Felt Teacup & Teapot Brooches Tutorial: Available Now!

UPDATE:  I shared this project with my newsletter subscribers last year, it's now available from my shop or in my Patreon pattern library.

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This tutorial is a step-by-step guide to sewing cute felt teacup and teapot brooches:

These are so fun and easy to sew and make sweet gifts for tea lovers. You could even make a whole batch of them, have a tea party (once the lockdown is over, of course!!) and give a brooch to each of your guests as a memento.

 

Polkadot felt makes these brooches extra cute. I found mine on Etsy, but lots of craft stores sell it. I love these mini dots but I've made these brooches before with bigger spots and they looked just as nice. If you just have plain felt you could add dots with some simple embroidery, or maybe embroider a little flower instead.

 

Spring Trees: Embroidered Felt Textile Art Tutorial

This week on my blog it's all about SPRING.

Today I'll show you how to sew some embroidery hoop art featuring a trio of spring trees, then later in the week I'll be sharing some spring-themed embroidery patterns.

I drew these trees a couple of years ago, as part of a tutorial for making some autumn tree and leaf cards (which would also look fab in spring greens, by the way!). At the time I thought "ooh, these would look awesome in felt"... and now I've finally got around to trying that out.

I framed my trio of little trees in an oval embroidery hoop, but they'd also look great in a round hoop with some text added to fill the extra space (or maybe some simple felt flowers?). You could also use the shapes as a felt applique, adding a tree (or three!) to other sewing projects.

   
You will need:

- The tree templates from this tutorial
- Green and brown felt (three shades of green, plus two or three shades of brown)
- Green embroidery thread/floss (to match the green felt)
- Felt or fabric for the background
- A large embroidery hoop (you can resize the tree templates to fit if you need to)
- Sewing scissors (embroidery scissors are great for cutting out small felt shapes!)
- A sewing needle and some pins
- Sewing thread (any colour)



To make the hoop art:

1. Stretch your chosen backing felt/fabric in your embroidery hoop.

2. Use the templates to cut out one of each of the tree and trunk/branch shapes. Arrange the pieces on your hoop until you're happy with them. If I was sewing this again I'd definitely put the oval tree in the centre, as I did in the card tutorial, but this way is cute too!

3. Set aside the trunks/branches. Use sewing thread and large tacking stitches to hold the tree shapes in place on the backing felt/fabric.

4. With your chosen embroidery threads/floss (using three of the six strands in the skein), sew a line of running stitch around the inside of each tree shape. Try to keep your stitches neat and even to create a nice decorative effect.

I used darker thread on the lighter felt, and vice versa, so the stitches stood out clearly against the felt. Lie all your threads out on the felt pieces to test how they'll look and go with what looks best to you.

5. Remove the tacking stitches then, one by one, add the trunk/branch shapes and sew them in position. Use more embroidery thread/floss (using three strands again), this time using the green that matches the tree you're adding the trunk/branches to.

I recommend sewing a stitch at the very top and very bottom of the brown felt shapes to help hold them in position before filling in the rest of the stitching.

6. Trim any excess felt/fabric from around your embroidery hoop, leaving a few centimetres (about an inch) remaining. Then use a double thickness of sewing thread and running stitches to gather the felt/fabric together and pull it tight. Sew it securely then your hoop art will be ready to display.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to stitch as many trees 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  post or share my pattern on your site. Thanks!

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How To: Sew Easy Felt Gingerbread Men Christmas Ornaments

I'm squeezing in one more free Christmas craft tutorial before the main event: cute little felt gingerbread men decorations!

 

Or should that be Gingerbread People??? :)

Whatever you want to call them, these fun felt ornaments are super quick and easy to sew. They'd be perfect for beginners, for sewing with kids, or for those times when you just want a nice, relaxing project to work on.

 

A set of these would make a lovely Christmas gift, and one ornament would be fab tied to anothe present or slipped into a Christmas card. I think they'd also make cute brooches! Just add a brooch clasp instead of a ribbon loop.

These gingerbread men ornaments are an updated version of a design I stitched for my shops many years ago. Here's the new style...

... and here are the old ones!

 

As you can see, originally I used black sequins for the eyes and gave my gingerbread fellas big laughing mouths. This time round I've opted for beads for the eyes and a single curved line for the smile but you could copy the old version if you prefer them!

You will need:

- Ginger coloured craft felt (this may be a bit tricky to find in your local craft store if they just stock a small range but there are loads of online craft shops that stock a huge range of felt colours)
- Round sequins in assorted colours
- White sewing thread
- Black sewing thread
- Black seed beads (or small round black sequins)
- Narrow ribbon
- Sewing scissors
- The templates provided at the bottom of this post

To Make a Felt Gingerbread Man Ornament: 

1. Use the template provided to cut out two shapes from ginger coloured felt. Set aside one of the pieces for the moment.

2. Give your gingerbread man two eyes. You could use black seed beads for this, or small black sequins or just sew a couple of large French knots from black embroidery thread (floss).

If you're using seed beads (as shown above), sew each bead flat like an O with three or four stitches of black sewing thread. If you're adding small sequins, sew each sequin in place with two or three stitches of black sewing thread.

3. Now give the gingerbread man a smile! Use backstitch and a double thickness of black sewing thread so sew a small curved line for the smile.

For extra-happy gingerbread men, also sew a straight line across the top of the smile - creating a sideways D shape, and making it look like the gingerbread man is laughing or has a big grin.

4. Add sequins, mini buttons or little felt circles for the gingerbread man's buttons.

I used three different coloured sequins for each of my gingerbread men, sewing them in a row with white sewing thread. I used two stitches to secure each sequin, so all the stitches formed a neat(ish) vertical line. If you're using sequins which are all the same colour, you may prefer to use sewing thread to match them.

5. Cut a piece of narrow ribbon (approx 7 inches / 17.5 cm long) and fold it into a loop. Secure the cut ends to the top of the second gingerbread shape, with whip stitch and any colour sewing thread. Sew into the felt not through it, so your stitches won't be visible on the outside of the ornament.

Tip: the gingerbread template isn't completely symmetrical, so before you add the ribbon make sure you're attaching it to the correct side of the gingerbread shape! You'll want both shapes to line up neatly when you place them together, with the cut ends of the ribbon sandwiched between them.

6. Place the front and back of the gingerbread man together, and sew around the edge with running stitch and white sewing thread. Use small even stitches so the layers are sewn together but you also end up with a nice decorative edging to the ornament.

For a different look (with less visible stitching) you could use matching ginger sewing thread to sew the ornament together.

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

Click here to open the template sheet in a new window, make sure you're viewing it full size then print it at 100%.

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Easy DIY Christmas Card Ideas #5: Baubles!

Friday already! Where has this week gone?

For the final project in my crafty Christmas cards series, instead of Christmas trees how about topping your cards with pretty baubles?

Psst - follow the links to find all DIY Christmas card ideas in this series:

1. Washi Tape.
2. Simple Shapes and Crafty Scraps.
3. Simple Lettering.
4. Christmas Trees.
5. And today's tutorial, Baubles.
 
This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness!

Click here to view and download the template sheets for this series, including the bauble shape.

I’ve kept my baubles pretty simple but you could decorate yours however you like! (This would be another great way to use up crafty scraps!) 

For this design I used a fir branch stamp to decorate the blank card, placing the card on some scrap paper so I could stamp over the edges without making a mess.

I wrote “Merry Christmas” on a bit of white card and cut it out, then cut out a bauble from patterned paper and added a bit of gold washi tape for the bauble cap.

Finally I framed both the bauble and the text with contrasting rectangles of paper then stuck them in place on the card.

I did more stamping for this card, covering a piece of brown paper with gold acorns. I layered this over two strips of gold washi tape to create the background for my bauble.

Instead of adding tape to the bauble cap, this time I added a decorative stripe across the middle of the bauble. I cut a small bit of ribbon and tore a piece of washi tape to attach the ribbon near the top of the card, then glued the bauble on top – holding the ribbon firmly in position, and making the bauble look as if it’s hanging from it.

If you’d like your bauble to actually hang from the card make the bauble from patterned card, punch a hole in the cap then thread it with a piece of yarn, baker’s twine or embroidery thread.

I decorated my final card with a symmetrical design of stripes (like the fancy stripey Christmas tree card I shared yesterday) – I just can’t get enough of lovely washi tape!

I decorated the bauble with a bit of gold washi tape on the cap, and a patterned strip of tape across the middle then glued it to a piece of white card. I then cut the bauble out again, leaving a border of white around the shape, and stuck it in position on the card.

Tip: if you’re doing vertical stripes like this, start in the centre and work outwards. I started at one side and ended up with a slightly lopsided pattern!

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