Hanukkah Coasters

I was always jealous of the kids that celebrated Hanukkah... eight days of presents! (That's not even to mention those truly lucky ones that got to do both Hanukkah AND Christmas.) Of course, besides the gifts there are many very special things that happen at Hanukkah, from the lighting of the menorah, to the tradition of eating delicious latkes, to the really fun dreidel game.

In case you aren't familiar with it the dreidel is a small spinning top with 4 sides and each side has a hebrew letter on it.  You spin the top and whatever letter it falls on determines how many pieces of delicious chocolate coins (called "gelt") you win or loose. 

When I set out to make a Hanukkah project I wanted to incorporate this whimsical game somehow and I came up with these clean modern coasters, representing every side of the dreidel. The wool felt they are made out  is thick enough to also be used as a trivet and they are backed in rich shades of blue. In addition to protecting your table they will be a pretty accent to your Hanukkah party!

Happy Hanukkah!

Materials

These materials will make 12 coasters

• 1 Wollfilz Wool Felt Bundle in "Water"
• 2 pieces of Wollfilz 5mm Natural Wool Felt
• 3 balls of Valdani Embroidery Thread in three shades of blue
• Water Soluable Choco Pen
• Embroidery Needles
• straight pins

Download and print this dreidel template

Cutting

Pick out your 4 favorite blues from the "Water" felt pack. You can use the remaining pieces in another project or to make more coasters later.

Cut three 3 1/2-inch squares from each blue piece of felt.

Cut twelve 3 1/2-inch squares from the thick natural color felt.

Embroidering the Dreidel

Print and cut our your dreidel template. Center the template on a piece of white felt and trace it with your fabric marker. Then, using the dreidel letters as a reference write the letter of your choice inside of the dreidel also with your fabric marker. I have marked the letter "Hei" on the coaster above.

Since there are 4 dreidel letters I did 3 coasters per letter.

Using a very small running stitch sew around the marked lines as shown above. It's really fun to sew though the thick felt. It makes a satisfying popping sound with every stitch.

Finishing the Coasters

Pick out a blue piece of felt and pin it to the white piece at the corners as shown above.

Using the same color of embroidery thread as for the dreidel place your needle in-between the blue and white felt and push your needle through  1/4-inch from the edge of the coaster. This step will hide the thread's end.

Using a small running stitch sew a 1/4-inch around the edge of the coaster.

At the end tie a small knot and place the needle in between the white and blue layers. Pull the needle out of the blue felt and snip the thread. This will hide the second end.

Spray your coaster with water to get rid of the blue marks and you're all done!