This golden yellow felt lily flower with needle felted burgundy accent color was inspired by a photo my brother-in-law sent me of a lily in his garden in Kansas (see the inspiration picture at the end of this article). Worn as a brooch, it makes a cheerful fall or winter fashion statement.
To make this lily, you'll need the following materials:
- golden yellow 100% wool felt, about 7" x 7"
- burgundy wool roving, very small amount
- golden yellow wool roving, very small amount
- one 14" floral stem wire, 26 gauge
You'll also need:
- glue (I used Tacky, but almost any kind of craft glue will work)
- flower template (you can download or print it here)
- printer and paper to print the lily flower template
- felting needle (small or medium or size 38 or 40 if your needles are marked with sizes)
- small felting pad
- scissors
- transparent tape (or straight pins)
- tapestry needle or large safety pin
Download the lily flower template and cut out the lily.
Place the lily template on the golden yellow wool felt.
Tape or pin (with straight pins) the template to the felt. I used tape.
Cut out the lily.
In the next step, you'll be working with the lily and the burgundy roving.
Pull out a wisp of burgundy wool roving and place it on the side of a petal.
Needle felt the burgundy roving in place along the side of the petal.
Once the roving is attached, gently lift the petal from your felting pad.
Needle felt the other side of the petal in the same manner.
Trim any excess fuzz from the wool roving along the edges of the petal.
Continue in the same manner until you've needle felted the burgundy
roving onto all the felt petals. After felting each side of a petal,
gently lift it from the felting pad.
Here's an example of what the back of the lily will look like at this stage:
Before continuing, trim excess fuzz from the roving on the back. You may need to do a bit of this on the front, too. You can push aside stray strands of roving with the felting needle and clip them as necessary. Next, you'll add stamens to the center of the lily. Cut your stem wire into three approximately equal pieces. Take one of the pieces and bend back the wire about 1/4" to 3/8" on one end. Pull out a wisp of the golden yellow roving.
Add glue from the bent tip of the wire down the wire about two inches.
Wrap the roving tightly around the section of the wire with the glue on it.
If necessary, add more glue and/or roving, pinching to secure it, until that portion of the wire is covered. This can get a little messy, and you can opt to wear vinyl gloves, if you like.
Poke a hole in the side center of the lily with a tapestry needle (or other thick needle) or the tip of a large safety pin.
Push the unfinished end of the stamen through the hole to the back.
On the back, poke a hole through to the front and bend the wire into the hole.
Bring the unfinished end up through the hole to the front. Here's how the wire will look on the back at this point:
This is how it will look from the front.
Now, make the other end of the wire into a stamen like the first one by wrapping it with golden yellow roving and gluing. This is the trickiest part because you need to hold it in place while wrapping and gluing (you may feel like you need a third hand!), but just work as slowly as necessary, and you'll soon have the second stamen completed.
Make four more stamens in the same manner as you did the first two. Note that you can bend the stamens into various positions to make it look the way you prefer. The center of your lily will look something like this:
You can leave your lily flat, or, if you like, you can shape it a bit by gently rolling the tips of the petals to the inside and pulling each petal up a bit. Here are a couple of views from the side after hand shaping:
To turn your wool felt lily into a brooch, see my article "How to Make a Fabric Flower into a Brooch." With its golden yellow and burgundy hues, the brooch looks good worn with many different colors. Here's what the brooch looks like on a vintage green sweater coat:
Enjoy your brooch! See my original inspiration lily below.
A materials pack/kit for the felt lily is available in my Etsy sewing patterns shop, Paula D Sewing Patterns, if you don't want to have to gather the various materials from different suppliers. It includes wool felt, wool roving, stem wire, pinback, and the flower template. Note that it's for the flower materials only and does not include a felting needle or a felting pad.
You can click here to view the materials pack/kit or purchase it.
