Crafting With Felt Flowers: Floral Applique T-shirt Tutorial

Jazz up a plain t-shirt with some colourful felt flowers!

 
This week I'm sharing four easy ideas for crafting with felt flowers, making use of the flower templates from my spring flowers wreath tutorial. Todays's project? Adding little felt flowers to a kids' t-shirt!

This tutorial was originally designed for The Village Haberdashery's blog, using felt and other craft supplies from their shop.

You will need:

- The flower templates from my April wreath tutorial
- A t-shirt
- Felt in at least two colours
- Matching sewing threads
- Contrasting embroidery thread
- Sewing needles and pins
- Sewing scissors or embroidery scissors

To decorate the t-shirt:

Use templates D and H to cut out enough felt flower pieces to decorate the neckline of your chosen t-shirt. I cut enough pieces for five flowers, mixing and matching three shades of felt.

Stitch the flower pieces together with half strands of contrasting embroidery thread (so for six-stranded thread just use three strands), sewing six radiating stitches from the centre of each flower as shown. I used white embroidery thread for this, to match the white t-shirt.

One by one, sew the flowers to the t-shirt using whip stitch and matching sewing thread. Start in the centre and work outwards, evenly spacing the flowers around the neckline of the t-shirt. Take care not to stretch the t-shirt fabric and distort it as you sew the flowers in place. Hide the knots of your thread between the layers of felt/fabric so they won’t irritate the skin when the t-shirt is worn.

I'd recommending washing your finished t-shirt should be hand washed in lukewarm water instead of popping it in the washing machine!

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This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to decorate as many t-shirts 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!

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!

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 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 Fantastic Festival Hairbands Tutorial

Today I'm sharing a fun and easy DIY project: decorating plastic Alice bands!

 

 

ADVERTISEMENT: This tutorial is sponsored by Bostik, and is part of a series of crafty projects I'm creating to promote their range of adhesives. Click here to see all the posts in the series!

This post is actually the start of a whole week of Bostik-themed craftiness here on my blog. I'll be sharing creative ideas using all these different products:

I'll be using the PVA Glue, Glu Dots, Micro Dots and Blu Tack later in the week (on Wednesday and Friday), but today I'm getting crafty with Bostik's Power Repair glue.

According to the packaging, Bostik Power Repair Ultimate Strength Glue "provides a long lasting bond for just about anything - glass, wood, stone, metal, leather, rubber, plastics, ceramics and much more!" It "resists knocks and drops, is waterproof and works in extreme temperatures."

It's ideal for small repairs around the house, basically, but did I want to use it to repair something around the house? No I did not. I wanted to use it to make something fun and joyful and to test it out on a project that I'd normally use a glue gun for because I'm always interested in alternatives to worrying that I'm going to burn myself with hot glue.

So, I decided to decorate some plain plastic Alice bands and turn them into fun accessories to wear to parties, gigs, or festivals this summer.

 
To make your own headband, you'll need a plain plastic band to use as your base (the wide plastic ones are particularly great as they give you a big flat surface to glue stuff to), something fun to stick on them, and some Bostik Power Repair glue or other suitable strong glue.

I decorated the narrow hairband with bright felt balls, and the wide hairband with a trio of mini rubber ducks. Rubber ducks are pretty cute and the colours are fab, but I also love the idea of wearing rubber ducks in your hair to a festival where the forecast is for lots of rain! The Power Repair glue is waterproof, so you won't need to worry about the ducks sliding off your head during a downpour.

I applied the glue to the bottom of one of the ducks and the top of the wide headband using the narrow nozzle on the glue (you can also unscrew the whole cap if you're sticking something larger), then held them together for a few minutes.

The glue is "repositionable for up to 3 minutes" which means you don't have that OH NO I STUCK IT IN THE WRONG PLACE ARGH moment that so often happens when working with a glue gun but it does mean you may need to be patient while the glue sets a little. If you were sticking something flat on top of something else flat you could just leave them both sitting there but my duck would definitely have slid off the curved headband if I'd not held it in place.

The glue is quite a thick gel and applies easily without dripping, which is great. The packaging also boasts that it "won't glue your fingers together" which is always EXCELLENT news when working with strong glue (I always end up getting glue on my fingers no matter how carefully I work). 

I then left the headband propped up (between two small wooden boxes) for a while to give the glue a chance to set some more (it fully sets after two hours and will reach full strength after 24 hours).

After about 20 minutes I nudged the duck gently and was happy with how it was holding in place so I repeated the process to add the other two ducks, each time propping the headband up so the latest duck was sitting as horizontal as possible so it wouldn't slide down the curved band.

 

I used the same method for adding the felt balls to the narrow headband, just adding less glue and only waiting about 10 or 15 minutes for the glue to have taken hold. (I didn't time this exactly, just wandered off to get a few other things done while I was waiting so you may find you can add the next item to your headband much quicker than this!)

 

And that's it! Told you it was easy. Now all you need to do is go try on your hairband(s) and take some selfies :)

DISCLOSURE: this post is sponsored by Bostik, who also provided the Power Repair I used to make the headbands.

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

A Year of Wreaths: February Valentine's Heart Wreath Tutorial

My monthly wreath project continues with a heart-themed wreath to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and to spread a little love and happiness!

This month’s wreath features embroidered felt hearts, pretty ricrac and some gorgeous berry-coloured yarn.

The hanging heart would also make a fab ornament on its own - simple add a coordinating ribbon loop and a matching backing heart (either cut a plain red felt heart or repeat the relevant steps to make two decorated hearts to join together).

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

You will need:

The template sheet provided (click here to view, download and print the PDF)
A 30cm polystyrene ring wreath base
4 shades of felt: red, lilac, bright pink and light pink
Some pink or purple yarn (I used two balls of Rico Essentials Soft Merino Aran in Berry)
80cm purple ricrac
1 skein of white embroidery thread (I used DMC Mouline Stranded Cotton BLANC)
Red sewing thread
Sewing scissors
Embroidery scissors
Sewing needles and pins
A large, sharp needle
A glue gun and glue
A heat-proof mat for the glue gun
Newspaper to protect your workspace from any glue drips
Optional: pinking shears, an air-erasable fabric marker

To make the wreath:

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, and switch to a second ball as needed.

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 following felt pieces: 2 x Heart A in red, 1 x Heart A in lilac, 1 x Heart B in red, and 2 x Heart B in lilac.
  
Tip: embroidery scissors are perfect for cutting out small felt shapes! 

3. Place one of the smaller hearts in the centre of a contrasting larger heart. Cut a length of white embroidery thread and separate half the strands (so, just use 3 of the 6 strands). Hold the heart in position or secure it with a few tacking stitches of sewing thread.

Use the embroidery thread to backstitch around the inside of the smaller heart, sewing through both layers of felt. Then use more half strands of thread to sew a pattern of single stitches around the edge of the heart, varying the size of your stitches to fill the available space.

Tip: smaller backstitches will help you sew a smoother curve. If you’re having difficulty sewing neatly freehand, use an air-erasable fabric marker to draw your stitching line(s).

Remove any tacking threads (if you’ve used them) then repeat this step to decorate the other two pairs of hearts.

4. Use the templates provided to cut out one each of the following pieces: Heart A in red, Heart B in lilac, Heart C in bright pink, Heart D in light pink and Heart E in red. Arrange the heart shapes as shown.

5. Hold all the layers together, or secure them with a few small tacking stitches of sewing thread in the centre. Use half strands of white embroidery thread to backstitch around the inside of the central heart, sewing through all the layers of felt. Remove the tacking stitches if you’ve used them.

6. Decorate the rest of the layers with more white embroidery thread - alternating between backstitch and single radiating stitches, as shown.

7. Use the Heart E template to cut a backing piece of red felt for the embroidered heart. Cut a 50cm length of the yarn you used to wrap the wreath. Thread a large, sharp needle with one end of yarn and tie a large knot in the other end. Then sew up the centre of the felt heart, as shown.

8. Place the decorated large heart and the plain backing heart together, so the knot of the yarn is hidden between the layers. Hold or pin them together and join the edges with red sewing thread. I used blanket stitch for this because it creates a lovely neat edge, but you could use whip stitch if you prefer. Make sure the yarn end sticks straight up from the top of the heart as you sew around it, and finish your stitching neatly at the back.

9. Use the Felt Strip template to cut out 4 pieces of light pink felt. Also use the template as a guide to cut 4 pieces of purple ricrac and 4 wider pieces of bright pink felt. Layer the pieces, as shown.

10. Use half strands of white embroidery thread to backstitch a straight line down the centre, sewing through all the layers. Repeat for all the ricrac and felt pieces, creating four decorated strips.

11. Trim the bright pink felt with pinking shears to create a decorative zigzag edging. If you don’t have any pinking shears, just trim the felt with ordinary sewing scissors to create a narrow border.

12. Hang the large embroidered heart from the top of the wreath. Adjust the height of the heart until you’re happy with it and wait for the yarn to stop spinning so you can make sure the heart will hang straight. Once you’re happy with the position of the heart, knot the yarn securely and trim the excess yarn.

13. Position the felt pieces around the top of the wreath, as shown, pinning each shape in place. This is also a good time to add a length of yarn for hanging the wreath, if needed (i.e. if you’re not planning to hang the wreath directly on a hook or nail). 

14. Turn the wreath over and use a glue gun to secure the ends of the decorated strips to the back of the wreath. Work on one strip of felt at a time, removing one pin and folding the end of the strip back slightly. Carefully add a dab or two of hot glue to the wreath base then very carefully press the felt down into position. Then remove the pin from the other end of the strip and glue that in place. Repeat until you’ve removed all the pins and all four strips have been glued in position.

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.

15. Once the glue has dried, turn the wreath over and begin gluing the four hearts in place. One by one, remove a pin and turn the heart over. Add two or three dabs of glue to the back of the heart then carefully press it back in position on the wreath.

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!