Make Carolyn Letten’s oriental cookies and coasters

Show your sophisticated side by providing fabric fortune cookies and beautiful Oriental-inspired fan coasters for Chinese New Year celebrations or at your next dinner party. Impress your friends and add some fun by writing your own fortunes and seeing who gets what! We've used an array of Eastern-inspired fabric prints for our Oriental decorations and brought out their detail by using striking black sewing thread.

Essentials

Fabric, cotton: oriental prints, yellow;
red; purple; black; pink; white
Felt: assorted colours
Wadding
Washi tape
Glue, stick, acid-free
Pinking shears

Dimensions List

Cookie: 6cm diameter
Coaster: 12.5cm x 17.5cm

Sew a Fortune Cookie

Cut a circle with a 9.5cm diameter from coloured felt using pinking shears, and one with a 8.5cm diameter from printed fabric using standard scissors. Stick the fabric onto the felt with acid-free glue, making sure to go right to the edges to minimise fraying.
Allow to dry, then stitch all the way around, just in from the edge of the fabric. Fold the completed circle in half with the fabric on the inside. Stitch from the centre of the folded edge towards the middle of the curved edge by 2cm.
To fold the cookie into its finished shape, hold it with the folded edge pointing away from you. Put your thumbs inside and fold each side up into the centre, then continue to turn completely inside out.
Write a selection of fortunes onto paper and trim to size. Cover the back of each one with washi tape. Fold them in half and place one into each cookie to finish.

Make a Coaster

Download the templates and print. Note that these include a 5mm seam allowance. Cut two fan pieces from yellow print and two from a second colour. Place the four fan pieces in a row, alternating the two colours. Stitch right sides together along their long edges, and press the seams open.
Cut one centre piece from black printed fabric, and make 5mm cuts all the way across the curve. Iron these tabs over to the wrong side. Place the centre piece right side up at the bottom of the fan shape so it overlaps slightly, making sure the straight edges match up. Stitch along the curve and press.
Trace around the coaster front onto a piece of printed fabric and cut out. Trim a piece of wadding the same size. Lay the wadding down first, then position the coaster front right side up, then the backing fabric wrong side up on top. Pin in place. Leaving a 5cm gap for turning on one of the straight edges, stitch all the way around, 5mm in from the edge. Trim away any excess fabric and turn out. Press.
Topstitch all around the edge, tucking in and catching the opening as you go. Add detail to highlight the fan shape by top stitching in black thread down either side of each coloured fabric join