How To: Make a Mini Felt Bumblebee

To celebrate the launch of my new book, Super-Cute Felt Animals, I'm sharing a collection of free tutorials that you can mix and match with the projects from the book.

This week I'm sharing four mini "extras" that are designed to coordinate with the animals in the "In the Garden" chapter: a bee, a ladybird, a leaf and a daisy.

First up: a friendly little bumblebee! 

To make the bee, you will need...
- the template sheet at the bottom of this post
- yellow felt, approx. 1 ¾ x 3 in (4 x 7 cm)
- white felt, approx. 2 ½ x 2 ½ in (6 x 6 cm)
- a small piece of black felt
- matching sewing threads
- black embroidery floss (thread)
- 2 small black seed beads (size 09/0)
- stuffing & a pencil or other small stuffing tool
- needles, pins & embroidery scissors (great for cutting out small felt shapes!)

1. Use the templates provided to cut out two yellow bee shapes, one white wing shape and one black antennae shape.

If you are using thin felt, you may need to double up the wing and antennae shapes to give them added sturdiness. Cut two wings and sew them together with running stitch in matching thread. As the antennae shape is small and a bit fiddly to sew, sew the shape on a square of felt then cut out the second layer of felt to create antennae two layers thick.

2. Position the antennae on one of the bee pieces, and sew it in place using running stitch in yellow sewing thread. Then add the wings and sew them in position with a line of yellow running stitch down each side. This will be the back of your bee.

 

3. Sew two black seed beads on the front bee shape to form the bee’s eyes. Sew each bead flat like an O with three or four stitches of black sewing thread. Then use a double thickness of black sewing thread and very small stitches to backstitch the bee’s smile.

 

4. Cut a length of black embroidery floss and separate half the strands (so for six stranded floss, use three strands). Switch to a larger needle if necessary and backstitch three curved lines to form the bee’s stripes.

5. Place the front and back of the bee together. Use yellow sewing thread to whip stitch the edges, turning the bee back and forth as you sew past the wings and antennae to help keep your stitching neat on both sides. Leave a gap at the bottom of the bee, then stuff it and sew up the gap. Finish your stitching neatly at the back.

 

Click here to view the template sheet in another window/tab, and print it at 100%.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many felt bees as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a few photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

Super Cute-Felt Animals is published by CICO Books, RRP £12.99. It includes 35 fun felt projects, each with illustrated step-by-step instructions. It's available to buy at Amazon UK and Amazon USA and many other bookshops.

Please note: the Amazon links in this post are affiliate links.

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