated links, however, are promptly removed... and I may take appropriate action or report you to Google. Thanks for reading! (✿◠‿◠)