Glimmer And Grit: No Sew Felt Play Tea Bag Tutorial

Monday, November 11, 2013

No Sew Felt Play Tea Bag Tutorial

We got invited to a birthday party for a little friend recently and I found a great play tea set to give her, but I wanted to add a little special handmade something to go with it. I plan to do a tea set for my little munchkin for Christmas and I've been looking at sewn play tea bag ideas, but of course I procrastinated and waited until the last minute for this gift so I totally winged it and tried using felt and gluing them and it turned out so cute!!!

I made these all the same just for efficiency, but you could have fun and use all kinds of colors and combinations. I decided to try to make something close to the look of a real tea bag, so I used cream felt for the bag, dark brown for the tea, red for the tag and heart and some cotton string and hot glue to hold it all together.

First using pinking sheers (you can absolutely use regular scissors but the sheers give the fun zigzags that really make these special) cut a long rectangle for the bag, a small rectangle for the tag and some small pieces for the tea. The key to making these simple play tea bags I found is the combination of using thicker felt (the really thin stuff will show the glue) I bought mine by the sheet at Hobby Lobby for 25 cents and not using too much glue.

Fold the long rectangle in half and put a few pieces of the "tea" in the center, then put a thin line of glue along the three raw edges, quickly set one end of your string in the center and then press the edges together while it cools to make sure the sides seal together. Finally fold the small rectangle in half around the other end of the string, lightly glue the edges and press until cool. If you want, use some of the extra red felt to make a heart and glue it to the front.