Plant Lady Brooches: Felt Cactus Brooch Tutorial

Sew a fun felt cactus brooch with the second of my plant lady brooch tutorials!

These leafy designs would make great gifts for the plant-lovers in your life! You could also leave off the brooch backs and use the designs as patches to sew on your rucksack, jacket, or other items that don’t need regular washing. Fancy sewing the set? You'll find the Plant Lady brooch tutorial HERE and the Monstera Leaf brooch tutorial HERE.

The tutorials originally appeared on the Village Haberdashery's blog and were created using felt and other craft supplies from their shop.

You will need:

- The plant lady brooch templates (follow the link to view and download the PDF template sheet)
- Light and bright pink felt
- Bright and dark green felt
- Matching sewing thread
- Light pink and white embroidery thread
- A brooch clasp
- A sewing needle and pins
- Sewing scissors or embroidery scissors (these are great for cutting out small shapes!)
- Optional: an air-erasable marker pen

To make a cactus brooch:

1. Use the templates provided to cut one cactus from bright green felt, one plant pot from light pink felt, and one heart from bright pink felt.

2. One by one, sew the shapes to a backing piece of dark green felt. Use whip stitch and matching thread, taking care to sew the bottom edge of the cactus and the top edge of the plant pot flush with each other.

3. Add the stitched spines to the cactus, sewing lots of single stitches with two strands of white embroidery thread (out of the six strands in the skein).

4. Cut a small flower from bright pink felt. You can carefully cut this freehand, or draw a flower on the felt with an air erasable marker pen and cut it out. Sew the flower in position with three strands of light pink embroidery thread, sewing one stitch along each petal as shown.

5. Trim away the backing felt, leaving a narrow border around the cactus design. Then use the shape you’ve just cut out as a template to cut a matching backing piece from dark green felt.

6. Turn over the backing shape. Sew a brooch clasp in position with a double thickness of matching sewing thread. Place the front and back of the brooch together and sew around the edges with whip stitch and more matching thread.

 

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This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many brooches 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!

Plant Lady Brooches: Embroidered Brooch Tutorial

This week I'm sharing three fun felt tutorials for adding a bit of plant lady style to your outfits... starting with this embroidered brooch:

These leafy designs would make great gifts for the plant-lovers in your life! You could also leave off the brooch backs and use the designs as patches to sew on your rucksack, jacket, or other items that don’t need regular washing. UPDATE: you can now find the cactus brooch tutorial here and the monstera leaf brooch tutorial here.

The tutorials originally appeared on the Village Haberdashery's blog and were created using felt and other craft supplies from their shop.

You will need:

- The plant lady brooch templates (follow the link to view and download the PDF template sheet)
- Pink and green felt
- Matching sewing thread
- Light, dark and mid green embroidery thread
- A brooch clasp
- White tissue paper
- A pencil or fine pen
- A sewing needle and pins
- Sewing scissors or embroidery scissors (these are great for cutting out small shapes!)

To make a Plant Lady brooch: 

1. Trace the brooch design onto a piece of white tissue paper, with a sharp pencil or a fine pen. Roughly cut out the design and sew it to a piece of light pink felt with large tacking stitches.

2. Embroider the lettering and the outlines of the leaves with backstitch, sewing small stitches as you sew around the curves. Use three strands of dark green embroidery thread (from a skein of six strands) for the lettering, and two strands of mid green thread for the leaves.

3. Remove the tacking stitches and gently tear away the tissue paper, carefully removing any remaining small pieces of paper with a pin.

4. Fill in the leaves with two strands of light green embroidery thread, as shown.

5. Trace the circular brooch shape onto a piece of white tissue paper and cut it out. Position this over your stitching so it’s centred and pin it in place. Cut around the circle then unpin and discard the tissue paper.

6. Place the felt circle on a piece of bright green felt and whip stitch it in position with matching pink sewing thread.

7. Trim the green felt, leaving a narrow border around the pink circle. Use this shape as a template to cut out a matching backing piece of bright green felt.

8. Turn the backing piece over. Sew a brooch clasp in position with a double thickness of matching sewing thread. Place the front and back of the brooch together and sew around the edges with whip stitch and more matching thread.

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


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This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many brooches 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!

Crafting With Felt Flowers: Floral Notecards Tutorial

Felt flowers make great card toppers!

This week I've been sharing ideas for easy ways to reuse the flower templates from my April wreath tutorial. For the final project of the week: why not make felt flowers to make simple greetings cards?

I used my flowers to decorate small cards, but you could easily use more flowers to decorate larger cards or simply resize the templates to fit. You could also use the templates to cut the flower shapes from coloured paper or card! Just glue all the pieces in place instead of sewing the flowers together.

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 included in my April wreath tutorial
- Blank cards
- Wool felt in assorted colours
- Matching sewing threads
- Double-sided sticky tape or craft glue
- A fine black pen and a ruler
- Sewing needles and pins
- Sewing scissors or embroidery scissors

To make the cards:

Use the templates to cut out various flower pieces, arranging them on the blank cards to plan your layout. If you’re layering felt pieces, sew them together with running stitch and matching sewing thread. Stick all the felt pieces to the cards using double-sided sticky tape or craft glue. And that's it! Easy peasy, right?

For this design I used templates C, D, G, and H.

To make this flower, use templates B and G, cut two small leaf shapes from green felt, and draw a straight line for the flower stem.

 

One large, layered flower looks very striking! Position it towards the top of the card then write your chosen message in the space below it. I used templates B, D, F and H to create the flower.

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


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This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many cards 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!

Crafting With Felt Flowers: Floral Crown Tutorial

Sew a pretty felt flower crown or headband!

Throughout this week I'm sharing ideas for crafting with felt flowers, and ways to re-use the flower templates from my April Felt Flowers Wreath tutorial. Today I'll show you how to make a floral crown that's perfect for parties, festivals or even weddings.

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

You will need:

- The flower templates from my April wreath tutorial
- Wool felt in assorted colours
- Embroidery thread to match the felt
- 1 metre ribbon
- Sewing needles and pins
- Sewing scissors or embroidery scissors (these are great for cutting out detailed felt shapes!)

To make the floral crown:

Use the flower templates to cut out the flower pieces from felt (see step 1 of the wreath tutorial - I’ve used different colours to make the crown, but you’ll need the same quantities as listed to create seven flowers). Arrange the pieces, as shown.

Stitch the flowers with half strands of contrasting embroidery thread (so for six-stranded embroidery thread just use three strands), sewing radiating stitches from the centre of each flower. I stitched nine stitches for each of the larger flowers, and six for the smaller flowers. If you like you can also add some extra stitched details to decorate the flowers, as I did. For extra decoration you could add buttons, beads or sequins to the flower centres.

Cut a metre long piece of ribbon, cutting the ends at an angle to help prevent fraying. Pin the flowers onto the ribbon starting with the largest flowers in the centre then working outwards.

Sew the ribbon to the back of the flowers, using running or whip stitch in matching sewing thread. Remove the pins as you sew and take care to sew into the felt but not through it, so your stitching won’t show at the front of the crown.

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 flower crowns 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!

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!

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 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!

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!