A decoration perfect for any summer party

A decoration perfect for any summer party

I scream for ice cream! During our recent sunny weather you’ve no doubt been treated to one or two giant waffle cones filled with a few scoops of your favourite ice cream. We can’t rely on getting long spells of hot weather in Ireland, even in the summer, so slurping on ice cream in the sun is a real luxury.

But you can have as much ice cream as you want with these DIY ice cream cones. So whether the sun is still shining, and you have eaten your fill of ice cream, or if the sun has gone away and you miss the days of ice cream, move onto making these felt cones.

They make great decorations for a summer birthday party and you can make as many of the ice creams as you like without the brain freeze. Double them up and stuff them with kapok to hang them from the ceiling, or keep them flat and turn them into bunting for an ice cream party. Decorate them the same way you would decorate real ice cream: with sugar strands or hundreds and thousands, flakes, cherries, or chocolate sauce.

Begin by making your templates on the back of some card. Start with the cones; make triangle shaped cones or flat-bottomed cones like the ones that stand up straight on a surface.

Next make the templates for the scoops of ice cream. Cut out all of your templates and leave to one side. Pin the cone template to the beige felt, and ice cream template to the pale green felt.

Cut around the templates and then remove the pins. Repeat so you have two sides for each shape.

Next take some brown embroidery thread and sew little chocolate sprinkles all over the green pieces of felt. If you’re using white felt for vanilla ice cream, use embroidery thread in different colours for the hundreds and thousands.

Sew a waffle stitch pattern onto the cone if you like. Next attach the cone to the ice cream. Place the cone underneath the ice cream scoop shape and glue in place with some fabric glue.

Repeat with the other pieces and place them back to back. Sew everything up or glue it together, and then make as many ice creams as you like. Add extra scoops to each cone if that’s how you have your real ice cream.