Dishwasher

I received yesterday a message from a friend who’s going to teach a workshop about sewing felt. Unfortunately I cannot go because I have another workshop that same day, but I’ve been wanting to work with felt for a long time since I started reading Future Girl’s blog. After talking to my friend, I started thinking that I could maybe try something by myself. If I haven’t done it before was just because I hate hand sewing and other things got in the way, like knitting, but this time I was going to make it! Some time ago I bought some scraps of felt for very little money and after reading again this post I had an idea. I have the same problem as Future Girl, Koen is asking almost everyday whether the things inside the dishwasher are either clean or dirty, so I decided to make a little thing to clarify the matters. My design is by far less funny and less original than Future Girl’s, but I wanted something simple.

I needed:

• Some little peaces of felt.
• A magnet.
• Scissors.
• Thread.
• Sewing needle.
• Stuffing (like the one used for amigurumis).

I started by marking the 2 circles of approx. 8 and 5.2 cm of diameter with a glass (top and bottom for the two sizes), then I cut the “steak” and the “fries” in red and yellow felt. I used this model for the steak. I sewed it on using white thread to form the lines of fat and yellow thread for the fries. Just a stitch per fry is enough to create the effect. Afterwards I started sewing the inner circle and placed the magnet inside. After doing this, I finished the circle.

Then I sewed the outer circle with a blanket stitch while I stuffed the border of the plate. You can find a nice blanket stitch tutorial on Future Girl’s blog.

Et voila, when the things in the dishwasher are clean you flip the dish so that the empty side is visible, and when they are dirty you flip it to the side with the food. It’s not that we put our dishes full of food into the dishwasher, but I thought this was descriptive enough and it looked nicer than just attaching some felt looking like a mess. Another funny thing is that we don’t eat steaks very often and we certainly almost never eat fries, but again, I thought this design was quite clear (and I had the right colors of felt!).

It looks so cute that it’s such a pity to show sometimes the empty side. I should make one day fridge magnets based on this idea. It’s a pretty good idea to make gifts for the family, at least for those who don’t really appreciate hand knitted garments. Tiny felt fridge magnets (or other items) are quick to make and almost everybody likes to fill their fridge door with beautiful little things.