The Tiny Cake Fiasco

On a recent visit to Chicago, I came across a small kit at The Paper Source called The Softies Kit which contained patterns and instructions to make tiny stuffed creatures. I bought the kit so I could see how easy the instructions were to follow, plus, I wanted to make a cute tiny cake. The kit included materials to make one softie cake, with whipped cream and a cherry, instructions to create 15 softies, patterns and a booklet explaining different types of stitches.

Materials included for cake project: 

white & pink felt, white & pink thread, needle, tiny pink pom pom 

Materials not included, but needed: 

fabric pen, ruler, straight pins, scissors

The Softies Kit

The Instructions (and my critique of them)

The Process and Final Result

Critique of Instructions:

This project was a mess for me. I watched TV while working so I could recreate the kind of distractions a patient might encounter while in the hospital, so it took me 3 hours to finish the damn tiny cake!!! 3 Hours! 

Negatives:

1. I had to cut freeform circles, 3 inches in diameter, which is a tricky task

2. No images were included in the instructions. The only image I had to reference was the photo of the finished cake on the front of the instruction booklet. When describing how to assemble the 5 whipped cream triangles, an illustration of how to stitch them together would have saved me a lot of time.

3.  To stitch the french knots on the side of the cake (which I forgot to do) I would have needed to reference a different booklet to learn how to create the stitch. 

4. The beginning of the instructions didn't say to put aside some of the fiberfill for the whipped cream top, so I forgot to do that and had to use cotton balls as filling.

5. Final task of stitching the whipped cream on top of the cake was poorly described, and I tried to do it, but couldn't figure out how to hide my stitches so they didn't show......so I gave up and pinned it on.

6. Size of type on the instructions was very small and would be difficult for people ages 50+ to read

Positives:

1. The photo on the front of the finished cake was lovely

2. Descriptions were good, but really needed images along with them

Takeaways: 

I created a pattern for a band-aid softie to include in my craft kit, with a small pocket on the front for patients to store healing messages. To make the process as easy as possible, the fabric pieces will be pre-cut, each step of the instructions will be illustrated, and type size will be large enough for patients to read.