Cozy Coasters in Felt & Crochet

Anyone who knows me well will happily tell me that I'm obsessive. When they do, I just smile and nod and just as happily say, "I know." So it shouldn't surprise anyone that I actually spend hours of "free time" every day just poring over things other people have done. Crafts, websites, artwork, anything that interests me. It was during one of these obsessive little perusals that I ran across a Japanese craft book containing something I just had to make.

In an issue of the Japanese craft magazine "Cotton Time" was a picture of these adorable felt coasters with crochet edges. I wanted to make them - badly - but had a couple things working against me ... 1) I do not read Japanese so 2) I can't justify the expense of purchasing a craft zine I can't even read. Being obsessive, though, that didn't stop me. So here I am, sharing the pattern I came up with, with you.

Felt & Crochet Coasters

I toyed with the idea of embroidering the felt as in the inspiration pictures, but decided that what I'd rather have was something that looked cozier, more inviting. What I settled with was a felt coaster that's appliqued instead of embroidered. If you prefer the embroidery (see Illustration 01), just skip the part about stitching your flower to the coaster and embroider the felt instead.

1. Print & Cut the Pattern: If you have coasters of your own that you'd like to trace as a pattern, go for it. You can grab the pattern for the coaster (with markings) and the flower here to help you out, though. Either way that you want to go about it, cut an even number of flowers and coasters from felt, fleece, flannel, or another cloth that won't fray on its raw edges. Even craft felt works great for this project to create nice seasonal coasters - just don't expect coasters made from craft felt to last much longer than a season.

Make sure to place a small dot every 1/4" around the coaster for placing the blanket stitch in step three.

2. Applique the Flower: Going to embroider instead? Do it now. Otherwise, stitch the flowers to the coaster, beginning at the center with daisy knots to create the look of a flower's center. Use a running stitch around the petals, always starting from the center and working outward so that you don't wind up with a bunch of folds in your fabric.

3. Blanket Stitch: Load your needle with size 10 crochet thread or a full skein of embroidery floss. Using the markings made in step one (every 1/4" around the coaster), blanket stitch around the outside edge. Not sure how to do a blanket stitch? Don't worry - you can read, see an illustration, and view a video of this stitch from Annie's Attic.

4. Crochet Trim: You'll want to use the same thread you created the blanket stitch with and a size 3 / 2.10 mm crochet hook for this step.

Round 1: Join thread to any blanket stitch; chain 1, sc in the same stitch, 2 sc in each stitch around. Join to beginning ch-1 with a slip stitch.
Round 2: *Chain 1, skip 2 sc, 7 hdc in next sc, ch 1, skip 2 sc, 3 hdc in next sc* around. Join to beginning ch-1 with a slip stitch.