Well, Thanksgiving is over, it’s starting to get pretty dang chilly out, the days are shorter, and my family is starting to get excited for the holiday season! One of my favorite holiday crafting materials is felt because it’s just so easy to use in so many ways. But even better is felt made from old, unused wool sweaters that have been purposedly felted in the washing machine. (You can read about how I do that in this post on felting wool sweaters.)

This year I’ve been using felted wool sweaters (or, more technically, boiled wool) to make a bunch of holiday decorations, and today I want to show you one that is incredibly easy: my no sew felt poinsettia!

This tutorial is incredibly easy. All you need are some old sweaters, or parts of old sweaters, which you have already felted in the washing machine. You need mostly red and a tiny bit of yellow or brown. And then fabric scissors and a glue gun.

Then you can quickly whip up a bunch of lovely DIY felt poinsettias to top gift packages, hang from the tree or decorate your home in so many ways!

So you might be asking yourself: why use felted wool sweaters when I can just buy some cheap acrylic felt at my local craft store? You’ll understand when you feel the boiled wool from felted wool sweaters. It has a lovely texture and it is a much thicker and substantial fabric. In addition, it is non synthetic and actually is repurposing something that probably would’ve otherwise been thrown away (if you are felting ruined, worn or otherwise unused garments). So you can craft away without having to worry about your ecological footprint!

Let’s get started making your no sew felt poinsettia!

Materials:

• Red wool sweater (or piece of one)
• Scraps of a yellow or brown wool sweater
• Free Felt Poinsettias pattern (download it here from my free downloads page)
• Fabric scissors*
• Glue gun*
• Permanent marker*
• Ribbon or yarn* for hanging

Before you start, make sure you’ve completely felted your wool sweaters according to the directions in this post.

Making the Poinsettias:

1. Cut out the four pattern pieces. I suggest you glue them to an empty cereal box or other thick cardstock before cutting them out to make them more sturdy.

2. Trace five large petals, five small petals and one back piece on the red felted sweater, and three stamen on the yellow/brown felted sweater.

3. Cut out the pieces inside the permanent marker lines.

4. Fold one flat edge of the large petals to the center and keep it in place with a dot of hot glue. (And yes, the permanent marker will wipe off onto your fingers if it doesn’t dry first, hence my purple fingers!)

5. Do the same with the other flat edge so that they overlap, and keep in place with another dot of hot glue.

6. Repeat steps 4-5 for the other large petal pieces.

7. Arrange the folded ends of the large petals in a circle and glue them like this onto the circular back piece. Try to be a bit more careful when using the hot glue so you don’t end up with visible globs of it like I did with this one!

8. Arrange the small petals so that one point of each meets in the center and glue them in place. Try to cover up any visible glue globs on the large petals.

9. Glue the three yellow/brown stamen circles in the center, covering up the place where the small petals meet up.

10. Tie a loop of ribbon or cording, stick the knot under the edge of the back circle, and glue in place.

And you’re done! Wasn’t that easy? Now make a whole bunch more to use for all your decorating purposes! Or why not attach a pin behind one to make a holiday brooch or attach one to a headband for a pretty Christmas accessory? The possiblities with a no sew felt poinsettia are endless because they’re so quick, easy and versatile to use!

If you like the idea of using the boiled wool from felted sweaters and a glue gun to make easy but pretty holiday decorations, you’ll love my easy no sew felt snowflake ornaments made from- you guessed it- a felted sweater!

Or, if your kids want to have fun with felted sweater scraps, let them decorate them to make these DIY felt Christmas tree ornaments!

Do you want all the new sewing techniques and cool modern sewing and crafting projects, as well as the free pattern for these no sew felt poinsettias? Then sign up for the Cucicucicoo Newsletter here for access to dozens of free printables! 

Click here to pin this tutorial so you can have it ready when you’ve gotten your old sweaters together and are in a crafty mood!

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