Felt Teapot & Teacup Brooches PDF Pattern

UPDATE: my felt teapot and teacup brooch tutorial is now available from my shop, or in my Patreon pattern library.

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Fancy a step by step guide for sewing felt teapot and teacup brooches?

These cute little felt brooches are super easy to sew and make lovely gifts for tea fans (either on their own, or along with a box of their favourite tea!).

 

Polkadot felt makes these brooches extra cute - 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.

 

You could also use the templates to make a teapot or teacup ornament (just add a loop of ribbon!) or applique the shapes onto a larger project. 

The PDF file includes three easy-to-print sizes of the templates, or you can resize the templates as you prefer.

DIY Geometric Felt Cushion Tutorial

This week's free tutorial is based on a project I've had "in progress" (i.e. been neglecting) for years: a hand-sewn felt cushion with a geometric pattern. This felt like a perfect project to share during lockdown while we're all stuck and home and (judging from my Instagram feed) doing lots of home improvements!

This was such a lovely relaxing project to work on, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

It turned out to be a big hit with my dad, too. I took it round to his house (we're in a support bubble together so I'm allowed to visit at the moment) to take some photos of it and he wouldn't let me leave with it... it now lives on one of the grey sofas in what I think of as his den :)

(Can we talk about how tricky it is taking interior shots with no special lighting in the middle of a gloomy winter??!?! Such a headache! I really need to learn to prep my winter tutorials in the summer!)

 

Want to make your own hand-stitched geometric cushion?

 

This is a time-consuming project but not a difficult one. It would be perfect to work on while watching TV in the evenings this winter. You could use your favourite colours, or maybe make a random patchwork of colours using up felt scraps from your stash!

First you need to pick a tessellating shape. You can use the same chevron shape I did (you'll find the template at the bottom of this post) or draw your own shape. Remember the smaller your shape the more pieces you'll need to cut out and sew around so the more time your cushion will take to sew!

 

Work out how many shapes you'll need to fill the front of your cushion and plan your colours. I used some graph paper to plan my arrangement, then cut out the number of pieces I needed. 

 

Start building up your pattern, pinning then tacking some of your pieces in place on a piece of felt that's a bit larger than your finished cushion front will be (I used a large piece off-white felt because that's what I happened to have lying around, left-over from another project!). Use a ruler to help make sure your lines are nice and straight.

Begin sewing your felt shapes in place, using whip stitch and matching sewing thread. Don't sew around what will be the outside of your cushion - only sew the interior lines.

 

Gradually build up the design, sewing the pieces flush with each other. As you can see, I trimmed the pieces at the ends of each row to create a nicely squared off edge. 

 

 

 

You may find it helpful to use a ruler and an air-erasable marker pen to help you cut these edge pieces to be completely straight.

 

 

Here's how the front of my cushion looked when I'd added all the shapes:

 

As  you can see I still had a line of tacking stitches in place at the very top and bottom of the cushion to help keep the edges of those shapes in position. If you're using larger shapes than me you may also want to add some stitches to the sides as well, to help with the next step.

 

 

Now your cushion front is completed it's time to trim away the excess felt - do this carefully to avoid snipping any of your stitching!

For the back of the cushion you'll need a big bit of felt to coordinate with your chosen colours. Cut two large pieces approx two-thirds the size of your cushion, and pin them to the back ("wrong") side of the  of the cushion front so they overlap in the middle, like so:

 

 

 

Sew around the edge of the cushion with blanket stitch, sewing through all the layers. 

 

I used dark grey sewing thread to match the backing felt and co-ordinate nicely with the colours on the front. Remove the pins as you sew around the edge then remove any remaining tacking stitches.

Finally, add your cushion pad and sit back and admire your magnificent masterpiece!

 

This pattern is for non commercial use only: you can use it to stitch as many cushions 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 template on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!

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

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

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

Last Chance: Felt Bundles!

When I began selling craft supplies again last year (PIVOTING my business like so many others in 2020!) I bought a whole range of different things to try and sell... and have been gradually restocking stuff that sells well, and quietly letting less popular items (or ones which turned out to be a headache to source or store or ship) sell out then vanish from my shops. 

My journey back into craft supply selling began with the decision to start selling felt squares, which I felt sure (no pun intended!) would be a nice steady seller like they had been last time I'd sold them. 

Unfortunately though it seems that wholesale costs for the felt I sell have gone up a lot in recent years while retail prices have remained pretty static so profit margins are much tighter. And you've gotta hold a LOT of stock in order to be able to have the full range of colours available, even before you start thinking about letting people choose their own colours. And then even ready-picked colour bundles take a long time to assemble!

Basically, compared to other areas of my business the effort/hassle to income ratio is not great for me selling felt squares right now so I'm going to stop doing that and focus on other things instead.

Several of my felt bundles sold out before Christmas, but I've got a few still in stock. Grab them now before they vanish!

Free Rainbow Border Pattern for Embroidery Hoop Art

Happy Monday! 

Mondays are going to be extra special around here this year because I'm planning (HOPING) to have a new, free, crafty project to share with you guys at the start of every week. There'll be lots of free embroidery patterns, free felt sewing tutorials, and probably some other crafty projects too! I hope you guys will love making them...

First up: a free rainbow embroidery pattern!

This pattern is designed to be used as a joyful and colourful border for a bit of embroidery hoop art. 

I have some text planned for the centre of mine but you can add any text you fancy. A rainbow border would be particularly perfect for your favourite positive motto, or something with an LGBTQ+ theme. 

The basic idea of this pattern is that you stitch each line of the circular border in a different colour to build up your rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, & Pink). As you can see, I used a mix of different stitches for my lines but you can choose any stitch you prefer.

I chose bright rainbow colours but you could use pastel shades for a softer look. You could also use this pattern to stitch an ombre border in different shades of one colour!

Don't have any text you fancy sewing? This pattern also makes a great stitch sampler! Using the central point marked on the pattern as a guide, divide your pattern into sections and embroider each area with different stitches! Or do what I did and just go freestyle, stitching as much of each stitch as you want to.

Printed at 100% this pattern fits nicely in a 7 inch embroidery hoop but you can of course resize it to fit different hoops if you'd like! 

This pattern is for non commercial use only: you can use it to stitch as many rainbow borders as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't use them to make items 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!

Enjoyed this free pattern? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!

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

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

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

For an easier to print, high resolution version of this pattern subscribe to my new Patreon page!

 

A New Year, and Lots of Lovely New (Old) Stuff!

Hello friends! Happy New Year!

I have loads of crafty things planned for 2021, including lots of free projects for my blog and newsletter, I am positively itching to get started. I gained so much joy and solace from my creative projects in 2020 and am hoping for more of the same this year. 

Before I launch into my mega crafty To Do list, I'm easing myself into January with some simple "put my feet up on the sofa and listen to an audiobook while I do this" tasks... including getting lots of lovely vintage bits and bobs added to my shops.

Click here to browse everything on my website or over in my Etsy shop.

P.S. My shops are all set up with UK postage only at the moment but I'm always happy to quote for international shipping. UK postage is charged at a flat rate - currently £4 per parcel (no matter how much you buy!), but this will be going up soon as unfortunatrly Royal Mail have just put their prices up.

P.P.S. In case you've ever wondered, buying directly from my shop or via my Instagram sale page is the way that earns me the most money because Etsy don't take their cut of the sale fee, but I know Etsy is very convenient! It's definitely the easiest way to buy my printable PDF patterns as they offer instant downloads).