DIY Felt Peeps
I’m so excited to share this idea and free tutorial with you today! My daughter Natalie and I wanted to make a little something for Easter for her ballet friends and these cute and easy felt Peeps bunnies were just the ticket. Since no one likes holiday themed hair accessories quite like young ballerinas, we turned our Peeps into hair clips for each girl in her class, but keep reading for more ideas on what to do with your collection of felt Peeps!
We spent some time before dance on Friday making them and they were so much fun, pretty fast and easy, and the girls all loved them when she handed them out at ballet that night. We remembered to take some photos along the way so we could share the how-to here with you.
This is a great project to do with kids. Natalie did the tracing and cutting, I did the sewing, we tag teamed the gluing.
Read on for the step by step tutorial, but first you need the pattern piece on the printable sheet below. You can download this sheet, which includes the instructions so you don’t have to refer back to the post over and over again! Just right click below and save the pattern sheet to your computer, then print (make sure you print at 100%). Alternatively, you can download the pattern sheet by clicking here.
All you need for this project is some felt, black seeds beads, and hair clips, or whatever you plant to attach to your Peeps when they’re done.
First, layer two pieces of felt and trace the bunny pattern onto our side with a pencil or chalk (or a pen or Sharpie, if you don’t mind it showing on the back when you’re done.)
Sew directly on your lines, leaving a small opening at the bottom for stuffing. THEN cut around the bunny, about 1/8” from your stitching. I call this the sew-then-cut method and often use it when sewing small things like this, or when sewing with kids.
Put a small amount of stuffing into your bunny, using the opening you left in the bottom. Don’t overstuff; just a little bit will do.
Put the bunny back under the machine and stitch the opening closed. A zipper foot might be necessary, but if you didn’t over stuff it, the regular foot should be fine.
To attach hair clips, first glue the open hair clip onto the back of the bunny. We placed ours at an angle on the bunny, since that seemed to work best after some trial and error.
Then, with the clip still open, to secure the hair clip, cut a small rectangle of felt (this is included on the pattern sheet) and hot glue it across the base of the clip, as shown below.
The extra piece of felt is key to keeping the hair clip secure! If you skip this step, your hair clips will not stay.
Natalie put the clips in an Easter basket to deliver them! Such a fun little project. If you make some, I'd love to see :)
More Ideas for Using Your Felt Peeps
Make them in modern colors of wool felt for a more sophisticated version.
Make them into a garland.
Attach wooden skewers and use them for plant stakes or include them in floral bouquets.
Attach a lapel pin and wear one on your jacket
Put them in your kids’ Easter baskets!
If you make some cute little peeps and have more ideas for how to use them in cute ways, I’d love to see what you do! And for more Easter sewing ideas, check out my recent video below :)
Cheers,
Nikki
