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How To Make A Handmade Felt Brooch from Old Sweaters

This is a quick, easy, fun Valentine’s craft to make a lovely heart-shaped handmade felt brooch from the smallest of felt scraps.

I keep the felt scraps from my upcycled sweater crafts. Even the smallest felt scraps can be crafted into something fun, like this heart-shaped flower brooch.

This sweet heart-shaped felt flower brooch is cute to wear around Valentine’s day. It would also make a fun mothers day gift. The brooch is simple enough for kids to make too.

I got the idea for this sweater scrap upcycle from when I made a Frida Kahlo Christmas ornament. With that decoration, I made the fabric flowers in Frida’s hair out of small felt scraps. I’ve also made a felt succulent garden before from felt scraps.

Sweater felt scraps

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What You Need

wooden heart shapes broach pins

How To Make A Handmade Felt Brooch

Step 1: Only the smallest felt scraps are needed to make the tiny felt flowers for this heart brooch. Cut the sweater felt into 2cm wide and 6cm long strips.

Cutting sweaters into strips for handmade felt brooch

Step 2: The pinking shears cut the felt strip in half longways. If you don’t have pinking shears, just cut using scissors, but try to cut a wavy line.

cutting with pinking shears
cut sweater strips

Step 3: Carry on cutting out small strips of felt in various colours. For the large brooch, I made about 20 felt flowers. For the small brooch, ten flowers. That meant that I cut a total of 30 sweater strips.

cut felt sweater scraps for brooch

Step 4: To make a felt flower take one of the sweater strips and paste one side with craft glue. Then roll it up tightly. Use a sewing pin to hold the sweater roll in shape as the glue dries.

pasting with glue
rolled sweater flower

Step 5: Continue making felt flowers with the other coloured felt scraps.

Sweater scrap roses for felt brooch

Step 6: Remove the pins once the glue has dried with the felt flowers. Next, assemble the handmade felt brooch by glueing the flowers to the wooden hearts one by one.

Start by glueing one of the felt flowers to the middle of the heart using super glue. Then work your way outwards until the whole heart is covered in flowers.

Gluing the felt flowers to the wooden hearts
Upcycled sweater handmade felt brooch

Step 7: Finish the felt heart brooch by sticking the brooch pin to the back with super glue.

gluing the pin to the back

Now all that is left to do is to wear the brooch. I love wearing mine on my denim jacket; it adds a lovely pop of colour.

handmade felt brooch

I wear the bigger flower heart brooch when I want something even brighter and bolder. Check out these DIY fabric sunflowers for another broach idea.

felt flower brooch

Valentine’s Crafts

I think that these flower brooches would make a great gift. If you make one give as Valentine’s gift, some lovely free vintage Valentine’s cards here will go great with it.

If you have some larger pieces of felt in your scraps, you might want to make these gorgeous embroidered heart decorations too.

There are many more Valentine’s crafts on Pillarboxblue that are fabric heart themed. If you have more wooden hearts left over, you might want to use them to make personalized map heart ornaments and brooches.

I have many handmade Valentine’s decorations ideas, from neon heart signs, heart string lights, and even hearts made from painted pinecones and rustic wood slices.

For more upcycled ideas, as well as using old sweaters, there are a lot of Valentine’s crafts that can be made with denim. And for another upcycled jewellery idea, check out this fabulous DIY denim bracelet.

Check out this comprehensive list for many more fantastic adult crafting ideas.

DIY scrap felt heart brooch on denim
Yield: Felt flower Brooch

Heart Shaped Felt Brooch

felt flower brooch

This is a really easy tutorial for making a fun heart-shaped brooch. The colorful brooch is made up of small felt flowers, made from scraps. A very easy and affordable craft for either Valentine's day or Mother's day.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Active Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Estimated Cost $1

Materials

  • Sweater felt scraps in a variety of colors.  You only need pieces of felt approximately 2cm by 6cm in size.  Craft felt scraps would work just as well too.
  • Wooden heart shapes.  These can be bought in various sizes depending on how large you want your brooch.
  • Brooch pin or safety pin
  • Craft glue
  • Superglue
  • Sewing pins

Tools

  • Pinking shears

Instructions

  1. First, cut the felt scraps into pieces approximately 2cm by 6cm.
  2. Using pinking shears cut these felt scraps in half lengthways.
  3. Carry on cutting out the felt strips in lots of different colors. You will need about 20 strips for a large brooch and 10 strips for a small one.
  4. Paste each strip with craft glue, along the long edge. Then roll up the felt strip and secure it in place with a sewing pin.Sweater scrap roses for felt brooch
  5. Once the glue has dried remove the pins from the felt flowers.
  6. Use super glue to glue the flowers to the wooden heart. Start in the middle and work outwards. Make sure the curved pinking shear edge of the flower is face up.
  7. Carry on gluing flowers until the whole heart is covered.
  8. Finish off the flower heart brooch by gluing a brooch pin to the back of the wooden heart.
easy heart shaped felt flower brooch

You can find more Valentine’s crafts here.

Linda

Monday 10th of July 2023

Thank you for this idea - I want tp try it for Iove flowers!!!!

Naush Samama

Monday 18th of January 2021

Claire, I love crafts and projects that involve recycling household materials. Your broach is a darling. Thank you for sharing with us at Meraki Link Party. Have a wonderful week. Naush

Claire Armstrong

Tuesday 19th of January 2021

Thank you so much Naush. Repurposed materials are my favorite to craft with.

kristie

Monday 18th of January 2021

Your brooch is gorgeous! It's one of the features on the Little Cottage Link Party today.

Claire Armstrong

Monday 18th of January 2021

Thank you so much, I look forward to seeing it.

Cecilia

Sunday 17th of January 2021

I love this, Claire! So pretty--pinned! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

Claire Armstrong

Sunday 17th of January 2021

Thank you so much, so simple to make too.

Julie

Sunday 17th of January 2021

I love these Claire, anything that uses tiny scraps is a win in my book! They will be featured at Handmade Monday later today :-)

Claire Armstrong

Sunday 17th of January 2021

That's awesome, I look forward to seeing it. Yes, I love crafting with tiny scraps too.

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