Fabulous felt

Stitch felt flowers in seasonal shades together to form Lisa Steed Davey's delightful jewellery

Lisa Steed Davey, MJ Designer

“The Autumnal shades of these pretty felt flowers are perfect for this season”

Felt is such a versatile medium to work with and now the winter months are drawing near, big bold statement jewellery in orange, brown and muted yellow will bring any outfit to life. These felt flowers look stunning stitched in contrasting shades and sewn together in a mix of colours and sizes for instant statement style!

Necklace

1. Lay a series of felt flowers in front of you in the following order; small yellow, medium orange, small brown, medium yellow, small brown and large orange. Mirror the sequence after the large central flower to make up the opposite side of the necklace.
2. Using sewing cotton, connect all the felt flowers together where they touch. Do not pull too hard as it will leave dents in the side of the flowers. Using two strands of DMC embroidery cotton, sew along each flower petal with long straight stitch. On the orange flowers, use yellow thread, yellow flowers have chocolate thread and for brown flowers use orange thread.
3. Thread a beading needle with orange thread and stitch a gold sequin, a frosted brown round and a yellow seed bead into the centre of the large orange flower. Sew back through the round and sequin. Around this bead sew three seed beads, yellow, orange and chocolate in rows at the base of each petal. Repeat for the medium orange flowers, but only stitch single brown seeds at the base of the petals, and add a brown seed to the centre of the flowers instead of yellow.
4. For the brown flowers, thread the needle with brown cotton and stitch a gold sequin, a frosted orange round and a brown seed bead, then sew back through the orange round and sequin. For the yellow flowers, thread the needle with yellow cotton and stitch an orange sequin, a brown frosted round and an orange seed bead in the centres, sewing back through the round and sequin. Stitch an orange seed at the base of each petal.
5. Cut two 13cm lengths of brown and orange linen ribbon. Lay an orange piece on top of a brown one and roll one end so the raw edges are enclosed. Using small stitches, sew to the back of a yellow flower at one end of the necklace. Repeat for the other side, then attach ribbon ends and jump rings to each ribbon. Add a lobster clasp to one end and an extension chain to the other.

Bracelet

1. Cut a 16cm length each of orange and brown ribbon (or enough to fit your wrist). Connect ribbon ends to either side, then attach 8mm jump rings and a magnetic clasp.
2. Select three orange and two brown small flowers. Embroider all the orange petals with two strands of brown thread and the brown petals with orange thread in the same way as the necklace.
3. Stitch sequins, frosted rounds and seed beads in the centre of each flower as before. To attach the flowers to the bracelet, thread the needle in brown cotton and place the orange ribbon face up. Arrange the flowers evenly then sew along the length attaching the petals. Do not pull too hard or the bracelet will gather up.