Tutorial: Little Prickly Friend

I have been enjoying some hand stitching with snippets of wool felt and linen lately and one night I got inspired to make this Little Prickly Friend. He is so fun to embroider!

Things you need:

• a piece of wool felt in ivory colour about 2" by 2.5" for the body
• a teeny piece of wool felt in mushroom or light brown colour for the paws
• background fabric (I like to use linen)
• a teeny weeny snippet of pretty cotton fabric for the tummy
• embroidery floss in dark brown
• thread in matching colour for the tummy
• fusible web
• a thin sewing needle

Step 1: Iron on the fusible web onto the back side of the ivory felt and the cotton piece according to the instruction. On the back (paper side) of the felt piece draw a small pear shape for the body. Mine is about 1.5" in length with the widest part of the body is about 1". The head is 0.5" wide. But it can be made bigger or smaller if you like. On the back of the cotton piece draw an oval for the tummy. 

Step 2: Cut out the shapes. Fuse the felt piece onto the background fabric and then fuse the tummy on top of the felt. Using the matching colour thread, stitch 1-2mm away from the edge around the tummy with a running stitch. Make sure that you use a very thin needle.

Step 3: Using two strands of dark brown embroidery floss, stitch the face. For the eye, make french knots (2 wraps). For the nose, french knot (2 wraps) as well. For the mouth, use straight stitches. Give your Little Friend his own facial expression - happy, sad, curious, sleepy... Just play around a bit.

Step 4: Cut out two sets of paws from the mushroom colour felt. For the top ones, cut out two narrow ovals. For the bottom ones, cut out two wider ovals, more like ovoids. Using one strand of dark brown embroidery floss attach the paws by making two stitches on one end in the same place and three stitches for the claws on the opposite end. Repeat for all the paws.

Step 5: Now is the time to get a bit =. Using one strand of dark brown embroidery floss, make short and long straight stitches all around the body. Do not worry that your Little Friend looks a bit bold at this stage. Just go around two or even three more times until you get him as prickly as wanted.

Please note that this pattern is just an idea and it should not be precise or perfect. Simply enjoy creating your own Little Prickly Friend.

Happy prickly stitching! Watch your fingers! Larisa xox