Butterfly and Flower Hair Clips

Last week I spent the day with my nieces, Riley and Avery, and I made a couple of hair clips for them. We didn’t have a plan, but we did have some felt.

I first drew a butterfly on a sheet of notebook paper and colored it with markers. Then I rough cut a few little pieces of felt and shaped them into butterfly wings. They aren’t exactly like the wings I drew but the girls thought they looked good so I didn’t fret over it.

I cut a few smaller pieces and then shaped the spots on the wings. I used hand quilting thread to stitch the spots to the wings. All purpose thread will work, but 100% cotton hand quilting thread is wax coated to reduce drag when the thread is pulled through the quilt layers. Which means it’s less likely to tangle. Yay!

I stitched the top two wings together and then tacked on the pink spots. Then I did the same with the bottom wings and the orange spots. I layered the top wings over the bottom set and stitched them together, first on the back…

…and then tacked it securely on the top. These stitches would be hidden by the body.

After the wings were connected I placed the yellow scallops on the top wings and I cut out a little blue body.

Easy peasy.

It would be fun to add sequins to the wings, but we didn’t have any. Instead, I outlined some of the parts with lavender (or is it lilac?) cotton thread.

We decided it needed a head, so a tiny orange circle was added to the top of the body. Then I attached a clip to the back and Avery was delighted.

With a few more scraps I took a circle of felt and folded it into quarters. I sliced it along each fold to create four petals. I rounded the corners of each petal. Then I did the same with second piece of felt. I used two different shades of pink.

I did it again with an orange circle. To change it up I put a slit in the middle of each petal to make eight. It still looked like an orange circle so I cut a “V” shape between each petal and shortened them by about 1/4 to 3/8 inch.

With a needle and thread I stacked the three layers and tacked them together.

I traced around a spool of thread to get an accurate circle out of yellow felt.  The purple thread was handy so I used it to hold it all together.

Then the hair clip was added.

Riley was happy to have this one.

Pretty cute for a half-hours worth of stitching and a few scraps.

I wanted this to be a project for them to do, but I had no idea where I was headed when I picked up these felt scraps. Now that I figured out the sequence and the supplies needed, I can provide some simple patterns and they’ll be able to do it on their own.

These felt doo dads can be attached to a pony tail holder or a head band, either fabric or the hard plastic kind. Tack it to a tote bag or a t-shirt. Just make one or two or decorate with a whole garden full of flowers or a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

BTW: That is the real name of a bunch of butterflies; a kaleidoscope.  Sometimes they are called a swarm or a rabble. A swarm sounds scary to me, like bees.  And rabble sounds chaotic, and a rowdy rabble doesn’t make me think of butterflies.
Other websites ignore those names altogether and call a group of butterflies a flight or a flutter.

I tried to come up with a little bumble bee, but he needs some work.  A caterpillar would be easy, or a small bird.  And Avery wants a car.

Any other ideas for easy useful crafts for summertime?

Jan