The Digby Pillow – 15 Minute Felt Beagle Pillows

The Digby pillow is a felt craft with plenty of wow factor. These 15 minute faux applique pillows are a must make!

 I chose to create beagle pillows as a way to honor of our lemon beagle Digby, pronounced “DIG-BEE”. If beagles aren’t your thing you can easily customize your pillow with whatever shape or silhouette you fits your style.

All you need are 15 minutes and a few simple supplies to transform a plain or inexpensive pillow into crisp stylish custom throw pillow.

You will need:

 Pillow(s) of your choice

1/4 yard felt of your choice – I used white, this amount will make two beagles with plenty of leftovers.

Wool or wool blend felt works best, acrylic felt, polyester felt and eco fi will ball up over time.

Beacon’s Felt Glue

Thread coordinating or (contrasting if your the type who likes to live on the edge.)

Felter’s Friend freezer paper sheets

Iron, Scissors, Sewing Needle

Print out the your template onto freezer paper (the Digby template I used is at the bottom of this post)

Using the beagle template line up the head and tail section and iron onto your felt using the wool setting,

For more on Felt and Freezer paper see:

DIY printed felt

Cutting small and detailed shapes from Felt 

You can also try pinning template to felt and cutting but the freezer paper makes the job much much easier.

Cut away extra paper and gently peel away freezer paper you can re- use this template up to 5 times so save it.

Lay your applique out on the pillow(s) exactly as you want them and mark their position lightly.

 Remove your applique and thread the needle and sew a running stitch along the outside.

Because you are using felt you won’t need to worry about fraying and you can just attach the applique straight to your pillow.

However the stitching helps to create a more authentic appearance and adds a nice weight to the piece.  Be sure to only knot on the backside of your shape.

Line up your applique with the marks you made earlier and glue down with felt glue one section at a time.

Smooth out but do not press the glue down into the fibers. Once dry the glue will hold as well as stitches.

 Allow the glue to set and you’ve got yourself a fabulous new set of throw pillows.

Please do not pin this template to pinboards.

Beagle template

Stop By the Shop:

Happy Crafting!

~Andie

Felt Gerbera Daisies – Lazy Daisies of Summer

By far my very favorite flower has to be the gerbera daisy, it makes no excuses for itself, there is nothing subtle or demure about them even their colors are extreme and demand attention and as Auntie Mame so famously put it, “more is more!”

Enjoy the best of summer with this free gerbera daisy template and tutorial. And now you can share pictures of your creations on our Facebook page!

You will need:

Felt in your choice of flower color I used our new color,  Hot Pink

Scraps of felt in a deep yellow, Gold Nugget is used here, and a pale green, I used Granny Smith.

Thread in pale green color

Flip Flops, or anything you want to accent with these whimsical flowers.

Print out and enlarge this Template to the standard copy paper size.

1: Cut 2 each of templates A, B & C in your flower color choice.

2. Cut 1 of template D in deep yellow color

3. Cut 1 of template E in pale green color.

**For tips on cutting complex or small pattern pieces from felt see our blog post***

Now that the pieces are all cut stack them in order of size making sure that the petals fan out in different directions so that the finished piece looks fuller.

Step 3:

Place a small X with a running stitch through the flower, shown here in contrasting thread color for clarity. Pull threads tightly so the flower curves inward.

Step 4: You can now attach these to any project you like, to attach them to the flip flops as shown above simply attach the flowers to the toe posts as you would a button or use hot glue.

Try these on:

 A tank top

A handmade bag

Accent pillows

Backpacks

Lamp Shades

Headbands and hats

Stop by the Store

 Copyright American Felt and Craft for personal use only.

www.AmericanFeltandCraft.com

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Felt Hydrangea Bouquet

Felt Rosette Accent Pillow Tutorial

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Bed of roses, sweet little rose accent pillows

It was finally time…my daughter has been in her toddler bed for quite some time and has had the same bedding since before she was born, so if anything new bedding  was overdue. I wasn’t quite ready to move her to a larger bed but her Glenna Jean bedding I “just had to have” was worn thin. I looked everywhere for quality toddler bedding with no luck everything seemed to have a negative thread count, rough, cheap and thin. And in today’s economy I wasn’t about to spend $400 on a nice crib set.

That’s when I decided to make my own, not the fitted sheet mind you I simply bought a new crib sheet, I am not insane enough to attempt such a sewing feat, not yet anyway. The blanket was super easy I just made a large pillow case shape out of 2 yards of  fabric and filled it with batting and tied it down with cross stitch thread to prevent shifting. I then made a bed skirt out of tulle and ribbon, but something was still missing, that’s when I thought of the little felt rosettes I had been searching for an application for and made some lovely accent pillows. I am thrilled with how they turned out. You could really use these rosettes on anything but I think these little pillows are sweet and would make a lovely Valentines Day decoration or gift.

For one pillow you will need:

7 sheets felt (I used pink tutu)

Stuffing

Matching thread/Sewing needle

Sewing machine (ok that’s optional I guess, but making pillows can be a pain without it)

Step 1:

Cut as many small circles approx 2 inches in diameter as you can from one of your felt sheets.

Cut as many circles approx 3 inches in diameter from another  2 felt sheets

Cut as many circles approx 4 inches in diameter as you can from your 4th  and 5th felt sheet

You can free hand these they do not need to be exact.

Step 2:

Cut all circles into whirls as shown below, the less cutting you do the better your rose will look. I know it seems like the opposite would be true but too many whirls in the circle make for a very small tight rose.

Step 3:

Thread and knot your needle.

Starting from the small end roll your cut circle until you reach the fat middle piece, wrap around the outside and sew through your rose on each side to hold into place knot and begin the next one. After about two this becomes very easy and can be done while watching your favorite movie.

Step :4

Hand stitch all of your roses onto one half of your pillow leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance around the edges.

Step 5

Place your pillow pieces right sides together and sew around outer edges leaving space to stuff. Turn right side out stuff and sew closed.

Variations on the theme:

Try making a shape or a letter from the roses as I have shown on the center pillow.

If sewing pillows is too daunting you can always make small drawer sachet by scaling down the project and making only small roses and stuffing with potpourri.

I think this would also make a great wall hanging using your childs initial.

Happy Valentine’s day!

You may also enjoy:

Felt Hydrangea Bouquet 

See over 150 felt flower tutorials on our Pintrest Felt Flowers Board

AFC Presents: Chocolate Fudge- Hot Glue!

American Felt and Craft is proud to announce our new product, Fudge- Hot Glue! Not since kindergarten paste has glue been so appetizing! Made in the U.S.A, this chocolate brown hot glue adds an unbelievably realistic look to your felt food creations and holds tight to fibers for a strong bond. Great for drips, drizzles, toppings, and dips. Totally non-toxic and best of all available at our on line store, 4 – 4″ sticks for only $2.75, talk about a cheap thrill!

For use in all full sized low temp glue guns.

Tips for use:
To avoid stringy pieces never pull away from the piece until you have stopped all pressure on the trigger and waited a few seconds.
To remove colored glue from gun place new color (or clear) glue stick into gun, pull trigger emptying glue onto paper until no more of the original color can be seen, usually around 3-4 trigger pulls.
In the event you need to remove the fudge glue from your piece, wait for it to cool thoroughly and then attempt removal.

Note:  This hot glue sticks firmly and in some cases it may be impossible to remove, in which case try cutting away as much as possible and cover spot, attempting to remove glue while still hot can result in messy strings and smashing it into interlocked fibers making removal impossible.

Please do not attempt to eat glue of any kind, even paste.