How To: Make a Mini Felt Ladybird

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's projects all coordinate with the designs from the "In the Garden" chapter. Today, learn to make a little felt ladybird!

To make the ladybird, you will need...

- the template sheet at the bottom of this post
- black felt, approx. 2 x 3 in (5 x 7 cm)
- red felt, approx. 1 ¾ x 1 ¾ in (4 x 4 cm)
- matching sewing threads
- 2 large black seed beads (size 8/0)
- 7 round black sequins – approx. ¼ in (6 mm) in diameter
- stuffing & a pencil or other small stuffing tool
- needle, scissors, pins

1. Use the templates provided to cut out one red wing piece, one black body piece and one black head piece.

2. Place the red wings on the back head, as pictured, and use matching red sewing thread to whip stitch the layers together. Then stitch a line down the centre of the wings, using backstitch and black sewing thread.

3. Sew two black seed beads on the head to create the eyes, sewing each bead flat like an O with three or four black stitches.

4. Then add the sequins to the wings, sewing three on one side of the stitched line and four on the other. Sew each sequin in place with three stitches of black sewing thread.

5. Place the decorated ladybird front on top of the black body shape. Use black sewing thread to whip stitch the head together. Then use red sewing thread to whip stitch around the rest of the ladybird, leaving a gap for stuffing. Stuff the ladybird then close up the gap with more whip stitches and 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 ladybirds 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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