This poinsettia is about 3″ (8cm) in diameter, and would make a lovely pin or fridge magnet, or a pretty table decoration, gift topper, or tree ornament.

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This is a PlanetJune original tutorial. Please do not share or reproduce this tutorial; instead post a link to www.planetjune.com/feltpoinsettia

You will need:

• Red and green felt (or colours of your choice)
• Scissors
• Needle and thread or glue – see Notes below
• Beads or a shank-backed button for the flower centre

Notes:

• I had no luck at all getting my craft glue to stick the felt together. I hear that Fabri-Tac or other fabric glues work better at sticking felt. If you can find a glue that holds the petals in shape, go for it! If not, stitch everything in the way I describe.
• You can easily resize this design – just start with larger squares. Just keep the green squares slightly larger than the red ones, and you can make these poinsettias as large as you’d like.

Method:

1. Cut the following from felt:

• 4cm x 4cm (1.5″ x 1.5″) red squares – cut three
• 5cm x 5cm (2″ x 2″) green squares – cut three
• 2cm (1″) diameter green circle – cut one

As you can see from my photo, you don’t need to be too exact – I just eyeballed everything.

2. Cut each square in half along the diagonal. You’ll end up with 6 triangles of each colour.

Green Layer

3. Prepare a sewing needle with a length of thread. Tie a large knot near one end of the thread, leaving a couple of inches of thread beyond the knot. Put the needle and thread to one side for now.

4. Hold one green felt triangle with the long edge facing down. Fold the triangle in half from side to side.

5. Imagine a straight line from the bottom of the folded edge to about 1cm (3/8″ up from the 2 original bottom corners. This just removes some of the bulk from the petals and you can eyeball it so it looks like my diagrams below; if the leaves don’t end up exactly the same size it’ll just look more realistic! Cut along this line to give you the shape A-B-C (where A-B is the folded edge).

6. Fold the front corner C forward to meet A (below, left). Fold the back corner C back to meet A (below, right) – this view shows the back of the leaf.

7. Keeping all the folds together with your fingers, flip the leaf over so you can see the front (below, left). Stitch through all the layers of the felt, slightly in from the very tips of the corners so the stitch will be secure (below, right). Pull the thread right through until the knot catches on the right (left if you’re left-handed) side of the leaf.

8. Make a second stitch back through all the layers, a couple of mm below the first, and then make a third stitch in the same position as the first. This will keep all the layers together so the leaf won’t reopen. Lay down the leaf and needle, but don’t fasten off.

9. Fold a second leaf. Using the same needle and thread, make the first and second stitches through the leaf as in steps 7 and 8 above, but snug the 2nd leaf up to the 1st (see picture, below) before making the third stitch that locks everything into place.

10. Repeat for the other 4 green leaves. When all 6 are attached together, pull them around to complete the circle, and stitch through the first leaf and back again to lock everything together.

11. First layer finished (below, left)! Flip the layer over, pull both thread ends to the back, tie them together (below, right) and trim the excess thread (don’t worry about hiding the ends though).

Red Layer

12. Repeat steps 3-10 with the 6 red triangles to complete the second, red, layer.

Assembly

13. Centre the red layer on top of the green, with the leaves offset (below, left). Use the remaining thread, or cut a new length, to stitch the two layers together, making stitches in a small circle around the central holes (below, right). Make sure your stitches can’t be seen from the top of the poinsettia! (Again, you may glue the layers together instead, if you’d prefer.)

Centre

You can use whatever you want for the centre of the poinsettia; here are a couple of ideas.

Simple centre
Use a button with a shank (i.e. no visible buttonholes on the surface of the button). Just stitch it on – easy!

Decorative centre
My preferred method! You’ll need 7 small beads and a needle and thread.

1. Thread 6 beads onto the thread (below, left), leaving a long tail so they don’t fall off. Pass the needle through the first 2 beads again (below, right).

2. Draw tight to pull the 6 beads into a ring (below, left). Thread the 7th bead onto the needle and pass the thread through the bead on the opposite side of the circle to keep the 7th bead in the middle of the ring (below, right).

Pass the needle through all the beads around the circle until it meets the starting end. Tie the two ends together to secure the bead flower. Use the ends to stitch the flower into the centre of the poinsettia.

Finishing

Cover all the thread ends and the hole in the bottom of the green layer with the circle of green felt you cut earlier. Glue in place, or, for a more decorative finish, whipstitch or blanket stitch around the edge of the circle, catching the bottom of the green leaves with each stitch.

For display, you can add a pin back, glue on a magnet, or add a loop of ribbon so you can hang your poinsettia.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please leave me a comment if you did, and consider leaving me a donation. Thanks!

And I’d love to see a photo of your poinsettia in the PlanetJune Tutorials flickr group 🙂

Happy Christmas!