in love with felt...

...as some of our customers might have realized - one of my personal favorite materials to work with is felt.

We had already quite a lot of books about felt craft for sale and it seems as some Hout Bay´ers seem to share this love...

I see a lot of school market days these days and often moms come to the shop looking for ideas and supplies. A great source for ideas is indeed the web. Many really talented crafters out there generously share ideas and often provide free tutorials (but check out if they are allowed for selling the items!).

Today I wanted to share with you an easy but very cute BUTTERFLY BROOCHES tutorial from Laura which I found on her blog and feltshop:  www.lupinhandmade.com .

I think it is a lovely project you could also do at home with your girls, at birthday parties etc. !!!

You will need:

- two pairs of buttons, one pair slightly larger than the other

- some colourful felt. Any felt will do for the decorative detail but thicker/stiffer felt is better for the main butterfly shape - eg acrylic felt is also available at our shop in the crafty area.

Laura used acrylic felt. If you're worried about your felt not being sturdy enough, just add an extra layer between the front and back piece.

- matching sewing thread

- a brooch back or safety pin

First cut out your pattern pieces - if you print the pattern sheet (see end of Laura´s post) at 100% your brooches will be the same as Laura´s, approx 6cms across, just print it larger to get larger butterflies and to be able to use bigger buttons. You need one body piece in black or brown, and two colourful wing shapes. 

All the pieces she has cut out for her "in progress" shots are brown as she decided to use the pattern to make some moths.Next choose your buttons to match - again, hers are brown to suit the moth but you can have lots of fun playing around with colours.

Curious to give it a try? You can get felt and buttons at our little place and read the complete tutorial in Laura´s original blogpost!

Photos and Tutorials copyright by Laura www.lupinhandmade.com