Felt Butterfly Hair Clips Tutorial

One of the awesome things about felt crafting is how easy it is to get creative and adapt projects to make new things. Swap ribbon for a brooch clasp to turn an ornament into a brooch, stuff a pincushion with lavender to turn it into a lavender sachet, enlarge some brooch templates and use them to add an applique design to a cushion… there are always so many crafty possibilities!

Inspired by this, after working on my Year of Wreaths tutorials for The Village Haberdashery's blog I created some easy ideas for re-using the templates from some of the wreaths. I'll be sharing these ideas here on my blog over the coming months, starting with today's project: making some pretty felt butterfly hair clips using the templates from June's butterfly wreath.

 

You will need: 

- The template sheet from the Butterfly Wreath tutorial
- Wool felt in assorted colours
- Matching sewing threads
- Hair clips
- Sewing scissors or embroidery scissors
- A sewing needle and pins
- A glue gun and glue
- A heat-proof mat for the glue gun
- Newspaper to protect your workspace from any glue drips

 

To make the hairclips: 

Use the templates to cut out the butterfly pieces from your chosen felt colours (I used butterflies 2, 4 and 5).

Follow step 3 of the Butterfly Wreath tutorial to sew the butterfly pieces together.

For each hairclip, cut a felt circle approximately 17mm in diameter in the matching felt colour. Sew each circle to the end of a clip using matching sewing thread, as shown. This felt circle is the base onto which you’ll glue the butterfly pieces.

Very carefully glue the butterfly pieces to the circles. Add the wings first, adding a small amount of glue to the circle then carefully pressing the wings into place.

IMPORTANT: take care when working with the glue gun as the glue gets very hot! Always place it on a heat-proof mat when not in use, and use newspaper or other scrap paper to protect your workspace. Work slowly, squeezing the gun with care to control the amount of glue you’re using and keeping your fingers out of the way of the hot glue.

Then add a very small amount of glue to the back of each body piece and carefully press them into position between the wings.

Ta-dah! Pretty felt butterflies to wear in your hair!

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This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many hair clips as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

A Year of Wreaths: June Felt Butterflies Wreath Tutorial

This month’s wreath is an ode to two of summer’s great joys – clear blue skies, and beautiful butterflies!

The wreath is wrapped in some gorgeous sky blue yarn and decorated with butterflies made from wool blend felt. For an extra special wreath, you could use embroidery thread to decorate the butterflies’ wings or add sequins for a bit of sparkle. You can also use the butterfly template sheet for other crafty projects: cushions, greetings cards, hair clips, and so on.

This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness! I'm sharing all twelve seasonal wreath tutorials here on my blog as the year progresses.

You will need:

The template sheet provided (click here to view, download and print the PDF)
A 30cm polystyrene ring wreath base
Wool blend felt in orange, bright pink, purple, pink, and yellow (or your choice of butterfly colours)
Matching sewing threads: orange, bright pink, purple, pink, and yellow.
Sky blue yarn (I used one skein of Manos del Uruguay Maxima in Status).
Sewing scissors (embroidery scissors are great for cutting out small shapes!)
Sewing needles and pins
Glue gun and glue
A heat-proof mat for the glue gun
Newspaper to protect your workspace from any glue drips
Optional: co-ordinating ribbon

1. Decorate the wreath base with your chosen yarn. Secure the yarn with a knot at what will become the back of your wreath. Begin wrapping the yarn around the wreath base, passing the ball of yarn through the hole in the centre of the wreath as you wrap the yarn around the outside.  Hide the loose yarn end under the yarn as you wrap, and make sure that you’re not leaving any gaps where the white wreath base shows through. Continue wrapping, gradually covering the whole of the wreath base.

Wrapping the wreath takes a while, so I highly recommend wrapping your wreath while watching a film or some episodes of your favourite TV show. 

Once the whole wreath base has been covered with yarn, tie a knot securely at the back and carefully trim the loose end so it won’t be visible when the wreath is hung up.

2. Use the templates provided to cut out the butterfly pieces. Each butterfly is made up of a top wing piece (marked A), a bottom wing piece (marked B) and a body piece (marked C). For each butterfly, cut two of each wing piece (flipping the templates over when cutting the second pieces) and two body pieces.

I cut my butterfliesn in the following colours. Butterfly 1 = yellow and bright pink. Butterfly 2 = pink. Butterfly 3 = purple and yellow. Butterfly 4 = bright pink. Butterfly 5 = orange. Butterfly 6 = purple, orange and pink.

3. Sew the butterfly pieces together, using sewing thread to match the felt. Use whip stitch to join the two body pieces – hide the knot between the two layers and finish your stitching neatly at the back.

Then arrange the wing pieces so they overlap slightly, with the top (A) pieces overlapping the bottom (B) pieces. Join the pieces together with a line of small stitches where they overlap. On the smallest butterflies you’ll just need a couple of stitches to join the pieces together.

4. Arrange the butterfly pieces on the wreath, using the photos as a guide. Leave a small gap between the wings for the body pieces. When you’re happy with the arrangement, use pins to hold the wing pieces in position and set the body pieces aside.

Tip: you may find it helpful to line up the body pieces in the order they’ll be needed on the wreath so you can make sure to match the correct body to each butterfly. 

 

5. Glue the wing pieces to the wreath. One by one, remove a wing and turn it over. Add a dab of glue in the middle of the wing then carefully place the shape back in position and press it onto the wreath.

IMPORTANT: take care when working with the glue gun as the glue gets very hot! Always place it on a heat-proof mat when not in use, and use newspaper or other scrap paper to protect your workspace. Work slowly, squeezing the gun with care to control the amount of glue you’re using and keeping your fingers out of the way of the hot glue.

Tip: you may find it helpful to test glue a couple of scrap pieces of felt before you start, so you can see how much glue you need to use to hold each piece in place.

6. Add the remaining butterfly pieces. One by one pick up a body piece, add a small dab of glue in the correct spot, and then very carefully press the felt piece in place on top.

7. Your wreath is now finished! Add a length of yarn or co-ordinating ribbon for hanging the wreath, or hang it directly from a hook or nail.


UPDATE: click here for a tutorial for making felt butterfly hair clips!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


P.S. Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

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

DIY Felt Butterfly Hairclips Tutorial

Update: this tutorial can now be found here on my blog! Make some felt butterfly hair clips, using the templates from my June butterfly wreath tutorial.

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My latest tutorial for The Village Haberdashery's blog is all about felt butterflies!

Use the free patterns and step-by-step tutorial to make some pretty felt butterfly hairclips:

 
This tutorial is part of a spin-off series, showing ways you can reuse some of the patterns from my A Year of Wreaths project. I originally designed the felt butterflies for June's butterfly wreath.

 

Click here for the butterfly hairclips tutorial!

You'll find the butterfly wreath tutorial here and you can explore all the wreaths in the series here.

Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

A Year of Wreaths: June Felt Butterflies Wreath Tutorial

UPDATE: The full butterfly wreath tutorial can now be found here on my blog.

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Another month, another free wreath tutorial! Hurrah!

June's wreath is covered in pretty felt butterflies:

 

The butterflies would look fab decorated with sequins or embroidery, and you could also use the templates to make felt or paper butterflies for other crafty projects.

 

Click here for the free step by step tutorial on The Village Haberdashery's blog.

 

You can buy a kit with all the materials you'll need to make this wreath, or just follow the links in the tutorial to find all the individual supplies in The Village Haberdashery shop.

Click here to find all the wreath tutorials in the series.

Fancy some more free tutorials? Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Nice Things: A Guest Post, A Decision & Some Visitors

There's been some nice stuff happening here lately. Lots of sunshine (yay!), some icecream (yum!) and a few Nice Days Out that I can't wait to blog about and share with you guys - just gotta get those photos edited first (yawn).

Here's some other good stuff from the past couple of weeks...

... I wrote a guest post over at Oh My! Handmade Goodness all about my Nice Days Out - about how enjoyable they've been and how going on them has taught me the importance of scheduling some relaxation and exploration into my working weeks, no matter how long my To Do list might be.

 

... I'm "quoted" in this month's issue of Craftseller magazine, in an article about Social Media. I say "quoted" because the advice credited to me in the piece isn't actually something I said! Ah well, it's nice to have a mention anyway :)

 

 

 

... and I decided to delete most of my Pinterest boards. This doesn't immediately sound like it fits under the heading of "nice things" but after months of thinking that I "should" be using Pinterest but knowing in my heart that it was making me feel overwhelmed and stressed and a bit sad, it feels very nice to have finally made the decision to step back from it and spend my time and energy on things that suit me better.

I'll still be Pinning stuff like tutorials and guest posts from my blog (so if you follow my projects there you can continue to do so) and updating my Nice Day Out boards (mapping the places I've been, because I love being able to do that!) but not much else.

Finally (last but by no means least in the niceness stakes) I've had a couple of lovely visitors...

... a pretty butterfly who landed on the sunny window next to me when I was working on a blog post...

... and a sweet deer who brightened up two Mondays in a row by paying us a visit!

How To: Felt Butterfly Cards

Today I'm sharing a simple tutorial for making quick and easy cards decorated with felt butterflies.

I had some felt butterfly shapes left over from making my butterfly lavender sachets and instead of throwing them away (waste not, want not!) I thought I'd use them to make some cards. You can never have too many cards to send to friends, right?

You could also make these from pretty scrap paper (like these notecards I made a few years ago), but I rather like how the thickness and texture of the felt really stands out from the card.

You will need:

The butterfly template from this post (printed at 50%)
Card blanks & matching envelopes
Colourful felt
Pins & sewing scissors
Double sided sticky tape, or craft glue
Craft scissors
Optional: sewing thread & needle, pen, pencil, eraser

To make the cards...

Use the butterfly template to cut out your butterflies.

If you want to "frame" the butterflies also cut out 3 inch (7.5 cm) squares in contrasting felt. If you like you can stitch the butterfly in place in the middle of the square with running stitch and matching sewing thread, but you don't need to (and it's much quicker not to!)

Arrange the butterflies on your card blanks to plan where you want them. The 3 inch squares are perfect for adding to 4 x 6 inch cards.

Stick pieces of double sided tape to the back of each felt shape, peel off the plastic backing then press the shapes into position. You can use craft glue if you prefer but I find that double-sided tape works great, without any mess!

 

I stuck the butterflies-in-squares onto 4 x 6 inch cards...

... and stuck a trio of butterflies to a 3 x 8 inch card. I chose three shades of the same colour, but you could use any three colours you fancy.

 

You can leave the cards blank, or add your own message with a black or co-ordinating coloured pen. Write your chosen text with a pencil first to make sure you get it correctly positioned, then erase the pencil lines once the ink has fully dried.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!



Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

How To: Butterfly Silhouette Lavender Sachets

It's time for a tutorial: make some simple but stylish felt lavender sachets decorated with butterflies.

 

Lavender sachets are one of those things that used to feel super old fashioned but have started to be popular again - not least because the pesky clothes moth is on the rise! (Boooooo).

They make lovely little gifts and if you're just learning to sew, making these is a great way to practise running stitch and blanket stitch.

You will need:

The butterfly template found here, printed at 50%
A square template, 3 x 3 inches (7.5 x 7.5 cm)
Felt in two colours
Thread to match your butterfly colour
Dried lavender
A needle & pins
Sewing scissors (embroidery scissors are ideal for cutting out detailed shapes like the butterfly)

1. For each sachet, cut out two felt squares and one butterfly shape in a contrasting colour.

2. Pin the butterfly in the centre of one of the squares, and sew it in place with small running stitches in matching sewing thread.

Your butterfly will now look something like this.

If you want you could add the butterfly body shape included on the template or decorate the butterfly like these butterfly brooches, with sequins or embroidery, but for these sachets I'm keeping things simple.

3. Place or pin the two squares together and sew around the edge with blanket stitch - make sure your stitches are quite close together so there won't be holes for the lavender to escape from, and leave a gap for stuffing the sachet in the next step. 

I used the same thread as before, so the stitching stands out as an extra decorative feature. If you prefer you could use matching sewing thread so your stitches will blend in with the felt.

4. Fill the sachet with dried lavender. I use a small teaspoon for this (I have one that I keep in my craft stash so it only ever gets used for crafty things), spooning the lavender from a small tub or tray like an empty margarine tub. Use the handle end of your spoon to gently poke the lavender into the corners, and don't overfill the sachet. 

5. Sew up the gap with more blanket stitches and finish your stitching neatly at the back. Your finished sachet will now look something like this:

If you prefer, you could use whip stitch to sew your butterfly in place - like the butterfly on the right in this photo - but I like how the butterfly shape stands out more from the backing felt when you use running stitch.

 

These are so quick and fun to sew, you can make a whole batch in no time. Matching pairs of sachets (like the reverse-coloured pairs I've sewn) would make a lovely gift, tied together with pretty ribbon.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many lavender sachets as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.