DIY Felt Daffodil Headband Tutorial

One of my favourite things about felt crafting is how, with a bit of imagination, you can use one tutorial to make lots of different things. You can switch up colours, enlarge pattern pieces, add decorative details, turn a brooch into an ornament or sew it as a patch, recreate a design using coloured paper or card... there are always so many possibilities!

My new series of tutorials for The Village Haberdashery's blog springs from this idea, as I'm sharing some fun new ways to re-use the templates from my A Year of Wreaths projects.

First up: a felt daffodil headband!

This design is perfect for spring parties, or for adding a bit of floral fun to any outfit.

Click here for the step by step daffodil headband tutorial.

And click here to make the felt daffodils wreath or here to find links to all 12 wreaths in the series.

P.S. Want even more spring craft ideas? Check out this post for butterflies, bunnies and more!

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

My Clearance Sale Continues!

As I've mentioned before, I'm selling off my remaining handmade pieces and craft supplies to make room in my life and in my shops for a new (exciting! coming next year!) expanded range of PDF patterns.

I've sold out of a lot of stuff already but there's still a whole bunch of bargains to be had... and with Christmas approaching, now is a great time to snap up some affordable gifts for friends and family :)


Forget-me-not brooches, primrose trio brooches and the last two cherry blossom trio brooches are now just £5 each (update: cherry blossom trios are now sold out).

The last white cherry blossom headband is now £3.50 (update: now sold out). Poppy headbands are £3.50 each, oak leaf headbands are just £2... and the last felt flower necklace is now £5.

 

Swan masks are now £2.50 each...

 

... as are teapot rosette brooches:

 

This mistletoe ornament is also now just £2.50 (update: now sold out).

 

Last but by no means least, cherry blosson trio headbands are just £5 each. They're available in white and peach...

 

... or pink.

 

Plus there are some bargain craft supplies still in stock, including buttons, ribbon, grip seal bags, elastic and pretty tape. Oh, and I'm selling signed copies of my first book at a reduced price too!

 

You can find all my remaining handmade items & crafty supplies over in my sale section.

The widest range of sale bargains can be found in my main shop, but I also have a few sale items over in my Etsy shop, including this coal tit ornament (now just £5) (update: the coal tit ornaments are now sold out).

New Stuff in My Shop!

Amazingly, after blogging yesterday about how I needed to take some new product photos and get lots of things added to my shop... I have actually taken some new product photos and added lots of new things to my shop! Such efficiency.

There are some new cherry blossom headbands - sweet felt flowers & leaves with ribbon ties. Perfect for summer parties, these come in white & peach...

... and pink:

I've also listed a white & peach version of my cherry blossom trio brooch:

Then there's a whole bunch of bits and pieces I've sewn as samples for tutorials... which now all need a good home!

There are Christmas trees...

... and snowmen...

... and angels...

... and owls. 

It's a bit weird adding Christmas ornaments to my shop in July (especially when it's such hot and sunny weather!) but never mind :)

I've got a couple of larger items which I need to check postage prices for, but in the meantime you can find all the new additions HERE.

Cherry Blossoms: Finished

Ah, there's nothing quite like finishing a big pile of sewing! Such a lovely feeling of accomplishment. 

Lots and lots of little stitches went into these cherry blossoms:

There are some pink cherry blossom trio brooches (already available in my shop, here), some white and peach brooches... and some cherry blossom headbands in both and pink and white/peach colourways. I made a few of the pink headbands last year, but with pale pink ribbons which I wasn't 100% happy with. I decided to switch to brown ribbons instead (to match the felt the blossoms are sewn onto) and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out. 

Hopefully I'll get some time this week to take some product photos and get all these goodies added to my shop. I'll be sure to let you guys know when they've been listed!

Oak Leaves, Magazines, a Whodunnit & a Corgi

This week I've been sewing some oak leaves in the evenings...

... when they're finished the leaves will be headbands, lovely for springtime! Here's one I made earlier:

On the way back from the Post Office on Friday, I popped into our local branch of WHSMITH's to buy boring things like blank address labels and white card, and had a browse in the craft magazine section while I was there. I was rather thrilled to find two magazines featuring my work!

Woman's Weekly's "Craft Special" magazine features the pansy hair clip tutorial from my book, Super-Cute Felt. My publisher's PR department handle the press stuff for my book, so I usually only know when it's been featured / reviewed somewhere if somebody mentions they've seen it or if I happen upon it by chance.

And Making magazine has reviewed my blog and said some very lovely things (click here if you want a closer look).

I'm very much looking forward to curling up with these magazines & a nice cup of tea this weekend. It's been so chilly here this week, I am spending lots of time on the sofa under a cosy blanket!

The snow does look lovely (and it seems to have brought with it a very charming flock of redwings to our garden, which we've never seen before) but I'm definitely starting to daydream about spring flowers and being able to go outside without wearing (what feels like) all of my clothes simultaneously.

To help banish the cold-weather inspired gloom I treated myself to a couple of awesome things this week...

.... a copy of John Allison's wonderful whodunnit comic Murder She Writes, which I hugely enjoyed reading online in the run up to Christmas and am very much looking forward to re-reading all in one go (probably curled up under a blanket, with another nice cup of tea).

... and an awesome corgi brooch from Finest Imaginary (so adorable!)

New Pieces in my Etsy Shop

There are a whole bunch of "new" things over in my Etsy shop this week.

I've listed the three pieces I made for Stash Happy Felt:

The autumn leaves coffee cosy featured on the front cover....

(I made one of these for my dad last Christmas and it was a big hit!)

... and two felt circle headbands.

Plus a few prototypes I made when designing the projects for my own book, Super-Cute Felt.

There's a hand-embroidered mitten ornament...

... and two Christmas ornaments made using mini embroidery hoops:

All these designs are now available from my Etsy shop at bargain prices... or you can buy the books and learn how to make your own :)

Big Bows, Little Bows

This lovely lot went in the post today - a custom order of lots of felt bows:


The big ones are headbands and the mini ones are super cute hair ties.

I especially adore that bright neon pink... but my goodness it's a pig to photograph!

If you fancy a bow of your own, the headbands are available in turquoise and yellow from my shops and there's one turquoise and one neon pink bow brooch left in the clearance section of my Etsy shop.

Restocking

After a busy Christmas season, I've got lots of designs that need restocking... so I've made a list and am gradually working my way through it making batches of the out-of-stock items.

So far I've finished some camera brooches...


... some sunflower brooches and headbands...


... and lots and lots of poppies which I started before Christmas:


Making things in small batches makes me feel very efficient (and it probably saves lots of time, though I've never actually timed it) but I don't like making bigger batches than about 10 or 12 at a time, as I start to feel like a robot working in a factory repeating the same steps over and over and over until I go a bit mad.

At the moment I'm quite enjoying the restful processes of these smallish batches, drinking tea and listening to the Agatha Christie audiobooks I got for Christmas while I sew, but I'm sure it won't be long before I go a bit creatively stir-crazy and get the itch to design some new things!

UPDATE: My poppy and sunflower designs are now available as sewing patterns... and will soon be joined by my camera design, too! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

New things

There's lots of new stuff in my Etsy shop today...

New versions of an old favourite - large poppy brooches, now with more beads:

New butterfly headbands, which are making me feel so summer-y! The butterflies are native British species:

Plus a new (and one of a kind) a BIG flower brooch made with luxurious 100% wool felt:

UPDATE: My poppy design is now available as a sewing pattern! (And the pattern for that big flower brooch is coming soon, too!)Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

Snow! (plus a sale update)

After weeks of serious snow envy (everyone seemed to have snow except us) it has finally snowed in Gloucester! Hurrah!

I've got my fingers crossed for more & am hoping to get out to take some pics tomorrow... in the meantime here's a quick snap from last year:When I've not been staring out of the window at the slightly hypnotic snowflakes I've been tinkering with my website - adding all my recent tutorials, updating my press page - ordering some supplies, trying to catch up with my emails, and putting off doing my accounts!

I've also added my large oak leaf hairbands (available in green and brown) to my spring sale.