Mini Felt Doughnut (with a Bonus at the End!) 🍩🍩🍩

I love making mini felt treats; I have made so many before (ex: apples, pears, donuts, carrots, strawberries, cookies, pizzas, ice creams, etc...)! These are not edible, fortunately, as they are too cute to eat!

Always read the instructions before starting any project! That way, you know what to expect, can visualize the outcome, and are not caught unawares.

Today, I will be making a doughnut: cute, simple, and EASY! (I will be doing the middle one at the bottom)
P.S. Stick around at the end for an extra bonus! ;)

Bon Appétit and have fun!!!

Supplies

- Felt (3 colors for this project; I used white, pink, and tan)*

- Scissors

- Floss (4 colors for this project; I used white, pink, tan, and black)*

- A sewing needle ("NoT tOdAy!" I miss Game of Thrones...)

- A pen

- A pencil

- Pillow stuffing

- Two stencils
a. doughnut stencil: diameter of 2.5 inches; the hole has a diameter of 0.5 inches
b. frosting stencil: diameter of 2.25 inches; the hole has a diameter of 0.5 inches
i. make sure that the sides of the frosting are wavy! ;)

*The felt color is objective; be creative with your donuts! You can make chocolate donuts, so the felt could be dark brown. I'm making a regular doughnut with strawberry frosting and a white drizzle.

*The floss color is also objective! I didn't add sprinkles for this tutorial, but I have made donuts with sprinkles before; you could make rainbow sprinkles (in which you will need more colors), or just one colored sprinkles. Also, make sure the floss corresponds with your felt color when you are assembling. (i.e. I used white floss to attach the drizzle onto the doughnut)

Step 1: Know Your Types of Stitches

For this project, you will need to familiarize yourself with two types of stitches: a whip stitch and straight stitch. Here's how to do both of them....

Whip stitch:
1) Line up your felt as necessary (make sure the "wrong" sides are facing each other!).
2) Thread your needle.
3) Poke your needle through the bottom side and pull your floss all the way through.
4) Then poke your needle through both sides (sew from the TOP to the BOTTOM) and pull your floss all the way through. You are poking your needle from the top and going down through all the pieces.
5) Repeat as necessary.

Straight stitch:
1) Thread your needle.
2) Poke your needle from the bottom of the felt.
3) Pull your floss up and all the way through.
4) Then poke your needle back through the other side and pull your floss all the way through.
5) Repeat as necessary.

Remember: make sure the "wrong" side of the felt (usually the back) is where you tie all your knots. That way, the front is nice and pretty!

Step 2: TIPS

- Sewing is a lot about eyeballing. The floss for example: how do we know how much to cut? It's subjective, really, but there is one big thing you should keep in mind: the more the better!!! You will hate having thread that is too short. It's better to have more so you feel comfortable. There is no exact amount of thread that I use. I give estimates that give me enough thread to sew but still has enough to tie knots on the back.

- Make sure the WRONG SIDE always FACES IN or is ON THE BACK. Whatever you do, you do not want to see those knots and messy threads and pen marks on the front!

- Embroidery floss has six separate strands. You only need two and only should use two. You can use all six, but using two just looks a lot more cute, precise, and delicate. So separate them and make sure THEY DO NOT GET TANGLED!

- Tie a sturdy knot on the end of your floss. That way, the floss doesn't fly off the felt. Stabilize your sewing!

Step 3: Tracing and Cutting

Now you've got the basics mastered! It's time to actually start!!!

I made my own doughnut and frosting stencil (dimensions above in the Supplies part) and placed it on my felt. Using your pen, trace it out on the felt and cut it out using your trusty scissors. Make sure to use a pen that's ink shows up clearly on the felt.

When you cut the holes, fold your felt in half and cut a semi-circle. Then unfold your felt, and you should have a pretty decent hole!

You will need two pieces of the doughnut piece and only one frosting piece.

Step 4: Threading Your Needle

You should end up with three pieces (first picture shown above). For the white drizzle, I got a scrap piece of white felt about 5-6 inches long.

Now thread your needle using black felt; we're about to make the kawaii face!!! :D

Step 5: Making the Face

Yes, yes, yes; this is the best part!
Show your doughnut's winning personality by making a face! You can make it wink (like I did), frown, cry, laugh, whatever you want!

You can make actual eyeballs by cutting out two (or one; Cyclopes are cool; at least Tyson is; heh heh Percy Jackson, any one?) small black felt circles (diameter of 0.25 inches each). Place it on the FROSTING part of your doughnut where you want it to be. You are customizing your doughnut ON THE FROSTING PIECE. Capiche? Capiche. Then use white floss to straight stitch those two eyeballs on.

You can also make blushing cheeks. Just cut out two small, link pink circles (same size as the eyeballs) and sew them on using pink floss next to the mouth. I made blushing cheeks on my chocolate doughnut. (Scroll all the way up for picture.)

For this piece, I made both of my doughnut eyes wink, so I just used black floss to straight stitch it on with the mouth. I used a 7 inch piece of thread to make the face.

Step 6: Customize Your Doughnut!

As I said before, I used white felt for a drizzle. I straight stitched it right on. You can do that in any color (chocolate, maybe?) and any style.

OR you can do SpRiNkLeS!!! I recommend using 5 inches of floss for each color of floss to make sprinkles.

OR you can leave your doughnut blank. Boring, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.

Be creative and have fun! This is the best part of the doughnut-making process, as you get to show your personality and your doughnut's personality through this step.

Step 7: The Wrong Side

What exactly is the "wrong" side? What does it look like?

Well, my friends, it looks like the pictures shown above.

Those pictures are identical!

No, no, no; they are NOT identical! Look closely! The first picture is a shot of the wrong side of just the face, while the second one has a shot of the wrong side of the face AND the drizzle. Also, notice that the pen marks are also on the "wrong" side! :)

Step 8: Attaching the Frosting

Get a strand of pink floss about 13 inches and thread your needle (make sure you tie your knot).

Lay the frosting face face-up onto the "right" side of a doughnut piece (the tan one for me). Make sure the holes are aligned.

Whip stitch around the frosting to attach the pink felt to the tan felt. Finish your stitch by tying a knot on the back.

Step 9: Attaching the Center

Grab the other plain doughnut piece and put the frosted piece (with plain doughnut piece already attached) ON TOP of the loose doughnut piece. Make sure the holes are aligned. The unfrosted doughnut pieces' "wrong" faces should be facing each other.

Get some pink floss (or the color that matches your frosting) with a length of about 7 inches. Tie a big knot at the end of your thread.

Poke a hole through the loose doughnut; then, from the TOP of the frosted piece to the BOTTOM, go through all three layers. Basically, you are whip stitching but with more than 2 layers.

Keep repeating the step above until you are back to your starting point. Make sure the three pieces are secure.

Step 10: Stuffing and Finishing

You're almost done! Pay attention to this step, as it is very important, and you CAN mess up if you don't know what to expect.

Cut a piece of tan floss (or whatever doughnut base color your felt is) that is 21 inches long. Thread your needle and tie your knot. Tie a big, sturdy knot!

Whip stitch the pieces together and pause a third way around the doughnut.

Take a SMALL (start SMALLLLLL) pinch of stuffing and push it into the area of the doughnut part that you have just sewn. You should roll the stuffing in your fingers first before stuffing your creation; it will be easier to stuff.
I HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLYYYY recommend using a pencil. Seriously. I stuggled with trying to stuff any of my creations using my pinkie. So, I got the eraser end of a pencil (please do not use the graphite part of the pencil, unshaven or not) and stuffed it. It worked SOOOO well. Like, really, very well.

Sew another third way around the doughnut and stuff.
Then, just sew half of the remaining bit and stuff.
About an inch away from the end, move your stuffing around or stuff a bit more (if necessary) to make your doughnut nice a pillow-y. Don't OVERSTUFF it, but don't UNDERSTUFF it either.
Goldilocks Rule! Not too firm, not too soft; just right! :)

Finish your whip stitch.

CONGRATS!!! YOU HAVE MADE A KAWAII FELT DOUGHNUT!!! :P

Note: I have attached three videos to this step. Watch Basic Whip Stitching first, then Sewing and Stuffing, and finally watch Finishing Up. You can watch Basic Whip Stitching to learn how to whip stitch. Remember, these videos DO NOT replace the written instructions. The written instructions are more detailed. Read both the instructions and watch the videos to successfully sew your doughnut!

Step 11: Finally...

This should be your finalized doughnut!

Isn't it adorable? :D

Step 12: BONUS!!!

As you can probably tell from the first picture on this Instructable (scrollll upppp!), I made three doughnuts and a bonus treat: a toaster pastry!

Why not make a separate Instructable for that? You ask.

Well, I just saw that the toaster pastry and the doughnuts look so similar, and they just had to be put in.
Also, the process in making one is almost exactly the same as the doughnut, but much simpler.

Let's get started, shall we? :)

Step 13: Supplies for Toaster Pastry

These will be the things you need for the Toaster Pastry:

- 2 colors of felt (I used pink and tan again, but you can get creative)

- A needle

- Pillow stuffing

- 2 colors of floss that match your frosting and base; in my case, pink and tan (I used more, as I added sprinkles)

- A pen

- A pencil

- Scissors

- Frosting stencil (2 inches x 1.125 inches); round out the corners

- Toaster pasty base stencil (2.5 inches x 1.5 inches); round out the corners

Step 14: Cut Out Felt (Toaster Pastry)

Just as you did for the doughnut, trace and cut out your felt.

For the toaster pastry, you will need one frosting piece of felt, and two pieces of the toaster pastry base.

Step 15: Assembling Toaster Pastry

Just like you did for the doughnut, customize your frosting; be unique!

Then attach the decorated frosting onto the "right" side of a plain doughnut piece using whip stitch.

Get the other loose plain doughnut piece and put it on the bottom of the frosting and plain doughnut piece.
Remember, wrong sides should face each other!

Whip stitch the pieces together only halfway and stuff.

Keep alternating between whip stitching and stuffing until you get back to where you started.

Finish your floss.

Congrats! You just made a friend for your doughnut!!! :D