Felt Lemon

Little Imp loves pretending to make cups of 'lemin tea', so a lemon has to be included in the mix of fruit & vegies I'm making her for Christmas.

Tutorial

Instructions for one lemon.
Materials - Yellow felt (about 15cm square), scrap of green wool, needle, thread, stuffing, sewing machine

Lemon 'body' - I was right in my initial thoughts that the basic '3-piece template' that I used to make my felt apple would work for other fruit and veg & here is the same pattern used to make a lemon.

From yellow felt cut 3 pieces of the basic template shape.  

Place 2 of these pieces on top of each other & then stitch down one side from one point to the other.

Add the 3rd piece and stitch in place down one side.  Then stitch the final seam  to create a 3-piece 'ball' remembering to leave a 2-3cm opening at one point (where all the seams meet) for turning right side out & to stuff. 

Turn lemon right side out and fill with stuffing.  Then hand stitch the hole closed.  

Next form the 'nobbly' bit you often find at the end of a lemon (no scientific name like 'calyx' this time!) using needle & thread.  Hand stitch a running stitch around the lemon about 1.5cm from one pointy end and then pull the thread up to gather the felt to a rounded point like you can see below.  Once happy with the amount of gathering secure off the thread with a small knot.  Then at this same end of the lemon, & using a double thread, make a few small stitches at the very point of the lemon & then take the needle & thread through all the way to the opposite point.  Pull the thread just enough to get a slight dimple at each point.  Secure with a few more stitches & cut off.

At the opposite end of the lemon add a touch of green - I tied a knot in a small piece of green wool & then cut off the ends to essentially leave just the knot.  Hand stitch this small knot in place like in the picture below

Cup of lemon tea anyone?