Half lemons

I've already made a standard full, uncut lemon (tutorial here) and I had a plan that I would make two halves of a lemon that could be stuck together with velcro to make a whole lemon...and then 'cut' apart by Little Imp to make some more 'lemin' tea.

But I couldn't get my plan to work.  Most frustrating! The halves look good enough individually:

 

But the plan to be able to 'stick' them together for 'cutting' apart just didn't work.  I couldn't get the face of each lemon half flat enough to be able to stick them together nicely.  If I'd had yellow velcro that I could have used as the segments that may have worked, but the velcro circle I used in the middle isn't big enough to overcome the bulge of each half.  

I'm not going to give full written instructions for the half lemons given they didn't work how I wanted, but here is a bit of a 'how to' in pictures.

Cut 3 elongated 'lemon' shapes

stitch 2 of these together

add the third shape and stitch on one side

stitch down the last seam, leaving no hole for turning right side out

find the centre and cut the shape in half

 I wonder if I had made the two halves separately from the beginning if they would have fitted together better? Not sure.

open out both halves and trim edges level

cut out a white & yellow circle. Cut down yellow circle to form segments. Stitch these onto white circle

 This is where I also added a small velcro circle that you can see below, but this really didn't work so I wouldn't bother next time.

Use blanket stitch to attach white circle with segments to stuffed lemon half

Finish off each half like the whole lemon  - a small green wool know on one and a stitched 'nobbly' bit on the other (see the original lemon tutorial for details) 

Any ideas on how to make 'cuttable' felt fruit welcome!  One friend suggested magnets which I think could work, but I haven't tried that yet.

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?