Quick tips for Sewing with Felt

Ula here again from Lulu & Celeste. I’m back today sharing a couple tips for sewing with felt.

Quick Tips for Sewing with Felt

Sewing with felt can be lots of fun. There are sooo many projects and patterns out there that use felt and felt comes in so many different pretty colours they’re hard to resist. However, felt can be a little tricky at times to sew; not difficult at all, but it likes to shift around a lot. Here are a few tips to keep in mind while sewing with felt.

1. Use sharp scissors. Don’t use your good fabric scissors! Felt will dull them. I keep one pair of scissors separate just for using with felt, including a pair of embroidery scissors for the tiny spots.
2. Use freezer paper. Trace your pattern piece onto freezer paper, cut out and lightly (you don’t want to melt the felt!) iron the pattern piece to a piece of felt. Don’t cut the shape out of the felt yet! Then I sew around the pattern piece, remove the freezer paper, and cut the object close to the stitching line.
3. Or if you’re making something like the maple leaf mug rug, cut the pattern shape out of the top layer only, sew around the edges of that. Finally, cut out the whole object. In the case of the maple leaf mug rug, if you cut the leaf shape out of all three layers, you may find the pieces have shifted before you finish leaving you with a distorted mug rug. This step is shown in better detail in the picture below:
   

   Keep the felt layers larger than the top layer which has been cut to the desired finished size, and stitch.

4. Use good quality felt. Buy the best quality felt you can afford. I like to use wool-blend felt best: it’s soft, comes in hundreds of pretty colours, and has very little pilling. Eco-fi felt can work too, but I don’t like it as much since it’s not as soft to the touch. Do not use the dollar store craft felt! It’s great for little kids’ crafts but not if you want to use it for something you intend to be long-lasting.

Finally, have fun with felt! There are so many fun, and quick, projects you can use felt with like the Canadian flag mug rug here.

Thank you again for having me! Come visit me at Lulu & Celeste and check out a couple of other projects I’ve shared using felt.