Just like everyone else on the planet, we’ve been staying home. It’s not completely different from how things are usually (I love being home), it’s just a little more intense when it’s because of a pandemic…

Since I’m not going out, finding new old things to work with or transform isn’t an option, so I’m digging a little deeper into what I already have.

Over a year ago, I bought a nice little wooden cube shaped box produced in 1955, for Lipton tea, to add to my daughter’s play kitchen (I love natural materials and of course, to recycle rather than to buy new, plastic toys). We recently played with the empty tea box, and I thought about filling it with real tea bags to make the play more fun. Preferring not to waste tea (plus I don’t think the bags would age well), I decided to make some out of felt.

I had some felt squares from the dollar store as well as the little ribbons that came from the shoulder are of my blouses (to help them stay on the hanger when put away). I always take these off as I hate being tickled by them when I wear my clothes (I don’t know if they’re meant to be removed or not), but of course they’re such lovely little ribbons, I always keep them. I used a real tea bag to trace onto paper for a pattern (which I made a bit smaller than an actual bag) and then searched for some stuffing. I had an old cushion I no longer wanted so, I simply opened it up to use its insides. Then away I went, cutting felt and stitching tiny stitches by hand.

My daughter became pretty excited when she saw the first few and immediately asked for seven of them (I am always fascinated by how precise and definite children are when requesting such seemingly random quantities). Anyhow, I agreed and then made seven felt tea bags 🙂