felt shape toy

I'm a little proud of this toy because I did it all without a pattern, something I've never attempted before by myself. It all started after I found a great deal on pieces of thick felt at a craft store. I was going to just cut out pairs of shapes and put velcro on them for a matching color/shape activity toy. My munchkin loves velcro right now. But then I was on a sewing spree making a few other toys for our recent flights, and I came up with this:

The shapes open and close because one side is sewn to the cloth. This way I didn't have to worry about losing little pieces of felt shapes. But with the heart and circle, I couldn't figure out how to make them open and close easily, so there are a couple pieces that come off completely.

Here's a quick tutorial. Measure and cut two pieces of cloth any size you want, depending on how many shapes you want to put on the toy. I used about 12x16 inches for each piece, which is a little bigger than the size of an airplane tray.

Cut out shapes from felt...I used thick felt that was hard to bend. Remember that these shapes will open and close, so don't cut them completely apart. Spread them out on the piece of cloth you want to be the front, pin half of each shape, then sew around just that half.

Cut little pieces of velcro and attach to the shapes. To line the velcro up evenly, I attached one piece of the velcro to the sewn side of the shape, attached the other piece of velcro-sticky side up-and then closed the shape. That way when you open the shape, the second piece of velcro will be attached to the top of the shape.

Grab your second piece of cloth. Put right sides of the two pieces of cloth together (so the shapes are sandwiched inside) and sew together with 1/8-1/4 seam allowance. **Be sure to leave a hole somewhere that's big enough to get your biggest shape out.** Using the hole, turn the material right side out. Sew all the way around again, pushing the edges of the hole together as you go so you catch them.

Voila!