Fruit and Veg Pals

Need a helping hand encouraging your kids to eat their greens? Little chefs will love playing with these fun foodie friends by Chloe Hailwood. It might even make them a little more inclined to eat their greens at dinner time, too! Feel free to experiment with the templates – you can play with both the size and the colours to create a whole trolley full of yummy veggies.

Essentials

Felt: light green, dark green, orange, brown, cream, pink
Safety eyes, 5mm
Fibre filling

Stitch a carrot

Download and print the templates from sewmag.co.uk. Cut out one carrot from orange felt and three leaves from green. Make long snips in all of the leaves down to the stem to create a feathered effect. Pinch each stem in half and make a few small stitches to hold.
Embroider a face onto the centre of the carrot. Attach two small pink circles for cheeks. Stitch randomly spaced, horizontal lines all over the carrot. Fold in half lengthways, right sides together. Sew the longest edges together and turn through to the right side.
Using a continuous length of strong thread, make small running stitches around the top opening and pull to gather. Insert the leaf stems into the opening, with the folds facing the front. Pull the thread tightly and make small stitches to hold in place. Add some more small stitches through the stems.

Sew an avocado

Download and print the templates from sewmag.co.uk. Cut one small circle from brown felt, one larger circle from cream, one small body from light green and two large bodies from dark green. Embroider a smile onto the small body piece. Use a seam ripper to make neat, tiny cuts and insert the safety eyes.
Layer the brown circle on top of the cream circle and hand sew together using running stitches. Insert a small amount of stuffing under the brown circle just before you finish stitching. Stitch the cream circle to the small body. Blanket stitch this to a larger body piece. Sew the two large body pieces together, filling with stuffing just before you finish stitching.

Make podded peas

Download and print the templates from sewmag.co.uk. Cut out three pea circles, one leaf top and one pod from dark green felt, and another pod piece from light green. From dark green felt, cut a few grass shaped strips in varying lengths, with the largest measuring about 7cm. Spread one side of each strip with PVA glue and swirl around a pencil. Set aside to dry.
Embroider a face centrally on each pea. Make small running stitches all around the perimeter of each pea, and pull to gather. Insert a small piece of stuffing and gather more. Do not close the gap completely, just enough to gather the felt into a smooth spherical shape. Make some double stitches to secure.
Right sides facing, lay one pod on top of another and sew all around, leaving a 6cm turning gap along one long edge. Turn through to the right side, taking care to push out both ends. Gently press and whipstitch the gap closed.
Turn the top straight edge of the leaf top piece down by 5mm and press to hold in place. Fold in half lengthways, with the fold hidden. Carefully detach the strips from the pencils and stitch to the top inside of the leaf. Wrap the leaf round the top of the pod, with the join at the back. Sew the join together and make a few small stitches through the leaf and the pod to hold in place.
Attach the peas to the pod through the back of the peas and the top layer of the pod. Pinch the bottom of the pod together and make a few small stitches to hold in place.