Valentine Padded Felt Hearts - Tutorial and Printable Templates

 Sewing Valentine Padded Felt hearts on a cold Winter's afternoon, with a cup of tea and donuts to follow - our Mencap group really enjoyed this project!

What you will need...

One A4 size piece of felt - for the 2 large heart shapes

Smaller pieces of felt in contrasting colours for small hearts

Buttons

Embroidery thread and needle

Ribbon (30cms or longer if you wish)

Polyester fibre filling (toy stuffing)

Pinking shears (optional)

How to make it...

Print out your patterns  

3 x Heart Template Shapes

Cut out two large hearts 

Cut out one each of the smaller size hearts (per side **)

Place the button on top of the two smaller heart shapes and sew them 

together, leaving your thread hanging down underneath.

Place this in the centre of one of the large hearts and sew together, through the three hearts and the button.

If you want - do the same with the other large heart (you will then have small hearts and buttons on both sides of your finished padded heart **) 

Place the two large heart shapes together and starting at the bottom point, stitch them together - either using blanket stitch or a simple running stitch.

When you reach centre top of your heart, slip the ends of your folded ribbon in between the two large hearts and sew through them to attach the ribbon to the heart.

Continue sewing down the other side, stopping when you have about 4cms still open. 

Don't end off - leave your thread hanging.

Stuff your heart at this point and then continue sewing until you reach the bottom point again.

If you have used a running stitch (as in the purple sample), you can trim off the edges of your heart with pinking shears (optional) 

Here are some our group made... Hope you all enjoy this 

project!

Click on these hearts for another Tutorial >>>>>>

A Simple Little Felt Purse - Tutorial

Here is a very simple little felt purse - we will be making these at Mencap when we start the new term in September - so more photos to follow when we see what they come up with - always delights me to see their ideas and creations!

What you will need...

Felt

Embroidery thread

Charm (optional) Can use buttons or anything else as an embellishment

Magnetic clasps (we got ours on eBay)

How to make...

Cut out  your two pattern pieces and your heart (or any other shape such as a flower or something geometrical)

Felt Purse Pattern

Attach you magnetic clasps positioned as below (instructions will be with clasps)

 Stitch your charm or button to your heart shape.

Sew your heart over the back of the magnetic clasp, on the outside of the flap as below, using blanket stitch.

Join the two purse pattern pieces - again, I used blanket stitch.

 Easy to make and useful for coins, lipstick or a spare tissue!

Here is Jenna with her felt heart purse - and wearing such a pretty floral dress - Jenna is such a pleasure to sit and do craft with - always has a big smile for everyone and tackles everything with such enthusiasm...!

 

Felt Bunnies Wall Hanging - Tutorial and Templates

 A simple little felt wall hanging - here is how to make it...

You will need...

A4 sheet of felt for background

Scraps of felt for bunnies and flowers

Buttons

Pom pom or cotton wool balls for tails 

Double-sided sticky pads to attach tails 

Embroidery thread

Wooden dowel and ribbon to hang

 How to make...

Print out the Bunnies and Flower templates 

(my flowers were cut from a die on my Big Shot, but if you want to cut by hand here is a flower template to use)

Bunnies Template

Flower Template

Take your A4 sheet of felt and turn over a hem of 2cm (width of hem depends on the thickness of your wooden dowel - we used green garden stakes trimmed to size)

Stitch across leaving ends open - either on machine or by hand

Cut out your bunnies and flowers

Stitch the bunnies onto the background, using a running stitch

Using double-sided sticky pads, stick on the bunny tails

First stitch both layers of flowers, together with the button and then stitch onto the  background felt

Stitch stems with embroidery thread

Slip the wooden dowel through the hem and tie on a ribbon for hanging

 
 Here are some we made at Mencap - enjoy making yours!

Christmas Bunting - Printable Templates!

A simple string of Christmas Bunting - can be made out of felt, as above, but will also be just as effective cut out of card. Mine has just five shapes, but you can make the String of Christmas bunting as long as you wish, using a mixture of the shapes or just choose one or two of them...

You will need...Felt sheets or Card

Buttons and other embellishments

Tacky Glue

String, ribbon or tape and small craft pegs 

To make...

Print your Template of Christmas Shapes

Cut out the shapes - in felt or card

Decorate with embellishments / buttons, using fabric or tacky glue and leave to dry

Peg the shapes onto your string and hang them up...

Enjoy this exciting time of the year - have fun preparing for the Festive Season...!!

Three New Christmas Placemats - Print and Colour-in..!

Keep everyone busy, in the run up to the Festive Season - Three new printable Christmas Placemats, for you and your groups and families to colour-in, ready for your Christmas Dinner table...

Here is the link ...   Three Christmas Placemats

Also - why not make this little felt Christmas stocking - fill it with candy and hang it on your tree...!

Tutorial - Felt Christmas Stocking Decoration

My Blog is now User-Friendly! Eight new Craft and Quiz Menu Buttons...

After five years of posting Craft and Quizzes onto my Blog, I felt it was time to make it more User-friendly...

I have added eight new pages - each one containing a list of links to the Tutorials in my Blog.

Each page has a button in the Menu above - so do have a browse and see what you fancy having a look at...

Thanks to all my visitors - do hope you find my Blog helpful in finding suitable Craft and Quizzes for your groups, yourself and your families...

Wall Hanging to Celebrate Mencap 60th Anniversary

As Mencap is celebrating its 60th Anniversary, we decided to make a crafty Wall Hanging at our Art and Craft group.

First we made the woven "squares" using the cardboard loom method.

Then next we made some felt flowers like this 

Easy Button Felt Flowers

The "60" I found on eBay

The straps we made from strips cut from an old T Shirt, plaited with lengths of coloured wool, to brighten the grey.

The material was in the 20p box at the local charity shop

After stitching on the squares and the 60 (on my sewing machine) we attached the flowers with little gold safety pins. 

Folded the material up to make a "Cushion" which we filled with toy stuffing.

Attached the straps and there it is - bright and bold and made with such pleasure...!

Felt Owls and Hearts for Fund Raising - Tutorials

 

As we are always looking at ways to raise funds for Mencap, I have been working on some craft and sewing that we can sell. 

If you would like to make some of the same, I have put together a tutorial.

Felt Owl

You will need...

Felt - main colour 

(2 pieces) is 14 x 13cms

Felt - Scraps of other colours for wings etc

Googly eyes (or buttons)

Ribbon - 40cms

Glue

Embroidery thread

Batting/Wadding - approx 13 x 12cms

How to make...

Cut out your felt pieces as per the pattern
 
Felt Owl Pattern      

Plus a triangle of felt for the beak (not on the pattern)

Take one of the main pieces and attach the wings, 

leaving about 1/2 cm of body showing on the edges as per below. 

Use 3 strands of embroidery thread and a  simple running stitch

 

 Stitch on the black eye "mask" and the the two circular eye patches. 

For the patches I used blanket stitch. 

Stitch the "feathers" between the wings. (see on final photo)

Cut your batting in the same shape as you body 

but about 1cm smaller all round.

Attach the back to the front body using blanket stitch 

and at the same time 

stitch in the folded piece of ribbon, between the ears.

Glue on the Googly eyes (or buttons) and glue on the felt beak

_______________________________________

Felt Hearts

You will need...

Felt - main colour (2 pieces) is 15 x 15cms

Felt pieces - buttons - bows - embellishments  to decorate.

Ribbon - 28cms

Batting / Wadding approx 14 x 14cms


How to make...

Cut out two felt hearts from pattern
 
Heart Template

Decorate one heart with felt flower, buttons, bows or any other bling.

Cut batting in heart shape, but about 1cm  smaller all round and lay on back heart and put front heart on top.

Stitch around edge (I machine stitched, but can be done by hand if preferred) catching a loop of ribbon into centre top.  

Trim with pinking shears for a zigzag edge if so desired!

Hope these felt crafts help you make some funds for your group...