A popsicle that never melts might be the perfect summer craft. Made from soft felt, a little stuffing, colorful embroidery floss, and a handful of cheerful embellishments, this adorable felt popsicle plush is simple enough for a beginner but cute enough to display long after summer is over.
The design is inspired by a pastel pink popsicle with a sweet embroidered face, colorful sprinkles, and a softly stuffed felt stick. You can recreate that look almost exactly or turn the basic pattern into any imaginary popsicle flavor you like. Try strawberry pink, lemon yellow, mint green, blueberry purple, creamsicle orange, or make an entire rainbow collection.
Because the pieces are small and the stitching does not need to be complicated, this is also a nice project for practicing basic hand sewing and embroidery. A blanket stitch gives the outside edge a decorative handmade finish, but a simple whip stitch or running stitch works too.
✂️ What You’ll Need
- Pastel pink felt
- Light brown or tan felt
- Polyester fiberfill
- Black embroidery floss
- Pink embroidery floss for cheeks, optional
- Assorted embroidery floss for sprinkles
- Small colorful beads or sequins, optional
- Hand-sewing needle or embroidery needle
- Sharp fabric scissors
- Straight pins or sewing clips
- Fabric marker, chalk, or pencil
- Paper or cardstock for making a template
- Fabric glue, optional
For a child-friendly version, use embroidered sprinkles instead of beads, sequins, buttons, or other small decorations.
🍓 Make a Simple Popsicle Template
The popsicle in the original design has a simple rounded shape, which means you do not need a complicated printable pattern.
Draw a popsicle shape on paper approximately 6 inches tall and 3 inches wide. Make the sides mostly straight, then round the two upper corners so the top resembles an old-fashioned frozen ice pop.
You can make yours slightly wider or shorter if you prefer a chunkier plush. The exact measurements are not important as long as the front and back pieces match.
For the stick, draw a rectangle approximately 3 inches long and 1 inch wide. Round the lower corners slightly if you want the stick to look softer and more realistic.
Cut out both paper templates before transferring them to the felt.
🧵 How to Make the Felt Popsicle Plush
- Cut the popsicle pieces. Pin or trace the large popsicle template onto the pink felt and cut out two identical shapes. These will become the front and back of the plush. Try to make the edges as similar as possible because they will eventually be stitched together.
- Cut the popsicle stick. Trace the smaller stick template onto the tan felt twice and cut out both pieces. When finished, you should have four felt pieces altogether: two pink popsicle shapes and two tan stick shapes.
- Decorate the face before assembling the plush. Set one pink piece aside to become the back. The other will be the face of the popsicle. It is much easier to embroider all of the details while this piece is still lying flat than after the plush has been stuffed.
- Stitch the eyes. Thread your needle with black embroidery floss. For the sleepy, kawaii expression shown in the inspiration design, make each eye as a small curved line rather than a solid circle. A few tiny back stitches are enough to create each curve. Position the eyes roughly across the middle of the popsicle, leaving plenty of room for the smile beneath them.
- Add the smile. Use the same black floss to stitch a small upward-curving mouth between and below the eyes. Keep it simple. Two or three small stitches can create an expressive little smile without making the face feel crowded.
- Add rosy cheeks. Use pink embroidery floss to make a few small stitches on either side of the face. You can create little circles, short horizontal lines, or tiny crosses. If your pink felt is already quite bright, choose a slightly darker or lighter shade so the cheeks remain visible.
- Make the sprinkles. Around the face, add short straight stitches in several colors to imitate candy sprinkles. Scatter them randomly rather than arranging them in perfectly even rows. Use yellow, turquoise, purple, white, orange, green, or any colors that stand out against the pink felt. Vary the angle of the stitches to make them look more playful.
- Add beads if desired. To match the sparkly appearance of the original project, you can sew a few small beads among the embroidered sprinkles. Stitch each bead securely to the felt rather than relying on glue. If the finished plush will be handled by a young child, leave the beads off and use embroidery for all the details instead.
- Sew the stick. Place the two tan felt pieces together with the edges aligned. Using tan embroidery floss or sewing thread, stitch around the two long sides and the rounded bottom, leaving the top open. Blanket stitch looks especially pretty, but whip stitch works perfectly well.
- Lightly stuff the stick. Add a very small amount of polyester filling through the open top. You want enough stuffing to give the stick dimension without making it look like a tiny pillow. A knitting needle, chopstick, or the blunt end of a pencil can help push the filling into the lower corners.
- Position the stick inside the popsicle. Lay the undecorated pink back piece flat. Place the finished stick at the center of the lower edge so roughly one-third of it extends inside the popsicle and the rest hangs below. The overlap keeps the stick securely anchored once the body is sewn together.
- Add the decorated front. Place the embroidered pink piece directly on top of the back piece with the decorated side facing outward. The top of the tan stick should now be sandwiched between the two pink layers. Pin or clip the pieces together so nothing shifts while you sew.
- Begin sewing around the edge. Starting near the bottom, stitch through both layers of pink felt. Blanket stitch gives the plush a decorative outline and works beautifully with felt, especially if you choose embroidery floss in a contrasting color. You can also use matching pink thread if you prefer the seam to disappear.
- Secure the stick firmly. When you reach the section containing the popsicle stick, stitch through both pink pieces and the tan felt sandwiched between them. Make a few extra stitches along this area so the stick cannot easily pull free.
- Leave an opening for stuffing. Continue sewing around the sides and rounded top, but stop when approximately 2 inches of the seam remain open. Leave enough room to insert the polyester filling comfortably.
- Stuff the popsicle. Add small amounts of fiberfill at a time, pushing it gently toward the top corners and along the edges before filling the center. The finished popsicle should look plump and soft without becoming so tightly stuffed that the felt stretches or the stitches pull apart.
- Close the final opening. Once you are happy with the shape, continue the same stitch pattern across the remaining opening. Tie the thread securely and hide the end between the layers of felt.
🪡 How to Blanket Stitch the Edge
Blanket stitch works especially well for this project because the stitching becomes part of the decoration.
Begin with the knot hidden between the two layers of felt. Bring the needle through both layers a short distance from the edge, but before pulling the thread completely tight, pass the needle through the loop of thread that remains.
Pull gently until the loop settles neatly against the outer edge.
Move a short distance along the popsicle and repeat. Try to keep the stitches approximately the same distance apart and the same depth from the edge. They do not need to be mathematically perfect. Slight variations are part of the handmade charm.
If blanket stitch is completely new to you, practice on two scraps of felt before sewing the plush. After several stitches, the looping motion becomes much easier to understand.
😊 How to Get the Kawaii Face Just Right
The expression is what gives this little popsicle most of its personality.
Keep the features small and relatively low-key. Oversized eyes or a large mouth can quickly dominate the entire design, while tiny curved eyes and a miniature smile give the popsicle the gentle expression shown in the inspiration image.
Before making permanent stitches, place tiny removable marks where you think the eyes and mouth should go. Set the felt down and look at it from a short distance.
If the face seems too high, too low, or slightly crooked, move the marks before threading the needle.
Embroidery is forgiving, but planning for thirty seconds is easier than pulling out stitches later.
🌈 Make a Whole Popsicle Collection
Once you have made one, the same template can become an entire tray of felt frozen treats.
A pale green popsicle with darker green stitches could become mint. Yellow felt with white sprinkles makes a cheerful lemon pop. Orange and cream felt can create a creamsicle-inspired version, while lavender felt with blue and pink details makes a whimsical berry flavor.
You could also divide the front into several sections and use different colors of felt to create striped rainbow popsicles.
Give each one a different expression. One might have closed smiling eyes, another could have round surprised eyes, and a third could have a tiny embroidered heart for a mouth.
The basic construction stays exactly the same, so each new popsicle becomes faster to make.
🍉 Try Different Summer Treat Shapes
The same technique works for far more than popsicles.
Once you are comfortable sewing two felt shapes together and stuffing them, try making watermelon slices, ice cream cones, strawberries, lemons, cherries, cupcakes, or little glasses of lemonade.
Keep the silhouettes simple and allow the embroidery to provide most of the detail.
A collection of miniature stuffed summer foods would make adorable decorations for a craft room, child’s room, summer party, or seasonal garland.
You could even attach ribbon loops before sewing the pieces closed and turn them into hanging ornaments.
🎀 Turn the Popsicle Into a Garland
Instead of making one large plush, shrink the template and create several smaller popsicles.
Before closing each one, sew a loop of ribbon or embroidery floss into the top. Once all of the popsicles are complete, slide them onto a length of twine or ribbon to make a colorful summer garland.
Alternate several “flavors” for the brightest display.
A garland can be hung across a craft room, playroom, summer party table, or bedroom wall. Because felt is lightweight, even several stuffed popsicles will not make the garland particularly heavy.
For a flatter version, skip the stuffing completely and stitch two layers of felt together around the edges.
🧲 Make a Mini Popsicle Magnet
Shrink the pattern to only a few inches tall and make the popsicle with little or no stuffing.
Instead of attaching a hanging loop, secure a craft magnet to the back. Follow the adhesive manufacturer’s directions and make sure the magnet is firmly attached before using it.
Tiny popsicle magnets would be especially cute on a refrigerator during summer.
You could make several in different colors and use them to hold vacation photos, picnic lists, recipes, or children’s artwork.
🎁 Add It to a Handmade Gift
A small felt popsicle can become an adorable addition to a summer gift.
Attach one to the outside of a gift bag, use a flat version as a decorative gift tag, or pair it with other handmade felt treats in a little basket.
It would also make a sweet party favor for a summer birthday, ice cream social, or pool party.
If you are making several, create the project assembly-line style. Cut all of the felt pieces first, embroider all the faces next, then sew and stuff them together. Repeating each task is much faster than completing every popsicle individually from beginning to end.
🧒 Making This Craft With Kids
Older children who are comfortable using a sewing needle can help with many parts of this craft, particularly choosing colors, designing faces, adding embroidered sprinkles, and stuffing the finished shape.
Younger children can help trace the template, arrange felt decorations, choose expressions, and select colors while an adult handles the needle and scissors.
For a plush intended for a young child, keep the design entirely embroidered rather than attaching beads, sequins, buttons, or other small decorations.
The embroidered version is just as colorful and actually has another advantage: nothing hard interrupts the soft surface of the finished plush.
✨ No-Sew Felt Popsicle Option
If sewing is not part of the plan, you can create a similar decoration with fabric glue.
Decorate the front felt piece with glued felt shapes rather than embroidery, glue the stick between the front and back layers, and seal the edges almost completely. Leave a small opening, add a little stuffing, then glue the remaining section closed.
A no-sew version works best as a decoration rather than a heavily handled plush because sewn seams are generally stronger.
You can also skip the stuffing and simply glue two flat felt layers together for ornaments, garlands, or party decorations.
🧵 Don’t Worry About Perfect Stitches
Handmade felt crafts look charming precisely because they do not look as though they came off an assembly line.
One blanket stitch may be slightly longer than its neighbor. A sprinkle might lean at a strange angle. One cheek may be a tiny bit higher than the other.
None of those things will spoil the finished popsicle.
Concentrate on making the seams secure and the overall shape recognizable. Your stitching will naturally become more consistent as you work around the edge.
By the time you finish the first plush, you will probably already be thinking about what color to make the next one.
🍦 A Sweet Summer Craft That Never Melts
There is something wonderfully cheerful about turning a simple sheet of felt into a tiny character.
A rounded pink shape becomes a frozen treat. A few black stitches become sleepy eyes and a smile. Bright scraps of thread turn into sprinkles, a little stuffing gives the whole thing dimension, and suddenly you have a handmade popsicle that looks good enough to join a collection of summertime treats.
Keep the original pastel-pink design for a soft, kawaii look or turn the idea completely loose with rainbow colors, funny expressions, embroidered toppings, and imaginary flavors.
Unlike the real thing, there is no race against the summer heat.
This popsicle can stay sweet all year long.
🔗 Related Articles
- How to Blanket Stitch Felt: A Beginner’s Step-by-Step Guide
- Embroidery 101: A Beginner’s Guide to the Art of Needlework
- How to Start Your Crafting Adventure
