bottle cap felt cupcakes

Difficulty Level - Challenging

Skills Required - Sewing

Materials Required -

• One used cap from a 2 liter bottle
• scraps of felt
• needle
• thread
• sprinkle-colored embroidery thread or seed beads
• scissors
• marking pencil or pen
• ruler
• polyester fiberfill or cotton balls or whatever soft, fluffy thing you have around

Finished Product

 

Last week, I went to a craft night at the local library where they were making "Pretty little pin cushions." After making it, I realized that it looked like a cupcake and was made of re-purposed trash so it had a perfect venue here on the Recycled toys blog! This project is more for the sewing type. I'd imagine that if you are terrified of sewing, you could make something similar using hot glue. I just think that sewing it will hold it together a little better and it looks cute!


The re-purposed item is a bottle cap from a typical 2 liter soda bottle. You'll also need scraps of fabric. Felt works best because it doesn't unravel.

Trace the top of the bottle cap onto the felt and cut it out.

Measure the hieght of the bottle cap and make a stip that height that is long enough the circle the cap.

wrap the strip around the cap.

starting at the open side of the cap, sew the overlapping seam together using a simple whip stitch/ applique stitch.

Put the circle on top and continue sewing around the circle. Tie off a knot when you finish and hide the string tail by poking it back through the felt.

Make a 3 inch diameter circle using a ruler, compass, circle cutter, etc. Trace it onto your cake colored felt.

Sew basting stitches around the edge of the circle.

Pull the thread till it your cupcake top looks like a bowl.

Now, fill the circle with your stuffing. I used cotton balls for it. Fluff them out a little first, it will make them a little easier to work with. I used about 1 1/2 cotton balls per cupcake. (If you decide that you'd really like this to be your pin cushion instead of a kids cupcake, I recommend using the polyester fiber fill beacuse the pins don't go through the cotton very easily.)

Tighten the string the rest of the way.

Fit the circle cupcake top into the bottle cap base. Sew it together along the seam.

Now, you have a delicious looking, ready to decorate cupcake.

Using Pink felt, I made a wobbley little circle of frosting. I tried two different methods for sprinkles. First, I sewed on assorted colored seed beads. You might be able to tell from the pictures that this morning, before I even got a chance to take photos, my dear 21 month old girl tried to pull off the sprinkles. So, I recommend french knot seeds. I chose red thread to make the cupcakes in the spirit of Valentine's Day. (If you don't know how to tie a french knot, try looking it up on U-tube).

The finished product looked so delicious, Little Mousey couldn't help but admire them!