I love vegetables. I love growing them, preparing them, eating them, doodling them, and painting them. If you were to look at my notebooks you would find them full of doodles of carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and radishes. And if you took a peek in my fridge, you’d see a host of them – celery, peppers, onions, carrots, and more. I don’t really know why I find them fascinating, but I do. So imagine my delight upon seeing these adorable miniature felt-and-embroidery vegetables! Veselka Bulkan’s creations are adorable, soft, and delightful. Of course, now that I’ve seen these, I want to try making them to adorn my own house.
To make your own felted veggies with embroidered leaves, you’ll need some crafting materials, including fabric (cotton or linen work best for me), felt (or wool if you’re going to make your own felt) in a variety of veggie colors (such as red, purple, green, and yellow), scissors, embroidery threads coordinating with your veggie colors, and a needle, and an embroidery hoop. If you’re planning on making your own felt, go ahead and make the felted vegetables first. You’ll join them to the embroidery upon completion. If you use store-bought felt (which is what I’ll be doing), sew up the vegetable shapes with the coordinating embroidery thread, stuff the veggies, and then go ahead and join them to the embroidered vegetation.
If you’re putting together a theme, try pairing things like onions, peppers, and tomatoes; carrots, potatoes and onions; or greens like kale, lettuce, and spinach. You could even make veggies using non-traditional colors, like the purple, white, and yellow carrots, or red onion, white onion, and yellow onion. You could also use blue, orange, and yellow together. Pick which colors resonate with you and if they aren’t normally the color of vegetable you want, try it out and see – you never know how beautiful the end project will be. If you’d rather use a limited palette, or go with pastels, branch out and try it. See what works, and when you’re done, post pictures of the final product. You never know who you will inspire.
Interested in miniature food and embroidery but don’t feel partial to vegetables? Not to worry. There are plenty of online tutorials In the hoop embroidery for other foods such as pasta and breads, desserts, fruits, and snacks. You could also embroider berries, ferns, and other food found in the wild. Use your imagination and bring a miniature version of your favorite food to life. Pizza is totally an option.
Does this sound like a fun weekend craft for you? You can find all the foodie inspiration you’ll ever want at Apartment Therapy. If you want help crafting stitches for the foliage portion of the project, you can find it at Mary Corbet’s Needle & Thread. And if you’re new to embroidery, you can find a stitch library at Mollie Makes. Of course, if you’d rather just dive right in to the felted veggies and embroidery, you can take a peek at Veselka Bulkan’s array of beautiful vegetables and a DIY tutorial for felted veggies at Craft Gossip.
