tutorial Archives - Lulu & Celeste

Last updated November 22, 2019

I’m so excited to be offering this tutorial for a felt deer applique ornament! I originally shared the tutorial as part of the 2017 Ornament Exchange and Blog hop. You can see the full list of the 47 amazing bloggers who participating in the exchange at the bottom of the post. The rules of the challenge were simple: be partnered with a fellow blogger, create a handmade ornament for $15 or under, create a tutorial, and ship the ornament off to a new home!

Please note: This post contains affiliate links. All affiliate links are marked with an asterisk (*). I may receive a small commission if you purchase something after clicking a link.

I am super excited about this project!

It was a bit of a challenge to come up with something a complete stranger might like, especially since our styles were somewhat different. I worried a lot that she might not like it so it took me awhile to come up with a project that I thought she might like and that could be something that I wouldn’t mind reproducing and would fit the types of tutorials I already offer.

I’ve been wanting to do a felt applique hoop ornament for some time now. There are so many patterns* out there I’ve been coveting. I figured now was the perfect time to try it out! It ended up being so fun to make this deer applique ornament.

It’s not super difficult project but with the hand stitching it can be time consuming.

Supplies to make one deer applique ornament:

5″ embroidery hoop
large scrap of cotton woven fabric for the backing, measuring approximately 7″ x 7″. (I used Essex linen by Robert Kaufman in Flax colourway that I had purchased from Canadian National Fabric.)
scrap pieces of wool blend felt in colours of your choice. For the antlers I used ‘Chocolate’; for the “bib” -not sure what to call the front area, I used ‘Pastry’; the mouth is ‘Banana Nut Muffin’; the main colour is ‘Toffee’, and the face is ‘Antique White’. Plus a piece of felt for the back measuring about 5.5″ square.
Matching embroidery thread, plus white to make the snowflakes.
scraps of Wonder Under
small square of stabilizer. (I used Sulky Sulvy)
ribbon or string for hanging
glue, needle, scissors
PATTERN PIECE: Free Download, click here

New to felt? Check out my tips for working with felt here!

The finished project is approximately 5″.

Felt Deer Applique Ornament Instructions:

Printing the Pattern:

Print out the deer applique pattern in the supplies list above. Print on letter size or A4 paper at actual size or 100%.
Trace each part of the deer onto the paper side of the Wonder Under. When tracing the antlers and the forehead, extend the bottom edges slightly so that the other pieces can overlap them. (Ie. the antlers are under the main body, and for the forehead that part that extends down to the mouth area is under the mouth piece. You will trace one outline of the body, one forehead and lower body, one “bib” or chest area, one mouth and two antlers. Be sure the antlers are reverse from one another. Trace around the outer edge of the inner hoop onto felt and cut out. This will be for the back.

Cutting:

Cut out around the traced images. Leave some space around each part (don’t cut out the exact shape yet).
Press the Wonder Under onto the felt. Make sure to also press from the paper side as the felt is heat resistant and otherwise won’t ‘stick’.
Cut out each piece.

Prepping:

Fuse each piece of the felt onto the backing fabric in the following order: antlers, body piece, forehead and lower body, mouth, chest. Be sure to check placement of antlers using the main body piece as a guide. As mentioned before, the felt is heat resistant so you may want a scrap piece of parchment or wax paper to help you with fusing each layer. For example with the antlers, flip the piece over so the glue is facing up and place the parchment paper on top. Then lightly press the iron to the parchment paper to slightly melt the glue then quickly turn right side up and place the antlers in place and press again from both the front and on the wrong side of the backing fabric.
Once each layer has been fused to the fabric, apply stabilizer to the wrong side of the backing fabric and then place in the embroidery hoop

Sewing:

Using a whipstitch, stitch each layer to the fabric. I use two pieces of embroidery thread for the stitching.
Use white thread to create snowflakes using the french knot stitch.
Stitch the nose and eyes. Stitch a little bit of pink on the inner ears.

Finishing it up:

Trim the backing fabric so it’s about 1.5″ all around. Make a running stitch around the edge of the fabric and pull taut to gather the edge so that it will hide under the backing felt.
Run a layer of glue around the edge of the back of the hoop and attach the felt backing circle.
Add a ribbon or string and your deer applique ornament is done!

My swap partner was fellow Canadian blogger Sue from A Purdy Little House. Her decor style is a bit different from mine. She seems a lot more elegant and sophisticated than I am, ha. She preferred an ornament with neutral colours so I came up something using browns and whites. I hope she likes it as much as I do!