How to Sew a Felt Cat Brooch

Summer Holiday Crafting – Sewing Felt Brooches

Whilst I was sewing lots of felt bits recently,  I had a thought that it would be nice to share how I do it. It doesn’t happen often. Some sewn felt kitty cats I made were quite popular, so I decided to use my design to show you how to make a brooch. Sewing felt is great, no fraying edges to worry about, it’s versatile and quite sturdy.

I’m making a felt cat brooch here, but you can create any design. Even if your drawing is shocking, something interesting will come out of it. I do not care for the excuse that a person is not creative; it’s complete nonsense. If you want to have a go, just do it. And, since we’ve just begun the summer holidays, I can tell you that this is a fabulous project to do with the kids. My boys love doing this kind of thing. Summer holiday crafts are a must.

As well as making felt brooches, keyrings work well too. Or if you can’t be bothered to source brooch backs and keyrings (get them from Etsy or eBay), then a few inches of ribbon attached means that it can become a hanging decoration.

This is a good craft project for those who don’t have loads of supplies. A square of felt and a couple of buttons cost less than a quid. You can reuse old buttons. You can even repurpose old scraps of fabric instead of using felt. Change the thread for yarn, if that’s all you’ve got. Whatever.

Materials To Sew a Felt Cat Brooch

Here are the things you need to make your own hand-sewn felt cat brooch.

• Paper and pen/pencil.
• Scissors.
• Felt fabric (or other thickish fabric).
• Buttons for kitty’s eyes.
• Embroidery thread (or normal sewing thread doubled up).
• A sewing needle and a couple of pins.
• A small amount of polyfibre fill.
• Brooch back, keyring or 15cm length of ribbon.

Draw Out a Design – The Template

Draw out the design of your choice: cat, dog, fish, fruit, flower, blah blah.  Cut it out. A tip here is to go slightly bigger than you want the finished item to be. The finished thing will work up slightly smaller than you expect.

Keep shaping to a minimum too, you don’t want to give yourself the headache of awkward corners, or thin poky-out bits. Keep crafting simple; that’s the key.

Cutting Out Felt Pieces

Pin your template to two layers of felt and cut out. As above, keep to simple shapes as it’s so much easier. I do two layers together so that they’re both the same shape. These will be the front and back pieces.

Separate Embroidery Threads For Sewing

Cut your thread to about 40cm. If your threads are too long, you run the risk of tangles. From experience, it just isn’t worth it. My Nanna used to say that the length of the thread should be from your fingers to your elbow.

If you’re using embroidery thread, then it usually comes in six strands plied together. You need to separate out two strands, as in the picture above. This might seem daft, but a whole thickness of embroidery floss is too bulky and looks naff. Alternatively, use sewing thread doubled up so you’re sewing with two strands. This doesn’t produce as nice a finish, but it’s good enough.

Tie a knot in the end. If it’s the kids who are sewing a felt cat brooch, I tie the ends of the thread together to keep it on the needle. My boys always yank the thread off the needle. Always.

Attach Button Eyes To The Felt Cat

I start with the big, wide, button eyes. You can place them anywhere you like. I like to go wider (leaving room for edge stitching). Poke your needle right through his eyes! Ouch! Keep knots on the back. Stitch the needle in and out of the button holes at least three times.

Where Do You Want Kitty’s Nose and Whiskers?

I recently bought a fancy pen for drawing embroidery designs. It cost about £3 from a fabric shop. The ink disappears after a few hours, so you can draw your face and not worry about scruffy pen marks. If you’re not that fussed, you can free-style it or see if a soft pencil works.

Being able to see where to place the embroidery stitches is very useful.

With the embroidery thread, you’re essentially colouring in. For the nose, use a satin stitch, which is just stitches placed really close to one another. For the bit under his nose, I change to a running stitch and follow the line I drew.

YouTube is your friend when learning stitches. It’s a good place to learn a bit more about embroidery and how to do the stitches. They all have different names!

I ran out of my first lot of thread at this stage. It’s best to leave maybe 8-10cm of thread at the end to give yourself a sufficient amount to tie off and weave in. Then just grab a new length to continue stitching.

It doesn’t matter about the thready mess you create on the wrong side, as you won’t see any of it. Just as long as it is kept to the wrong side.

A Hand Stitched Kitty Face – A Felt Cat Brooch

A little kitty face sewn! If you still have a decent amount of thread left, don’t tie it off yet, as you can use it to sew the two sides together.

Put this kitty face to one side while you complete the next stage.

Sewing On the Brooch Back

Sewing on a brooch back is similar to sewing on the eyes. I go in and out of each hole three times at the top and three times each for the bottom holes (bottom holes! Haha!).  Make sure the brooch back is the right way up and that it’s placed towards the top middle.

Make sure you sew it to the correct side of your felt/fabric, too. Essentially, match the front and back pieces so that you haven’t accidentally got one of them the wrong way round. Not all designs will be symmetrical. Always check!

Almost there. Just need to sew the front and back together.

Sewing Felt Pieces Together

Rethread the needle, and it’s time to sew the front to the back. I use a whip stitch. I used to use a blanket stitch, but it uses a ton of thread. A whip stitch looks similar when looking straight on. Make sure the stitches are neatly done; they will be visible. They’re a design feature!

(If I was using ribbon, it’d be at this stage, near the top that I’d get it ready to stitch between the two layers).

Again, if the thread needs changing, tie off the old stuff and knot in the new all inside your felt kitty. No one will ever know about the mess!

Add Stuffing Inside The Felt Cat Brooch

When there’s only a couple of inches left to sew, kitty needs to acquire some chub. I’ve got a bag of toy stuffing (bought from Amazon), but if desperate, go and destroy a cushion (or but perhaps you shouldn’t :/). Another alternative could be yarn ends if you’re a knitter or crocheter. Anyway, stuff lightly with your chosen filling, match up the open pieces and carry on with the stitching.

To finish off, the last stitch to the back needs to be poked upwards and out again, next to another stitch, as in the left photo above. Check the front to make sure you didn’t go through to the face too.

Go around the stitch you popped out next to and then repeat the process two or three times more. Or just keep going until the thread comes to an end. Lose the thread inside the newly hand-sewn felt kitty cat, or carefully snip off any threads still showing.

Voila! A hand-stitched cat face made from felt!

It is done. Miaow.

As well as sewing a cat felt brooch, you can sew any kind of felt critters. Here are some other handmade felt decorations, keychains and brooches that I’ve made before…

Have a good summer!

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