Spring Plushies

Hello there, Michelle Short here and I am delighted to be back on the Spellbinders blog using the Spring Felt Stitch & Create collection by Nichol Spohr. There is a bunny (and carrot) in this collection, as well as a hen, and if you love sewing and stitching, these are really fun to create! For these plushies, I like to stitch with 3 strands of floss. However, you can definitely just use two if you like. Whether you choose to coordinate floss and felt colors, or add a contrast, will affect the finished look. I usually use coordinating colors, but contrast is fun too!

COZY CLUCK

My first plushie uses the Felt Cozy Cluck Etched Dies to create a hen. I decided to go a bit different with the color scheme and create a blue hen. The great thing about these dies is that you can add as many or as little of the layers as you want. I did miss a few out for my hen. To make this plushie:

• Die cut base of hen from Glacier Merino Wool Felt (from the Holiday Collection).
• Die cut head feathers, large tailpiece, largest wing, and smallest wing from Tide Merino Wool Felt (from the Cool Collection).
• Die cut small tailpiece, middle-sized wing ,and tail stripes from Indigo Merino Wool Felt (from the Cool Collection).

• Stitch the largest wing onto the base of the hen first, using DMC Color Essentials Floss and needle. Add the middle one on top, followed by the smallest one on top of that.
• Stitch head feather pieces together and set aside.
• Stitch tail pieces together and set aside.
• Stitch the two base layers of the hen together, making sure to insert the tail and head feathers when you get to that part.

• Before stitching the hen shut, add polyester fiber filling (or any other filling of your choice) to make the plushie three-dimensional.
• Die cut eyes from Coal Merino Wool felt (from the Holiday Collection) and the beak from Sunflower Merino Wool Felt (from the Trend Collection) and adhere them to the hen using a hot glue gun (or adhesive of choice).
• Adhere tail stripes to hen with hot glue gun (or adhesive of choice).
• To finish, adhere Silver Mix Color Essentials Gems to the wings.

TOP TIP: When stitching these plushies, I like to use a running stitch and miss out every other stitch. I then go back and add in the other stitch the second time around. This makes sure that the back of the plushie is as neat as the front.

CARROT COMPANION

My second plushie uses the Felt Carrot Companion Etched Dies. This creates a bunny, as well as a carrot. I decided to just create the bunny today. To make this plushie:

• Die cut head and body of bunny from Snow Marino Wool Felt (from the Holiday Collection).
• Die cut inner ears, belly, and nose from Rosy Merino Wool Felt (from the Holiday Collection).
• Die cut heart from Heather Merino Wool felt (from the Trend Collection).

• Stitch heart to belly piece using DMC Color Essentials Floss and needle.
• Stitch belly to body piece.
• Stitch front of body to back of body, with DMC Color Essentials Floss, leaving an opening at the top to insert polyester fibre filling (or other filling of choice) inside.
• Stitch inner earpieces to headpiece.
• Stitch mouth (I used pink floss for a subtle look, but a darker color would show up more).

• Stitch both head pieces together, making sure to leave a gap at the bottom to insert polyester fiber filling (or other filling of choice) inside.
• Before stitching up the bottom of the head, insert the pieces either side of the body and stitch around to attach the head to body.
• Die cut eyes from Coal Merino Wool Felt (from the Holiday Collection) and adhere to the bunny using hot glue gun (or adhesive of choice).
• Adhere nose.
• Die cut bow tie from Heather Merino Wool felt (from the Trend Collection), stitch pieces together and adhere to the bunny.

TOP TIP: I like to adhere layers of felt using a hot glue gun. It secures the layers quickly and securely. I have tried using Bearly Art Glue in the past, and it does seem to hold fairly well, it just takes longer to dry.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my projects today and I have inspired you to have fun with felt! Are they perfect? No! But I did have fun making them! Felt not your thing? You can always cut them from cardstock too! Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Other Supplies

Hot glue gun, polyester fiber filling.