DIY No-Sew Felt Bowls

Posted on the 05 August 2013 by Rarasaur @rarasaur

My dad is so gentle that he could put a sweater on a butterfly in the middle of a snowstorm.   My husband is so gentle that he could paint the inside of a bubble without popping its effervescence.   My sister is so gentle that she could turn a spiderweb upside down without the spider noticing.

I, on the other hand, am a veritable tornado of disaster.  Just like my mom.

I’ve been known to drop my dishware in such a way that it breaks– on not just one, but two or even three surfaces– before landing in dangerous shards all over the floor.  I’ve smashed wine glasses beneath my booted feet after jumping off the top of a shelf, and I’ve snapped bowls right down the middle by over-enthusiastically dropping my spoon into them.

In other words, I’m not a gentle person and I never have been– so whenever and wherever possible, I use non-breakable materials.

Hence:

Felt bowls! Ta da!

These are all really easy to make and don’t involve any sewing, unless you want to sew them just for a little added security.  They’re sturdy little things, though.

Things you need to know:

  • Felt bowls are not waterproof. They’re for things like q-tips, toys, bobby pins, socks, pens, loose change, etc.
  • You can buy a huge pack of felt at your local craft store for cheap if you aren’t color specific– otherwise, the sheets will run you about 10 to 30 cents a piece.  Fabric stores will also sell larger sized sheets, but they’re a little more expensive.
  • A regular sheet of felt (which is the size of a normal sheet of paper), will make bowls the size of the ones in the pictures below.  If you want a big bowl, you either have to stick the sheets of felt together by dreaded sewing, or buy larger felt.
  • A regular sheet of felt is also fairly floppy, so I use two layers on all my bowls. It makes them tough!
  • Tacky glue dries on felt faster, but all glue will adhere felt to felt.  You can bobby pin them in place while they dry.
  • You can be approximate in your cutting and measurements because they bowls are supposed to look a little choppy.
  • Save the little scraps of felt. It’s super easy to make (no-sew) flowers out of them.

There are a lot of ways to turn a piece of felt into a holding container, but I’m just going to focus on my favorite three– which I will name arbitrarily, because I like names.

The Helen Spartan

Cut out the biggest circle you can. Mark off the edges like this. I used two different colors of bobby pins because I’m fancy. Cut where the black bobby pins are.
Fold it up. You can hold the bowl in place with bobby pins, or just glue it.
Side view.

Other view.

The Conina Temple Dancer

Cut your felt into a square, and then into this shape. Basically, you’re making the square into a grid that is 3X3, and cutting the edge grids in half like a peanut butter sandwich. Then you fold it up, (so that the triangle grids overlap the square grids) and glue it into place. ((In this picture, you can see rectangular strips on top of the main piece– that was just my lazy way of measuring.))
Side view.
Angled view.

Bird’s eye view.

The Buttercup Princess

Cut out a hexagon. Cut from each point in a straight line towards the center. Fold up every other slab first– so the center three, and glue them. Then glue the other three to them.
Empty view.
Angled view.

Side view.

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The cast:

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So, did you catch the theme between the names? Are you a gentle soul, or a tornado? Have you ever made a felt bowl?