Sew Felt Spring Flower Brooches With My Primroses Pattern!

Do you know what the absolute best part of my job is? It's seeing things people have made from my patterns!

This fabulous photo Daniela, aka ivyarch, shared of the brooches she's been making from my Primroses & Auriculas pattern has brought me such joy this week:

I love the bright colours Daniela has chosen and I adore how the brooches look when worn together like that.

Want to sew your own version of these brooches? My Primroses and Auriculas pattern is available as a printable PDF from my Etsy shop as an instant download.

The tutorial includes templates and step by step instructions for sewing primroses and auriculas, floral trios and single flowers (with or without leaves), and lots of ideas for different colour combos.

As well as using it to make brooches (perfect for adorning your jackets and cardigans this spring) you could also use these patterns to make spring flowers for decorating anything you fancy. Hair clips! Floral crowns! Purses! Pincushions! Even cushions!

For even more spring flowers, check out my tutorial archive for loads of free floral projects and sign up to my pattern newsletter - the next free project I'll be sharing is two little daffodil / narcissi embroidery patterns! Here's a sneak peek of one of them...

... I'm just waiting for a delivery of 4 inch embroidery hoops so I can frame both designs and take some decent photos of them, then I'll be sending out the newsletter asap.

New in My Shop: Felt Primroses and Auriculas Tutorial

I added another felt flower pattern to my Etsy shop this week: primroses and auriculas. 

You can sew lots of cheerful spring flowers with this pattern!

 

Along with the main tutorials for sewing trio and solo primrose and auricula brooches...

 

 

... I've also included instructions for making simple-but-lovely circle brooches.

You can change the felt and thread colours to create a whole assortment of pretty primulas...

 

... and I've included examples of ways to vary the auriculas, too!

 

As well as making felt brooches, you could use this pattern to add spring flowers to anything you fancy (hair clips, statement necklaces, lavender sachets, purses, cards, etc). Sew flowers on everything!

Click here to find the tutorial in my shop.

Primrose Brooches in Sewing World

I'm delighted to report that my primrose brooches have been featured in the April issue of Sewing World magazine (out now).

It's always so nice seeing my designs in the press!

I've actually reduced the price of the primrose brooches since the magazine contacted me about featuring them. The single primrose brooches are now just £7.50 each...

 ... and the primrose trio brooches are just £12 each. Hurrah!

UPDATE: My primrose design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

Spring Flowers in Progress

I've got quite a few "works in progress" on the go at the moment, including some pretty spring flowers.

This tray of little pieces will become cherry blossom brooches and headbands...

... I cut everything by hand, so it takes a while (especially when cutting out lots of little fiddly shapes) but it's very relaxing and the perfect task for quiet evenings or low-energy days, or for those times when I'm just not really feeling in the mood for working and can't really focus but I still need to actually, you know, get some stuff done. 

I've got quite a few piles of almost-finished things waiting for their final finishing touches, or for me to buy more of a particular shade of thread. I was most of the way through finishing these auriculas and primroses when I ran out of dark green thread:

Talking of running out of thread, I bought an "emergency" reel of black thread a few weeks ago to tide me over when I'd run out and boy did it get used up quickly! The new reel is pretty massive but it should last me a little bit longer than the last one :)

UPDATE: My primrose design is now available as a sewing pattern! (And the cherry blossom pattern is coming soon!) Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

New Things + a Nice Mention

I'll be adding lots of new things to my Etsy shop this weekend - hurrah!

There are lots of new spring flower brooches...

Pale yellow primroses:

And burgundy auriculas:

When I work on new designs I often end up with a few prototypes where I've tried out slightly different stitching/colours/etc before finalising the design. These will be listed at bargain prices, so keep your eyes peeled :)

There's also a new cherry blossom headband, with three pink flowers sewn on a long ribbon. This is an extra-fancy version of the elastic headbands with single cherry blossoms which are already available in my shops - for parties and summer weddings, or just for people who like their hair accessories to make a bit more of a statement!

As with the spring flowers, there are a couple of cherry blossom prototypes which will be listed at special prices... including a very fancy headband with five pretty cherry blossoms. 

I've also been playing around with a few forget-me-not designs. There's a mini brooch with a trio of forget-me-nots...

... and a sweet headband too:

Finally, there are a couple of owl masks. These have been in my "work in progress" box for months and months so it's very satisfying to have them finally finished to share with you!

This was my prototype design...

... and this is the almost-finalised design that I'll be adding to all my shops just as soon as I can get hold of some more of that light brown embroidery thread!

All these new pieces will be popping up in my Etsy shop over the next few days, just as soon as I can get them all listed. Remember, if you mention my blog during checkout when ordering anything from my shops this month your order will ship with a free gift.

In other news... my book got a mention in the 250th issue of Cross Stitcher magazine which came out this week. Yay!

Cross Stitcher are having lots of cool giveaways to celebrate their 250th issue (and 20 years of cross stitch goodness), visit their blog for all the details.

UPDATE: My primrose design is now available as a sewing pattern! (And the cherry blossom pattern is coming soon!) Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

Spring Primroses

The boyfriend was away yesterday evening so I took over the lounge and spent the evening crafting - what fun!

I tried out lots of ideas that have been buzzing round my head for weeks/months and made a big felty mess, it was wonderful.

At the end of the evening I had lots of works in progress (more about these soon!) and one finished design... primrose hair combs:


I used to sell little primrose brooches a few years ago, and when I rediscovered the pattern pieces I thought a little cluster of primroses would look lovely on a comb.


I'm thrilled with how they turned out, and can definitely see more flower hair combs in my future.

The combs are now for sale (individually) over in my Etsy shop and in my Folksy shop.



UPDATE: My primrose design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

365 / 157 - Pastels for Spring

I continue to be springtime-obsessed, eagerly awaiting the flowering of my spring bulbs and doodling all kinds of floral patterns. My work pile for yesterday evening was suitably spring-like, as I had to finish the mobile strands I started last week (lovely soft pastels) and then spent several absorbing hours stitching batches of primroses and embroidering teeny forget-me-nots.
I am absolutely determined this year to make things in small batches, so I have a bit more stock to play with and I'm not having to re-make things in a rush when I don't really feel like it because they've sold out. I made a list yesterday of all the things I need to make batches of, and there are rather a lot to catch up on! My itch to make exciting new patterns all the time won't help much, either, but at least I am making a start.
Making batches can sometimes feel like a chore, but for the moment at least it is proving enjoyably soothing. The newness of the designs must help - I may be totally sick of forget-me-nots in a few weeks time but right now I am entranced, and embroidering them all is keeping me totally absorbed.

UPDATE: My primrose design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns