Tutorial: Sew Felt Spring Tree Brooches

Spring is coming! Celebrate the return of all things green and glorious - or just your love of trees - with today's sewing tutorial: a step by step guide to making a felt tree brooch.

These trees started off life as part of a tutorial for some autumn leaf and tree cards...

... then I couldn't resist doing a spring version, so I made some spring tree textile art...

... and shared some spring tree embroidery patterns:

Obviously I had to make some felt tree brooches, too! :)

You could also add ribbon loops to create little tree ornaments, or sew lots of trees for a spring forest garland. These would also make sweet motifs or patches to add to larger projects.

How to make a felt tree brooch:

1. Follow the steps in my spring tree textile art tutorial to sew your chosen tree design, using the templates linked to in that post. 

Instead of sewing the tree pieces to a piece of felt in an embroidery hoop you can just sew them to a piece of loose backing felt, but you may find having the felt held in the hoop makes it easier for you to add the embroidered details. If you're sewing your tree on loose felt there's no need to use tacking stitches to hold the tree shape in position, just use a pin instead.

If you're planning on making a few trees, try it one way then the other and see which method works best for you!

2. Remove the felt from your embroidery hoop (if you've used one) then cut out the tree shape, leaving a narrow border of the backing felt.

3. Use the tree shape as a template to cut out a matching matching shape from more of the backing felt. This plain shape will become the back of your brooch (or ornament, etc).

4. Turn the back of your brooch over, and add a brooch clasp. Sew it with a double thickness of sewing thread to match the backing felt.

5. Then hold the front and back of the brooch together and use more of the same thread to join them together, sewing flush around the tree shape with running stitch. And you're done! Arboreal felt goodness to pin to your jumper (sweater) or jacket this spring.

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. Thanks xx

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Sew a Felt Barn Owl Mask for Halloween

The series of Halloween tutorials I'm sharing with my Patreon supporters continues today with this fabulous felt barn owl mask.

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I've shared lots of mask tutorials with my newsletter subscribers over the years, and now I'm giving them a new home over on Patreon. You can dress up as an owl any time you like, of course, but the run up to Halloween felt like a good time to reshare these projects! :)

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Sewing Tutorial: Felt Teacup and Teapot Brooches

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

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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I'm running a little behind with 2020's first freebie for my pattern newsletter subscribers... so I thought I'd make it a double tutorial!

This year's first free project will be a step by step sewing tutorial for making cute little felt teacup brooches...

... and felt teapot brooches, too.

A felt teacup or teapot (or both) would look lovely pinned to your favourite jacket this spring, and one of the brooches would be a fab gift for the tea lovers in your life (along with some tea, of course!). You could also swap the brooch clasp for a hairclip to make Alice in Wonderland style hair accessories, or add a ribbon loop to make a cute teacup ornament.

Polkadot or other patterned felt is optional when making these brooches but it looks super cute. If you just have plain felt you can easily add dots or other patterns with sequins, seed beads, or some simple embroidery.

If you've been following my work for a really long time you might remember these designs (and these photos) from the days when I sold lots of tea-themed brooches. It's so nice revisiting these old projects to share them with you guys and having a nostalgic browse back through my photo archives.

I used to make blue and red versions of the teacups and teapots, both on a zingy yellow felt background but you can of course make yours in any colours you fancy.

 

Choosing matching sewing thread will help your brooches turn out lovely and neat - I took this photo when I sat down to sew blue teacup brooches and had dozens of blue threads but none in the shade I needed!

Here are some teapots and flowers in progress - I love looking back at these colourful work-in-progress pics.

Since I took this photo back in 2008 the forget-me-nots have evolved into a design I included in my first book, and a version of the primrose design is now available in my shop as a printable pattern. Aaaaand of course now I'm working on a tutorial for the teapots :)

Pun-tastic Valentines: 12 Fun, Easy, & Cute Cards to Make!

UPDATE: this project is now available as part of my Patreon pattern library.

Click here to find the Tic Tac Toe tutorial and to sign up to my Patreon. 

Subscribers get full access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, and emails whenever new projects are added. You can unsubscribe at any time.

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Today I’m sharing templates and quick tutorials for making cute and colourful Valentine’s Day cards inspired by silly puns.

BEE mine, I’m PINE-ing for you, You make me HOPPY - whichever card (or cards) you choose, I hope you’ll have fun making these!

P.S. Visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more crafty projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Easy DIY Christmas Card Ideas #3: Joyfully Simple Lettering

Time for the third part of my Christmas card craft series!

UPDATE:  follow the links to find all DIY Christmas card ideas in this series!

1. Washi Tape.
2. Simple Shapes and Crafty Scraps.
3. Today's tutorial, Simple Lettering.
4. Christmas Trees.
5. Baubles.



This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness!


On Monday I shared cards decorated with stripes of washi tape, then yesterday's cards were decorated with simple shapes and crafty scraps... and today I'm looking at how easy it is to make bold cards with simple lettering.

Festive words cut from patterned paper look great!

I opted for a large JOY but you could cut out smaller letters to spell words like XMAS or MERRY or YULE. Draw your own letter templates print out large letters from your favourite font or use alphabet stickers.

Click here to download my Christmas card template sheet, including the JOY templates.

To cut out the letters, turn some patterned paper over and place the template face down on the back. Trace the shape with a pencil then cut it out and turn the paper over to reveal the finished letter.

For this card I just added a single strip of gold tape to “support” the lettering, sticking the tape on first then sticking the word in place with a glue stick.

For this design I created a background with overlapping paper and tape, positioning the lettering in the centre of the card. See the previous tutorials in the series for tips on adding neat lines of paper and tape to your cards.

 

See? Easy peasy!

More crafty Christmas craft ideas tomorrow...

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Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

A Year of Wreaths: July Felt Pinwheels 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 inspired by days at the seaside and those colourful spinning pinwheels you buy as a kid to stick triumphantly on top of your sandcastles.

The felt versions are super easy to make and would also make fab brooches or gift toppers. 

They don’t spin like the real thing, but I hope they’ll remind you of lots of happy days at the beach all the same!

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3 Fun Felt Brooch Patterns - Sew Teacups, Rainclouds & Tree Stumps

UPDATE: these PDF patterns are now available from my shop, or in my Patreon pattern library.

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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With this trio of simple step-by-step tutorials you can sew three different felt brooches: little teacups, rainclouds, and tree stumps.

There are clear photos and instructions for each step of the process, and different size options for the templates so you can make bigger brooches than mine if you'd like.

I used the medium teacup templates yesterday to sew this floral teacup - isn't it cute?

 

 

 
These would be so perfect for using up scraps of pretty floral fabric you can't bear to throw away. I've had that scrap of Liberty Tana Lawn in my stash for years and am so glad to have found a use for it! 

I can't stop picturing how lovely whole row of brooches with different floral prints and different colours of embroidered detailing to match the fabrics would be. Maybe you can make a whole rainbow of them?

A Year of Wreaths: October Cosy Cat Felt Wreath

UPDATE: my October sleeping kitty wreath tutorial is now available as a printable PDF pattern on my Patreon. 

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Click here to see all 12 seasonal wreaths in this series!

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A Year of Wreaths continues!

October's wreath is for all you Cat Ladies (or Cat Gentlemen), as it features a cute sleeping kitty. I love this little guy and I hope you will too.

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