All Aflutter {Felt Flutter Rounds}

{Felt Flutter Rounds: A cozy place to set your teacup}

Spring is on its way with warmer weather yet still chilly nights...and just in time, I devised these "felt flutter rounds" for a cozy place to put your cup all the while reminding you of nature's pretty critters, soon to be seen in your own backyard. Perfect for a Spring tea party or Mother's Day...which is also just around the corner!

{Gather}
~3 different colors of wool felt~

(I used a sage green, rosy pink, and off-white.)
~fusible webbing~
~iron~
~sewing machine (or needle & thread)~
~scissors~
~paper & pencil~

~straight pins~

{Make}
1. Cut out paper patterns for the butterfly and circle. For the circle, I traced around the lid of a tin can with a 3 ½” diameter. For the butterfly, I sketched a butterfly design onto paper with a height of about 2” and a width from 2 ½” (top wings) to 1 ½” (bottom wings). To design your pattern, look in a book, online, follow mine, or create your own!
2. Pin paper patterns onto felt (or hold firmly in place) and trim around the pattern. For one flutter round, you will need 2 circles and 2 butterflies in contrasting colors. (I used off-white felt as the alternate color to back both the circle and butterfly.)
3. For the top butterfly, cut out a variety of raindrop-like shapes on the wings. Start at the pointy end of your shape by folding the felt a bit and cutting over the fold at a diagonal. Unfold and continue to cut up along side and into a rounded top. (A small, sharp scissors works best. However, various hole punches would work okay too.)
4. Cut out fusible webbing to roughly fit inside both circles and both butterflies. Iron felt pieces gently on a medium setting until fused together. (Note: It is a bit easier to iron the butterfly with cut-out markings directly onto your contrasting color and then cut around the shape after they’ve been fused together.)
5. Using a sewing machine or by hand, simply stitch across the circles (now fused together) in a wavy fashion to create a “trail” leading to where you want to place your butterfly. (It’s helpful to stick a pin in the spot where you are planning to attach your butterfly onto the circle so you know where to stop sewing.)

6. Fold the butterfly in half and sew (by hand) along through the center, pinching together and pulling thread tightly, to make the wings stay a bit aloft and giving an appearance of being in flight. Then, stitch just along the center of the butterfly, attaching it to the circle.

.....

There are many ways you can further embellish your felt flutter round. I preferred to leave mine simple with just the butterfly trail stitching, but you may prefer to stitch around the entire circumference of the circle, or embellish in any variety of ways…for example, adding a few little felt flowers along part of the coaster’s edge would be pretty.