Felt Grape Bunch

After I made an orange slice, a couple red apples and about a dozen strawberries, I thought there were too much warm colors going on so, I chose to do some nice cool green grapes.  Then I found a sample on another blog (will include the link, once I find it again) that gave me the idea to add velcro to each grape.  But the way they had it, it was just a flat grape bunch with velcro grapes on the top.  Wanting to make everything as realistic as possible, I figured if I just made two bunched and put them back to back Kara would be able to pick off grapes from either side of her grape bunch.  Ahh...the wheels are turning.  Now, to actually create it.

First I cut out 44, yes I said 44 grape circles.  It is a lot, but think about the cool factor of having a bunch of felt grapes, it will get you through all the cutting.  

Next, I cut out 2 of the grape bundle shapes.  You can make you're shape any way, I just messed around and this is what it ended up like. So this will give you 11 grapes on each side, or 22 grapes total.

Start by cutting 22 small pieces of velcro that will fit on the center of your grapes. Separate the hooks from the soft side. Now I thought it would be best to put all the hook sides on the bunch so that way when Kara was playing with the grapes it would have the scratchy side touching her, but after making it and seeing how she plays with it.  Mind you, she's only 16 months, so she tries to just shove the grapes on any which way she can, so even if she puts down the regular side of the grape, it still sticks to the felt and it's starting to tear up the felt a little bit.  All it takes is a little training on my part to teach her how to match the white velcro together, but keep this in mind when choosing which side to put on the bundle and  which to put on the grapes.

Sew 22 pieces of the soft (or hook) side of the velcro on 22 of your green circles.

Next, sew the matching sides to those 22 circles, leaving a small opening to stuff your grapes. If you wanted to take more time you can increase the size of your grape, and turn them inside out for a cleaner look but I'm just going to user friendly stuff as I'm still a sewing novice :-)

Stuff all your grapes and sew them closed.  Go around all your grapes and trim off any excess felt, to make sure they have a clean smooth look. Now you have 22 adorable grapes that just need a vine to be on. 

Take your bundle shapes and figure out where you want your grapes to sit, making sure there's 11 on each side.  Pin the velcro in place.  Then sew them on.

Create your stem by taking a small scrap of brown felt, rolling it and sewing it together.

Pin it under one of the bundle shapes and sew it on, making sure to go over it a few times because it will be pulled on by your kiddos.

Next, pin the 2 bundle shapes together. Put on all the grapes.  Now in order to have a really clean looking grape bunch you need to trim down any extra felt that does not need to be there.  Cut as close as you can to the actual grapes but make sure to not cut off the velcro.

Once you've trimmed off enough extra and you like the way it looks, pull of all the grapes and sew the two bundles together. You may not need to but because I knew there would be a lot of pulling on these I sewed around it twice, just to help give it some extra strength.

Now, pat yourself on the back because you just did a ton of sewing.  And to show for it: an awesome bundle of felt grapes for your kids to have fun pulling off and serving to their friends.