Crafty Tutorial: Festive Felt Decorations

~ by Kendal

(Our felt Shooting Star)

Today is an exciting day for the Mosley-Chalks. We had our 20 week scan this morning, and all looks rather well!

But, this post is all about felt. I think I’m addicted to felt. Seriously, if you could see the amount of felt in my house, and the amount of felt decorations that are slowly piling up in my Yule stack, you’d think I was a little nuts.

But felt is so versatile. And this is the first year we’re getting a real tree, which means I want to make sure the only thing that goes on it is lots of handmade decorations. Felt can do so much, and all it takes is a little ingenuity (and by that I mean a roam on Pinterest, of course)

So today I thought I’d share with you some of the things we’ve been making. It’s all super easy and all it requires is some basic hand sewing. If you need a little guidance with stitches, there are tonnes of different websites and Youtube videos that can show you, and it’s well worth a watch. They are really simple to learn and then you can do so much! I've used all six strands of embroidery floss for everything here today.

So, first of all, let me show you our Felt Hearts. These are to hang on our tree, and maybe to make bunting with as well.

All I did was make a heart template on some tracing paper, then cut out two copies from the felt.

Using a running stitch make an outline inside one heart. 

Then, using a blanket stitch, sew all around the outside of both hearts together, until you have a small gap at the top. 

Stuff with stuffing and insert your ribbon of choice, then sew all around it. And voila! Lovely hearts. We did ours in red and green since our tree is going to be red, green and gold (I’m a sucker for warm Christmas colours)

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Now for some Shooting Stars. I’ve made a winter one (for our seasons table) and a bright yellow one with rainbow ribbons as a gift for a young baby.

(Where there's a star, there's a moon...my girl loves the moon!)

I googled ‘star’ template and then traced it, using it to make my two stars.

Then I used a trusty blanket stitch to sew around all edges. 

Take your ribbons and fold them in half, bunching them together (I used 7 rainbow ones, 2 feet each) and sew them.  

I started half way down one point and when I got back to that final space, I stuffed the star full of stuffing (from an old pillow), then inserted the ribbons. 

Sew around the gap (using a back stitch over the ribbon area) and continuing with blanket stitch until you’ve sealed the star. And voila! A lovely little sensory, colourful gift.

(Reversible Winter Star for our Winter Seasons Table)

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Next, let me show you a little winter gnome I made for Emi and her seasons table. I call him The Tomten, because that’s what he’s based on. 

This was very fun to make. I basically cut out two long triangles and on one, ‘stitched in’ a gnome. I did a drawing first, to use as guidance, and then it was easy to follow and make the gnome. I used a split stitch (my favourite of all stitches) for most of it, and a running stitch for the boots and beard.

Once I was done, I stitched the two long triangles right sides together, with my machine. You could easily just use the blanket stitch technique to secure both sides, but I wanted to make sure it was very solid. I turned it back right side out once I was finished, then I made an oblong base out of felt, using the sewn together gnome as a guide. I stuffed the gnome full, then blanket stitched on the base. And there you go! A Tomten winter gnome!

(I’m thinking of doing one for each season and selling them on my Etsy store…and using a similar technique to make Miss Ava a mermaid for Yule, since that’s her current obsession!) 

So, there you go - a few examples of what we've been doing felt-wise around here. My big giveaway for November is also made of felt - a felt stocking for a Mama. 

See? Look how much fun felt can be!

'Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.'
― Marcus Aurelius