hurley's hangout: Homemade Felt Ice Pop Holders

My daughter is about to have her 5th Birthday party this weekend, so I have been a bit out of the Blog loop getting ready for it. Fortunately I already did a simple "save the date" for her while school was in session because last night I had to send out an Evite (although it was super cute, with her photo) for her invitation. Actual party stuff is adding up, so I gave up on a paper invite. I hope I am forgiven.

One bonus for a June 22 birthday is that it can be an indoor OR an outdoor party and it usually involves something cold. This year it is: ICE POPS! Her party theme is simply PINK. PINK. PINK. I am making felt ice pop holders for the dear angels to use while cooling off with their ice pops. Check out how easy it is!
1. First, you need your choice of felt color. The size of this felt sheet is 9" x 12", so I roll it, so I can cut strips of 4 inches wide which results in three 4" x 9".

2. From those strips, I cut 3 inches wide, so it results in 3" x 4" rectangles. Each felt sheet gives you nine rectangles or 4.5 holders. I use 2 felt sheets to make 9 holders.

3. Here is my carefully stacked set of 18 rectangles. I then match them up in pairs the best way possible because I am not a perfect "cutter."

4. I use hot pink thread to go with her PINK theme, and I eyeball measure the width for an ice pop to fit. The rectangle width is 3 inches, and the ice pop is a little over an inch, so I determine to use a 1/2" seam.

5. I sew them in a row with a backstitch on each one. The backstitch might be overkill on an ice pop holder, but, oh well. I sew the right side of the rectangle through all the holders. I then flip it around and sew the "left" side.

6. When I am done sewing I take my shears and cut on both sides just to give it an extra decoration. FYI: Felt is not easy to cut with shears.

7. Of course, I want to triple check that the ice pops fit... You can actually be done with this simple project at this step.

8. I want to monogram them, so I added Heat N Bond to the back of some pink patterned material and cut out an L.

9. When you iron FELT, it is very important to use a cotton cloth to protect your iron from melting the felt all over the iron. (I will not go into details on how I know that.)