Do you like to make souvenirs with your own hands? A very interesting gift is a coffee sheep. Do it yourself with your own hands, the materials used are available. The product is original in that it exudes a pleasant aroma.
DIY coffee sheep (goats)
These animals are a symbol of the year, therefore, they can be made as a New Year's souvenir or given in the name of someone who was born in the corresponding year. In addition, for those born under the sign of Aries, you can also present a cute cheerful lamb.
The meaning of coffee toys is that they have a characteristic color and aroma. There are two ways to make such a souvenir:
- Sew a voluminous soft toy made of white fabric, which will be pre-processed in a decoction of coffee;
- Make a souvenir (in the form of a relief or a three-dimensional object) by gluing coffee beans on a prepared frame.
Both methods are simple to implement, but traditionally, stitched products that resemble old toys from a grandmother's chest are considered to be a coffee toy, therefore they are also called "attics".
Materials and Tools
You should get a beautiful and neat coffee sheep. Do it yourself with your own hands, but take care to prepare everything you need in advance. You will need the following:
- Cotton fabric (calico, calico) white.
- Whole bean coffee.
- Pattern or paper to create it .;
- Pencil, eraser.
- A piece of chalk.
- Scissors.
- Pins
- Needle with thread.
- Sewing machine.
- Filler (holofiber or other material).
- PVA glue.
- Acrylic paints.
If you will make a souvenir by pasting the surface of the base with coffee beans, you will not need a fabric, but it is better to use a heat gun to apply glue. Also, cardboard will be needed to make the frame.
Fabric dyeing
So, you have prepared everything to make a beautiful soft toy - a coffee sheep. It’s easy to stitch the product with your own hands. Dyeing the fabric at home is also easy. It is better to give the desired shade before cutting out the details, but it is also possible after. However, it is better to dye the fabric, rather than the finished toy. This will allow you to more accurately perform the operation so that wrinkles do not form during staining and drying. Otherwise, the color will turn out uneven, spots will appear.
So, for staining you need:
- Heat resistant tank.
- Stirring paddle.
- Coffee beans (you can use instant and even add tea leaves).
- White cloth.
Fabric dyeing technology
The sequence of work is as follows:
- Heat the water in a bucket.
- Put coffee and tea in a container.
- Boil the composition.
- Strain, otherwise there will be spots on the fabric.
- Put the material in a filtered solution and boil.
- If the shade suits you, remove the fabric from the solution and lay it on a flat surface to dry. You can use the iron by ironing through a cloth.
Technology for making coffee toys
So, you dyed the fabric, dried it and treated it with an iron. The material is ready to use. Toy manufacturing technology is as follows:
- Draw a pattern on paper or print a template.
- Cut out all the details.
- Lay the elements on the fabric and pin them with pins. The same parts are best performed on doubled matter. The flap should be the wrong side to you.
- Chalk the parts. Make seam allowances.
- Cut out the elements. Usually, simple patterns are used for coffee toys when the product is made of only two parts.
- Fold the cut blanks with the sides inward.
- Sweep by hand, and then sew the seam on the machine, leaving a hole for turning out.
- Turn out the product and fill it with padding polyester.
- Sew the hole manually on the front side.
- Cover with PVA glue those areas of the toy on which you will draw with acrylic (muzzle, tummy);
- Wait for the layer to dry;
- Brush the necessary details.
All is ready. If desired, you can make a pendant from a satin ribbon or decorative cord. This loop is best placed in the seam.
Do-it-yourself coffee lamb magnets will be made using a similar technology. In this case, the toy must be made small in size, and after manufacturing, stick a magnet on the back of the toy. But you can use another method, described in the next section.
DIY coffee bean magnet lamb
A fragrant souvenir can be made using another technology, in the form of a flat and voluminous product, on the surface of which coffee beans are glued, following the example of coffee topiary.
To make a flat (embossed) magnet, work like this:
- Draw on the cardboard the shape of the animal or just the body, if your sheep will consist of separate elements;
- Apply glue with a brush (if PVA) or a heat gun and apply coffee beans to the surface. You can stick in a spiral, if the body is made in the form of a circle (oval) or in rows;
- Complete the rest of the details in any technique, for example, draw.
- Glue a magnet to the back of the souvenir.
The product is ready.
A lamb made of coffee beans with your own hands in the form of a magnet can also be made in the form of a volumetric animal, based on a ball, for example. The manufacturing technology will not differ, only gluing with grains will not have an even plane, but a complex surface. Do not forget to provide the part where the magnet is glued. If a foam ball is used as the base , it is better to cut off the part on the back of the product in the form of a square or rectangle so that the magnet adheres firmly and qualitatively.
So, a do-it-yourself coffee sheep can be made in several ways. Choose what suits you best and what will be easier to do: sew or make from coffee beans.