Friday 5 February 2010

How To: Felt Heart Brooch

As promised, here's a sweet project for Valentine's Day... inspired by the colours in my Valentines felt squares pack.



To make this heart brooch you will need:

- a needle, a pin, scissors, and a heart shape (draw your own or print the template at the bottom of this post)
- red, purple, pink and white felt
- white and purple thread
- a brooch clasp or safety pin

1. Pin the heart template to the red felt, and cut around it. Remove the pin and place the red heart on the pink felt, pin it in place and carefully cut around the heart leaving a border of pink "framing" it. Remove the pin, and repeat this process using the pink heart as a template on the purple felt. You'll now have three felt hearts, each one slightly larger than the last.

2. Use the largest (purple) heart as a template to cut out an identical piece - this will become the back of your brooch

.

3. Take one of your purple heart shapes, and pin it to the white felt. Carefully cut a scalloped edge around the heart, cutting right up to the edge of the purple felt and taking care to make the semi-circles similar sizes. I practised this on a scrap piece of felt before I started as it can be a little fiddly, but luckily it still looks cute even when it comes out a bit irregular!

 


4. Now layer all your felt pieces (apart from your "back" purple heart) so all the shapes are neatly framed, and pin them together. Using white thread and a simple running stitch, sew them all together - start from the bottom point of the red heart, and make sure you leave a few millimetres between your stitches and the edge of the red felt.

 


5. Take your remaining felt piece (the second purple heart) and sew a brooch clasp or safety pin to it using a double thickness of purple thread.

 


6. Finally, hold the front and back pieces together making sure that the hearts match up (use the scalloped edge as a guide - if they're all visible your back piece is in the right place). Using more purple thread, slowly sew the front and back sections of your brooch together, following the edges of the purple hearts. If you keep as close to the pink heart shape as possible this will help to help keep your stitches hidden.


 

Double click the template below to view full size and print. If you print the template at 100% your brooch will be the same size as mine.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many brooches as you like for yourself or as gifts for friends but please don't make any for sale. Please feel free to borrow photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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11 comments:

Petra said...

They are really cute!!
Thank you for sharing.

Unknown said...

so cute -- i think i'll make one for the little girl i babysit :)

Emma Cowley said...

Thanks for sharing this tutorial, what a lovely idea!

MitziMakes said...

Really pretty :) Thanks!

Tiffany said...

my gosh, that is the cutest thing ever. Thanks for sharing :D

Fiona said...

Lovely heart. How do you manage to cut your felt so neatly? Just off to buy some felt from your shop.

Unknown said...

so lovely, I ve just do it for me. Thanks for sharing this tutorial with us.

Bugs and Fishes said...

Thanks for the comments, everyone! :)

Fiona - I use embroidery scissors (much smaller than regular sewing scissors) to cut out all my small felt pieces.

Vanina said...

Very cute! Thanks for sharing.

Elizabet said...

I am thinking of making them for my daughter's basketball team! Would there initial be in felt too? What do you recommend?

Bugs and Fishes said...

Hi Elizabet, you could cut out felt letters, or maybe embroider the initials on a piece of red felt and then cut your heart shapes out of the felt so that each letter is in the centre of a heart.

If you draw a letter on a piece of tracing paper, you can stitch along the lines neatly and then tear the paper away - as seen in this project: http://bugsandfishes.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-embroidered-faux-bois-heart.html

Then use more tracing paper to cut out your heart template, so you can see through it to perfectly position it before cutting.