Tutorial – Make a Stacked Felt Pin – A clever Valentine!

Completed FrontHere is a fun and quick project, suitable for valentines or spring. Wouldn’t this be cute for a little girl to make for valentines for her friends? Or stack bolder flowers without the heart and make a fun funky adult brooch. The technique is quite simple, and it’s a great thing to do with felted sweater scraps (though of course you could use store bought felt if you wish). I had planned to do an appliqued shirt (like the elephant onesie), but decided a pin was more fun, versatile, and won’t be grown out of!.

tutorial - Make a Felt Heart/Flower Pin

1. Felted Sweaters, cut into fun shapes – I’m lucky enough to have borrowed a die cut machine (thanks, SomeArtMama!), but you can just cut them out with scissors. Trace around cookie cutters or look for shapes on the web to make a paper template (search google images for things like heart template and flower template).
2. Supplies: Embroidery floss, a button, 3 felt shapes in graduated sizes, safety pin(make sure you needle will fit through the holes in your button!). Felt shapes: for the 2 I did, this one was heart, then flower, topped with circle. The other was flower, star, topped with circle– be creative!
3. Use wire pliers to sprong out your safety pin – You’ll want to separate the loop at the end so you can slide your fabric around it.
4. Stick it in, centered where you want the pin to go, (look at the back – all the silver showing should be able to be covered by your next layer).
5. Slide it through until its on the other side, you’ll have to bunch up the felt and twist it to get it around your loop.
6. Close pin, If you’re giving this to a small child, you may want to dull the point of your safety pin so they won’t prick themselves as easily.
7. Stack your design, (well, you probably did this earlier!)
8. Ready to assemble, Start with the side without the safety pin closure.
9. Place first flower,
10. Sew it on, starting in the center of the flower so your knot will be covered by the next layer. Make as small stitches as possible on the back side. For extra security , you can stitch around the saftely pin so it’s held by the thread as well.
11. Sew on top layer and button, You’re just sewing these to the middle layer, so you don’t have to go all the way through to the back (hides most of the stitching)
12. Note you’re hiding most of the stiching in the middle.,
13. Tie off thread, hidden in the middle,
14. Completed Front,
15. Completed back,
16. Looking adorable! I gave this as a gift for a three year old, attached to the cute heart pink shirt.

Update:

A second version