Friday Craftacular has an easy way to get a little more fiber into your kids' pretend diet

MAKE A CUPCAKE PINCUSHION

Ok ... so I snuck away from the craft books in the children's section of the library because the instructions were confusing me and I found THIS wedged between cooking and gardening.

I started salivating. I checked out the book by Betz White (and paid the $28 in fines we owed from the prior week) before I even read the instructions.

Turns out it's all about crafting with felted SWEATERS, which would have been perfect for me since I end up donating all the sweaters Jed accidentally washes and dries to Goodwill. But my color choices lean toward bland. So I'm already forced to improvise.

THINGS YOU'LL NEED
* a couple of sheets of craft felt
* a scrap of wide wale corduroy
* Some thread or embroidery floss
* and some glue.

THINGS YOU DON'T NEED BUT CAN HELP
* a pom-pom
* tiny buttons
* rick rack
* beads
* a bakery cupcake to keep you from overindulging in felt


FIRST ...



Cut a length of felt twice as wide as you envision the height of your cupcake. Cut another strip in a different color.



Fold the felt in half, sandwich together.



Roll tightly and baste stitch the end flap.



Cut a strip of the scrap corduroy so that it will fit around the rolled felt. (You can also use the cuff of a felted sweater.) Fold right-side in and sew the end. Fit the sleeve over the cupcake. Trim to fit the bottom edge if it doesn't already. I salvaged my piece of corduroy from a skirt that already had a frayed edge.



Slather glue on the bottom of the cake.



Press a square of felt (or corduroy) to the bottom and trim around the edge. I also blanket stiched around the edge with embroidery floss of a matching color.



Then the kid gussied it up with pom-poms, rick rack and straight pins.



Make a few more, leave out the straight pins and your kids can really play with their food.