Felt Nintendo Controller

This felt controller was made for use with Makey Makey and can be used to play a variety of games. You can make pretty much any controller you like but this sample was from the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

Materials needed

1 piece each of light grey, dark grey, black and red felt (or appropriate colours for your chosen controller style)

Appropriately coloured thread

Conductive thread

Needle

Stuffing

Makey Makey kit

Choose the controller you wish to make. In this case I went for the traditional Nintendo controller. I am not a gamer so had to look up images which was the basis of my design.

Once I had decided on the style, I selected appropriate coloured felt and threads.

Using a piece of light gray felt, cut out 2 rectangles slightly larger than you want the controller to be.

From the black felt cut out a rectangle a little smaller than the the two large ones.

Now use the remaining light grey and black felt, along with the red and dark grey pieces, cut out the buttons and decorative elements.

Set out where you want your pieces to be on the front of your controller. They should stick a little but if they fall off and you are not willing to risk a wonky controller, pin the pieces down.

Stitch around each of the pieces using a similarly coloured thread.

To make your controller actually work, add some conductive thread embroidery.

On the first button you want active, stitch about 1 cm of conductive thread for three stitches to create a good contact point. Then continue with a running stitch up to the top of the felt to the top of the felt and again stitch 1cm of conductive thread horizontally at the top of the controller where the alligator clips will be attached.

Repeat this process for every button you would like active but ensure the lines of stitching do not touch at any point.

Place the second light grey rectangle directly on the controller face stitch up the sides and bottom of the controller.

Trim the edges and turn right side out.

Put stuffing inside the pocket.

Fold top edge of the back piece of felt in but leave the top edge of the controller face sticking out to create a flap.

Stitch the pocket up to enclose the stuffing.

Attach the alligator clips to the appropriate stitches on the top flap of the controller.

Find a game to play and have fun!