After the great response to my original post I decided to make up a tutorial.Thank you for the great response! Keep crafting.
I found that the best material for these cookies is felt. It's a stiffer material so it "stands" better and isn't floppy. You can get felt fairly inexpensive and Joann's has every color you could need (and if you sign up for their coupons you can get it at a great price).
Supplies:
Felt: about 2 yards of base color
quilt batting
matching ribbon and thread
The Thin Mint and Tagalong are fairly simple. Lets start with those. Once you've got the idea down it's easier to make the more detailed cookies.
You can make these with or without the sash. I prefer the sash because these two cookies aren't very distinctive on their own.
The Basic Design:
To start you need to decide how big you want your cookies to be. I used a 24 inch circle which results in a 22" final product (give or take).
Take a large piece of paper and make a circle with a 12" (or whatever size you choose) radius. To do this I used easel paper (or you can tape several pieces of paper together. Mark a spot in the center and measure out 12 inches from the center all around, then trace the marks to make a circle.
Cut out the paper circle. This is your pattern.
Cut out 4 felt circles and two batting circles with this pattern.
Cut 4 - 12" pieces of ribbon.
Cut out 4 - 8"X 2" strips these will be your straps.
Lay two of the strips together sew along both of the long edges, do this with the other set.
Now to assemble (I only have pics of this with the Samoa, but it's the same process)
Lay the front piece out, face up. Place the straps where you would like them to go. You will be sewing the material together inside out and turning it right side out, so the straps should be placed on the front towards the center of the circle. I placed them about 6"-7" apart. Pin the straps in place with a little bit hanging over the edge of the circle.
On the sides place the ribbon, in a similar fashion as the straps. Make sure they are pinned straight in place towards the center of the circle. These will be the ties on the side of the costume.
Now lay the second piece of felt on top of the first piece with the straps pinned to it.
On top of that lay the batting.
Pin this all together.
Sew around the circle, leaving an opening of 6" or so at the bottom to turn the it right side out when done sewing.
Cut notches along the edge on the inside so that the seam allowance doesn't bunch when turned.
Turn the cookie right side out and close up the opening. Fold the front and the back in and pin as much as needed to insure that the fabric is rounded.
Top stitch along the outside of the cookie, closing up the opening and continuing around the rest of the of the circle.
You should have one side of the cookie with two straps hanging off the top and two ribbons from the side.
For the second half:
Place the ribbons on the first piece of felt. I always used the first half of the cookie to make this placement to be sure that the two lined up.
Lay the second piece of felt on top, then the batting, pin it all together (just like the first half).
Before you sew, using the first half, mark where the straps will connect with the second half with pins. This will mark the starting and stopping point for sewing.
Start at the first pin that was placed at the straps and sew around the edge to the second pin and stop. This should leave a 10" opening.
Turn the cookie right side out.
Now you will connect the two halves. Take the straps from the first half and insert them into the opening on the second half.
Turn the edges in, insert the straps and pin the top closed
Top stitch along the outside of the circle, closing up the opening and continuing around the rest of the circle. I rolled up the first half to keep it out of the way while I sewed.
Here is a close up of how it looks once it's closed:
And there you go! You have a cookie!
One additional step that I used for the Tagalong and Thin Mint, to make them more recognizable, was to add sashes with the names on them.
Here is a separate tutorial for the sashes, stencils included!
Next is the Thank you Berry Munch:
This one isn't nearly as popular or recognizable but we needed 6 costumes so I tackled this one. It's not my favorite, but it works. The construction is just the same as the basic cookie but before you put it all together take pieces of cranberry and cream colored felt and cut it into random shapes. (I looked at a close up picture of the cookie for inspiration). Randomly sew these pieces onto the fabric. The nice part about using felt is that it won't fray so you don't have to worry about leaving raw edges. Continue the assembly as described above.
Dosi-dos are pretty simple:
The assembly is a little different. You will need 2 pieces of tan felt in the 24" circle and 2 pieces of cream felt in a 26" circle. Cut waves along the edge of the bigger circle to make it look like cream filling.
The straps are easier to attach on this one. Before sewing everything together attach the straps to the cream felt. I put mine about 3" from the edge and 6" apart from each other. Pin the straps to and sew. It should look something like this:
Attach the ribbons on each side the same way you did the straps.
Now lay the batting on top of the cream felt, then the tan felt on top of that. There won't be any turning right side out so make sure the batting is all tucked in and not sticking out of the edges. Pin this all together and sew all the way around. Make sure you don't sew over the straps when you sew! :)
Do the same for the second half of the cookie and you have a Do-si-do!
Next is Samoa:
You will need 4 pieces of brown felt circles and orangey/yellow "caramel" strips. (You can also do this with 3 brown circles, one orange/yellow and "chocolate" strips. I've meant to do this both times that I have made this cookie and I always end up with too much brown fabric and not enough yellow, so I make the strips yellow, I don't think it makes a difference in the end)
Cut out long, wavy strips of the same yellow. Make them varying widths. These will form the strips of chocolate drizzled on the top of the cookie.
Pin the caramel strips on the brown felt circle and sew them on.
Cut a 6" circle out of black felt and sew that over all of it, in the center of the circle.
Then continue assembling this cookie like you did for the Tagalong or Thin Mint.
And then we have the Trefoil:
This one isn't necessarily difficult, but it is very precise and much easier to mess up than the others.
I made a printable pattern for this one! The pattern and tutorial are
HERE!
And that's it! Six adorable Girl Scout Cookies designs! These were fairly simple to make. I would call myself an intermediate sewer (seamstress?), I could see this as a difficult project for a beginner though.
Please feel free to comment and tell me if this tutorial worked for you, or any tips that others might find helpful. I welcome feedback and pictures! Please feel free to share pictures of your completed cookies as well!
