There are some things I really shouldn’t blog about.

Felt and embroidery seem like a pretty good subject, though. And usually, it is!

But in this case? Maybe not!

The way I see it, though, is that sometimes, it’s more fun to learn from other people’s mistakes than it is to make our own – so here is a little lesson in… I don’t know what.

I thought I had the right concept (and maybe I do), but wow, this thing didn’t come out the way I intended at all!

I’m calling it the Easter Onion, because whatever else it might be, there’s no way it’s an egg!

Years ago, I wrote this article, Stuff It then Stitch It, about embroidering a stuffed felt egg.

Since it’s a couple weeks before Easter, I thought I would update that article with some tips and techniques.

To do that, I set about stitching a new felt egg.

This time, I embroidered bands down in the middle of the four sides of the egg first. Once they were sewn together and the shape was stuffed, I’d embroider some kind of contrasting design over the four seams. That was my plan.

So, after sewing together one side on two sets of two, I sewed together the two sets of two sides, right sides facing, leaving a turning hole.

This all seemed very straightforward to me.

It made sense!

I turned The Thing inside out.

This was no small task.

I’m pretty sure the poor thing was wailing in pain.

This is what the seams I was going to embellish look like.

The turning hole got pulled a bit out of whack! Whoops.

And this is as far as I went with the Easter Onion.

Retrospective

I think stitching the shape after it is stuffed seems to work better! See the original article. The embroidered vertical bands stiffened the felt up a lot, making it very hard to turn.

The shape I used to cut my four sides is wrong (if you hadn’t guessed). It bows a bit too much and it’s bottom heavy. If I try again, I’ll adjust that.

Maybe I overstuffed it? That could lead to unshapely results, too, I suppose.

The thing is, not everything you make will come out perfect, and that’s ok. I find the best approach to a failed concept is to learn from it, have a laugh…and move on!

What To Do With It

I might turn it into a pincushion or something, since I spent practically a whole day creating the ruin. Why waste it?

On the other hand, I might just top it with some green felt shoots and stick it in an Easter basket. Who knows? It might start a new tradition.

You know – kind of like the Christmas Pickle, only the Easter Onion?

“See if you can spot the onion in your Easter basket.”

Because of course you want an onion in your Easter basket!

I may very well experiment with shapes and approaches on this a little bit later.

And you know…. I may not!

Hope you have a terrific Monday and that all your projects are headed towards a perfect finish!