Mock Chenille Sun Rug

Materials:

36" x 24" red wool felt
two 36" x 2" strips red wool felt
two 24" x 2" strips red wool felt
5" x 1-1/2" red wool felt
36" x 24" orange wool felt
5" x 2-1/2" orange wool felt
36" x 24" blue wool felt
7" x 5-1/2" blue wool felt
36" x 24" yellow wool felt
38" x 26" red pre-washed cotton duck fabric
red thread
straight-stitch sewing machine
fabric scissors
small embroidery scissors
Clover faux chenille slash cutter
large sheets of red and yellow tracing paper
tracing wheel
stitching pattern
washing machine and dryer
iron

Steps:

1. Trace and cut out eyes and nose (in blue), cheeks (in orange), and mouth (in red).

2. Matching edges of pattern to edges of yellow felt, use red tracing paper to trace sun outline and all lines inside sun. Cut sun out leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance all the way around (figure A).

3. Matching edges of pattern to edges of blue felt, use yellow tracing paper to trace the sun outline and all lines outside the sun except the border pieces.

4. Pin yellow felt sun, traced side up, to top of blue felt, matching traced lines. Pin together. Stitch the outline only of the sun through both pieces (figure B).

5. Trim away the yellow about 1/8-inch from the outside of the sun so that you have the yellow sun on the blue felt (figure C).

6. Flip work over and use the same trim technique to trim the blue away from inside the sun so that the top and bottom now look the same.

7. Using 1/8-inch stitches, topstitch the face pieces to the sun according to the pattern.

8. Pin the border pieces to the edges according to the pattern and cut corners so that the pieces are mitered (figure D).

9. Miter and stitch the edges of the red duck cloth according to the pattern (figures E & F).

10. Center the red rectangle of felt on the red piece of broadcloth so that 1 inch of duck shows all the way around.

11. Stack the orange felt rectangle over the red felt and finally add the new sun rectangle you have created in the previous steps. Pin all layers together in various spots (figure G).

12. Fold a half-inch edge of duck towards the work and then another half-inch over the work. Pin down to create a frame.

13. Insert all layers of felt at corners into the mitered corners of the duck (figure H). Edge stitch duck frame through all layers.

14. Straight stitch all traced lines in red on entire piece.

15. Use embroidery scissors or faux chenille cutter to cut all layers of the wool in between all the stitched lines (figure I). Be careful not to cut the duck. Do not cut the mouth or nose and eye pieces.

16. Wash in the washing machine one full cycle with cool water. Dry in dryer. Clean excess lint off with a lint roller and press flat with iron.

Tips:

- You may want to color the pattern with markers to help you keep track of what part of the pattern to trace on which color of felt.

- Use the biggest sheet of tracing paper you can find so that you don't have to keep moving the pattern to move the tracing paper. Or tape several pieces together. Be sure to check in the beginning to see if you are applying enough pressure to transfer the pattern.

- If you accidentally cut the duck, you can repair it before you wash it by stitching a little patch underneath on the stitch lines.