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!

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!

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Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Romantic Felt Flower Headbands Tutorial

The latest printable PDF sewing pattern in my shop is all about flowers!

My Romantic Flowers tutorial includes step by step instructions for sewing pretty felt flower headbands...

... and how to turn the design into a brooch.

There are also templates and instructions for sewing a large headband or floral crown featuring three of the flowers for some serious flower power this summer.

These flowers would be lovely to wear year-round or to summer parties - why not make a flower to match your favourite dress?

They'd also be great for making accessories for a wedding: the large headband for the bride, single flower hairbands for the bridesmaids, and flower brooches worn on the groomsman's lapels.

Oh, and the PDF includes a flower embroidery pattern, too! Yay!

 

Remember: when you buy any patterns from my shop you can of course make lots of things for yourself and to give as gifts, but you can also sell the finished items at craft fairs or in your Etsy shop, etc, as long as you credit me as the designer.

Click here to buy my Romantic Flowers PDF from my shop! The file will be available to download immediately after purchase. Shop before June 10th to get this design at the launch price.

P.S. A couple of the samples I stitched for this pattern will be available in my sample sale this weekend! 

Don't want to miss out on things like sample sales and new patterns? Subscribe to my newsletter for shop updates and/or a monthly free project!

A Year of Wreaths: June Felt Butterflies Wreath Tutorial

UPDATE: this tutorial is now available as a printable PDF pattern over on my Patreon.

Subscribe for a small monthly fee and you'll get access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, with an email whenever I add a new project. You can cancel any time.    

Click here to check out my Patreon page and sign up!

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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.

Click here for a tutorial for making felt butterfly hair clips!

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

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Sample Sale This Weekend!

I'm having a sample sale this weekend, selling lots of my hand-stitched pieces at bargain prices.

Here's a peek at some of the things which will be available:

 

I'll be listing everything gradually this week over in my Big Cartel shop, and the listings will be available to purchase from 10am (UK time) this Sunday, 9th June. 

P.S. I've decided to keep my Big Cartel shop just for occasional sample sales, so after this week if you're looking for my printable PDF sewing patterns you'll only find them in my Etsy shop.